Jan. 9 - Feb. 14, 2009 This exhibit questions the nature of the physical forces that create, maintain, and eventually destroy human and animal life. Wilson’s work "Logos” presents “photographic inventories of monstrous moths and butterflies, marked with various logos and branding from the corporate world of biotechnology and forestry. The images record insect specimens fixed upon the envelopes in which they were originally collected - hand written data indicating species type, place and date of collection and gender surround the small animals which appear pinned between the cloud-like specimen envelopes and a sheet of glass. Stamped with the branding of entities such as Monsanto and Hydro Quebec, the subjects of Logos emerge as a collection of new insect species that could be seen fluttering through a utopian forest constructed within the bio-mimetic environment of a post-industrial landscape.
| Jan. 9 - Feb. 14, 2009 |
Opening Reception, Friday, January 9th 7:00-9:00 pm.
Koenig's curious and fascinating works appear to be magnetized kitchenware. She is illustrating the appearance of the object and the invisible kinetic forces that bind the nature of the objects to their reality. Koenig explores the poetics of scientific theories. “The use of scientific diagrams in these works includes imagery of air currents, thermal movement, electromagnetism, black holes and chain reactions. She states, "My reinterpretation and remix of these concepts serve not only to illustrate but act as metaphor for conditions of contemporary life.” She also speaks of being …”driven to visualize the seemingly invisible phenomena of physics that we activate daily and which acts on us”.
Jan, 13 - Feb. 14, 2009 Acrylic works on panel
Several years ago, I was introduced to images from the electron microscope and was at once captivated by the delicate and complex beauty of single cell life. Intrigued by the universality of the forms of these seldom seen organisms, I initially embarked on a series of ‘water’ paintings exploring the forms and environments of microscopic plankton as metaphors for the ‘unseen’.
Images of viruses first came to my attention through a Vancouver newspaper during the SARS outbreak in Toronto, and subsequent media coverage of the concerns about the possible mutation of H5N1 or ‘bird flu’. At once captivated by the beauty of the electron microscope images published with these articles, and inspired by the brightly coloured dyes scientists use in order to view them, I embarked on a series of large-scale acrylic paintings. While I tried to be true to the actual forms of each virus, these paintings are my own interpretation of the subject matter.
The frenzy, in the western world, surrounding our fear of new - and old - virus and bacteria strains is fascinating to me. Embroiled within the politics of western medicine, the virility of many viruses has captured our imagination, in part, because they continue to defy our attempts to control them. Delicately beautiful, it is, at times, hard to imagine they are so tenacious and potentially deadly.
Fascinated by the dichotomy these images invoke, this collection of paintings is part of an ongoing series of work. I have recently started work on a series of paintings exploring DNA.
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