EXHIBITION: To light a candle Is to cast a shadow | Screen printed collage work by Alicia Nauta
DATES: August 11 – September 21, 2016
OPENING NIGHT: Thursday, August 11, 7-10 PM, artist in attendance
WEBSITE: possibleworldsshop.com | alicianauta.com
INSTAGRAM: @possworldsshop | @klassic_kool_shoppe
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Possible Worlds presents emerging artist Alicia Nauta (Toronto) in To light a candle Is to cast a shadow, the first solo exhibition of her screen printed collage work.
In this exhibition, Nauta reflects on the dualities and exchanges present in all forms of human and natural life: with light, there is darkness; with progress, there is decline. Environmental degradation, the crumbling of civilization, abstracted and psychedelic reality, domestic space, and human belonging are key themes that are explored.
Images collected from earlier publications, such as home decor guides from the 60's and 70's, botanical guides and encyclopedias, and pre-computer graphic design manuals, form the basis of Nauta’s work. The images are then manipulated, photocopied, cut, pasted and finally screen printed.
By drawing on shared visual fragments of the past, her compositions are reassuringly familiar. At the same time, these visual fragments are combined in a way that challenge logic, space, and time, leaving the viewer unsettled or alienated, questioning reality. For example, the laws of physics seem to have gone amiss in her compositions: shadows go opposite ways, the wind blows in different directions, darkness comes from a lamp's light. Images are often positioned on contrasting dimensional planes - a 2D object next to a 3D object - representing multiple and sometimes conflicting perspectives. Doorways and windows are a recurring motif, offering us a glimpse into another time and place.
“To light a candle is to cast a shadow” is a quote from speculative fiction novelist and poet Ursula K. Le Guin, and serves as a point of departure for the show. Within Nauta’s collages lie a simultaneous celebration and mourning for a world we are only passing through. It has been here before us, and will remain long after we are gone.
*Curatorial text by Possible Worlds Co-Director, Melanie Yugo
OPENING NIGHT
Opening night is Thursday, August 11, 7-10 PM at Possible Worlds with artist in attendance.
Special electronic music performance by Carl Didur (Zacht Automaat).
** Entry is free and open to all.
ALICIA NAUTA'S WORKS IN SHOP
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Alicia Nauta is a Toronto-based artist whose practice is made up of collage, screenprinting, installation, wallpaper, book works, and a growing collection of found oddities for a future museum. She is member of Punchclock, a Toronto print studio, and has taught screenprinting and other DIY workshops at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) as part of the AGO Youth Free After Three program. She regularly tables at the New York Art Book Fair (NYABF) and Los Angeles Art Book Fair (LAABF) with publications and prints. Her first solo show, To Light a Candle is To Cast a Shadow, was exhibited at Possible Worlds (Ottawa) in 2016. Her work has also been exhibited at the AGO, Printed Matter, Katherine Mulherin, Artscape Youngplace, Art Metropole, and Narwhal Projects, as well as permanent wallpaper installations at Double Double Land, Likely General and a really cool baby's room.
MUSIC PERFORMER BIOGRAPHY
Carl Didur is a Toronto-based keyboardist who often uses multiple 1/4" reel to reel tape loops on stage to create layered, shifting, minimalist compositions. Simple rhythms are phased with drifting melodies while Carl adjusts and blends, echoes and accompanies. Poly-rhythms and pentatonic solos burble and grind in a cavern of reverb. He is part of ZACHT AUTOMAAT, a Canadian duo specializing in home recordings of mostly instrumental electronic music. Music for thinking, dancing, working, being.
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
