EXHIBITION WORKS FOR PURCHASE
NEW ARTIST EDITION
We are pleased to debut on the occasion of the show a special new Risograph artist edition designed by Alicia Nauta and published by Possible Worlds. Edition of 50 and signed by the artist.
The Pattern
Alicia Nauta
August 27 to September 26, 2021
Opening/Vernissage: August 27, 2021, 7-10 PM
Artist in attendance
Special performance by Carl Didur
SHOW DESCRIPTION
Possible Worlds is pleased to present The Pattern, an exhibition by Toronto-based artist Alicia Nauta. The Pattern is Nauta’s second solo exhibition at Possible Worlds. Alicia will be joining us at Possible Worlds’ first in-person exhibition opening, on Friday, August 27, from 7-10 PM. Experimental music artist, partner and collaborator Carl Didur will be giving a special live performance.
Environmental degradation, the crumbling of civilization, abstracted and psychedelic reality, domestic space, and human belonging are key themes that are explored in Alicia’s work.
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, repeated visual fragments of the past, her compositions are reassuringly familiar. At the same time, these 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.
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Every motion of a single leaf moves every leaf of every tree... There is a pattern.
That's what you must look for and look to. Nothing goes right but as part of the pattern.
-Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
The wind whistles its own tune.
We are only passing through, these places are here to stay.
They have their own soul.
We are only passing through.
☼
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Alicia Nauta is a Tkaronto based artist. She makes collages from her archive of photocopied material culled from books found in thrift stores and reference libraries. The collages are translated to screenprint, risograph and cyanotype in the form of prints, wallpaper, books, textiles and other multiples. Much of her work serves as speculative windows. Spaces are inhabited by vegetation, familiar and unfamiliar beings, abandoned architecture and strange, shifting perspectives, suggesting possibilities found in the uncertain and unwritten future. Her work has been shown at the Plumb, Toronto Public Reference Library, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Ferry Terminal Docks, Gallery 44, Art Metropole, Burnaby Public Library, Printed Matter and Koganecho Art Centre. She was the artist in residence at the AGO; her giant collaborative book, library project and exhibition, 'A book from the world tomorrow' was supposed to open March 14, 2020.
Carl Didur is a performer and composer of music of many kinds. He has played electric piano, organs and synthesizer both solo and with bands such as Zacht Automaat and U.S. Girls. He has also performed many shows using 1/4" reel-to-reel tape loops, inspired by the pioneering work of Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and their contemporaries. His compositions and improvisations draw inspiration from Pop music, Minimalism and the Avant Garde and often feature melodic patterns repeating and phasing over each other, evocative of natural processes like water flowing over rocks or leaves waving in the wind. When improvising on the Wurlitzer Electric Piano he favours the sweet and sad, often employing cascading arpeggios and tone clusters inspired by French Impressionism, but he is also happy to play a simple song for you.
http://www.zachtautomaat.bandcamp.com
http://www.youtube.com/c/carldidur
Alicia Nauta has made the cover artwork for three of his albums and Alicia's Klassic Kool Shoppe pressed and released Zacht Automaat's album Memory of the World on vinyl in 2019.
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
