Jessica Stockholder
Indoor lighting For My Father
Sculpture Installation
West Gallery

Canadian Artist

PRESS RELEASE

As part of the 1988 Artist Studio Project, Jessica Stockholder's solo exhibition will open in Mercer Union's West Gallery Tuesday September 6th at 8 pm and continue through Saturday October 1st.

Combining construction materials and found objects, Jessica Stockholder creates large-scale installations in response to architectural spaces. A Canadian artist residing in New York, she has presented installations in her native town of Vancouver, as well as Victoria, New York City and New Haven since 1981.

Stockholder's work both incorporates and is incorporated by its setting, while retaining its own identity. She operates directly on the interior architectural space, perforating, cutting, adding and layering. Her sculpture installation for Mercer Union builds on the interaction of various materials - light fixtures, clothing, hay bales, newspaper, building materials - contrasting light, colour, volume, weight, density, texture and context to create shifting perspectives and experiences for the viewer. The result is an evocative and sensitive exploration of the perception of boundaries - the boundaries of intellectual, physical and spatial experience - through which she raises questions about one's relationship to the boundaries that separate experiences.

A public talk by the artist will take place at Mercer Union in conjunction with her exhibition, Wednesday September 7 at 7:30 pm. The talk will focus on the development of her work in relationship to the installation on exhibition.

The Artist Studio Project, previously mounted in the summers of 1985 and 1987, creates an opportunity for artists to develop site-specific work or work rarely accommodated in a gallery context. This project encourages exploration and experimentation, and the development of new or varied methods of working. This year two artists, Jessica Stockholder and François Vaillancourt, were selected to develop installations within the gallery over a six week period, followed by an exhibition of the completed work.