The work of [en]shroud, explores our coming of age as a transition exacted by the pandemic, the idea of the reframed self, rewritten social contrasts and how we perceive the world. Exhibiting paintings, drawing and photographs presenting the intimate physical sensations evoked by the boundary setting protocols of the pandemic.
In this exhibition, the viewer is invited to explore a private space within the Gallery, lined with Tyvek; a material typically used as a protective layer for our homes. A Tyvek constructed boilersuit references the effects of the pandemic on the artists body, while transparent photographs placed in the same material cover the window, acting as both invitation and barrier to the outside world.
Artist’s Biography:
Born in Liverpool, England, Fiona Crangle holds a BFA and a BEd from York University, Toronto. Soon after, she established a collaborative, mentor-style space called adhoc studio as a response to the limitations on art making that traditional education systems impose. Her paintings, drawings and installation work have been shown both commercially and publicly in the Toronto area, at the Toronto International Art Fair and recently, a solo show at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Crangle’s painting has been selected for the long list for the British Portrait Award and her art is housed in private collections. Crangle currently lives and works in Port Hope, Ontario, where she co founded and works with Critical Mass, a centre for contemporary art in Port Hope, Ontario.
Artist Statement:
I work with the idea of “coming-of-age”. This is not a singular process, confined to the teenaged hammering out of an initial draft of a worldview. Post adolescence, we encounter situations that force an edit to that first, often idealistic draft. Each rewrite demands we move through a slippery and uncertain liminal space as we let go of the tenets of one worldview while not yet firmly grasping those of the next.
The collective shifting of worldview levied by the pandemic demands contemplation: how have the phenomena of the pandemic changed our perceptions of the world? Where do we feel the newly adopted modifications of pandemic phenomena in our bodies? We have experienced almost two years of touchless contact, mouthless faces, an absence of the conductive energy of throbbing crowds and have espoused a negotiated navigation of space. Our bodies have physically adjusted to this coerced change: our arms no longer conduits of embrace but tools to measure social distances, our eyes called upon to do the expressive labour of an entire face, our lungs suspiciously suspending the work of breathing near bodies we don’t know well enough to trust. The muscle memories laid down by the physical changes made within the intimate realm of our bodies transmit to a shift in the broader philosophical perceptions of time and space. We are changed beings. Again.
The work of [en]shroud explores our coming-of-age as a transition exacted by the pandemic. In the desperate seeking of a safe space via the militaristic delineation of boundaries -both within the body and without- what permanent change have we wrought? This time of imposed aloneness reframes how we see ourselves- our personal spaces and awareness of time- and how we interact and connect with others . Each of us has done a rewrite of our social contracts and have changed the way we perceive the world.
[en]shroud will ask the viewer to tunnel into a small, private space within the gallery, a space that is layered with Tyvek, a material that acts as a protective membrane in our homes. The space will exhibit drawings and paintings of the intimate physical sensations evoked by the boundary setting protocols of the pandemic. [en]shroud will also include a protective garment, a boilersuit, made from Tyvek. This boilersuit began as a 6 metre long drawing of its pattern pieces, each piece worked with colour to refer to the effects of the pandemic on that particular part of my body. The large drawing was then taken to sanctioned outdoor spaces that I frequented for respite during lockdowns and the drawing was documented at each location.
These photographs will be shown as transparencies suspended in the Tyvek stretched over the window in the exhibition space, acting as both invitation and barrier to the outside world.