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SATURDAY EVENING POST
August 3rd, 2024
This is the final week to view Charlotte Wall’s Exhibition “Reveal”. Exhibition closes on August 10th.
Charlotte Wall’s works not merely exist as artistic entities but function as catalysts for conversation and introspection, challenging entrenched narratives and fostering a deeper engagement with the questions they pose. Within the context of contemporary Canadian art, Wall’s work is distinguished by its advocacy for inclusivity, dialogue, and the transformative power of art to bridge the divide between the observable and the concealed, the speaker and the listener, the artist and the viewer.
Her legacy is imbued with a spirit of humility, openness, engagement, and an indefatigable quest for the interstitial spaces where authentic dialogue flourishes. In Charlotte Wall’s universe, art is not just seen; it is experienced, lived, and continually redefined.
CHARLOTTE WALL, Open Sun, 2024, Polished stainless steel, 72 x 72 x 24 in.
Begun many years ago as a very small sculpture in bronze, Open Sun has now become a new, much larger version in polished stainless steel.
A bursting, opening sun with exuberant rays, dynamic and pulsing, it poses as a purveyor of generosity and wholesomeness. Its rays reach and stretch with energy and its benevolent warmth radiates to the earth. Recognizing its potential for creating growth and quickened life it is always welcomed and often celebrated.
And yet, there is the explosive opening — the violent separating of rays, uncharacteristic and foreign to itself. It speaks of dangerous and possible catastrophes caused by mindlessness and carelessness. Perhaps that is a portent of disasters to be avoided by careful husbandry and maintenance of environmental elements.
CHARLOTTE WALL, Assemblages (Yes, I See You There), 2024, Wood, glass, acrylic Installation, dimensions variable, with E’loo’me’nem (research) on the right.
CHARLOTTE WALL, E’loo’me’nem (research), 2009/2024, Powder coated aluminum, 96 x 192 in.
“An array of aluminum panels mirroring the mental process of research.
“The entire installation appears as a gradient of colours achieved through placing 48 interlocking vertical strips of coated aluminum, separated by bare aluminum reveals that run vertically. Upon closer inspection, the gaps appear as free flowing lines that run parallel to one another, separating each of the panels. These lines were hand-drawn by the artist on the walls of the PWIAS room in UBC and were later reproduced as the path for cutting the metal.
“The colour of the panels can be read, from left to right, beginning with an indistinct greyness, used as a metaphor to refer to the beginning stages of research. The colours progress from grey to blue as we move to the right, indicating initial findings and sporadic clues.
“At the corner of the room, the panels turn black, marking a point of saturation, where all available information has been utilised, beyond which adding more information to the process will be redundant.
“As we turn the corner and move along the second wall, the tones lighten progressively, alluding to the distilling and refinement of information which helps resolve the research, ultimately arriving at a bright illuminating yellow.”
CHARLOTTE WALL, Black Box, 2024, “6901 Black Metal” Krion, 43 x 60 x 41 in.
“The Black Box is the quintessential container for storing facts — recording past histories — above all, keeping information safe.
“In the same way, every living organism could be said to carry within itself its own black box, which records and retains past records and experiences without revealing any information about its internal workings. Rather than being a tightly sealed, impermeable container, it exists as a slatted, open-ended vessel that allows for eons of experience and knowledge to flow in and out freely and serves more as a clearing house of useful and not so useful data.
“Our black boxes are constantly acquiring and moving information in subtle rhythms of perception. The details in our inherent black boxes hold useful particulars that can be accessed at any time or place; information not only reserved for emergencies or break-downs of highly sophisticated mechanisms but information useful in providing solutions and shedding light on age-old quandaries. Even the new world of AI has its black box systems and claims the mind will be exhaustively understood once we know which inputs yield which outputs.
“These boxes, modeled on cheap, wooden crates but made laboriously by hand of deep black Krion, glow like exquisite jewelry and speak to the importance and uniqueness of the contents they hold.”
CHARLOTTE WALL, Fragment, 2023, Cast Bronze, 23 x 12 x 12.5 in.
“The Brasiletto tree is native to Mexico and South America. The specimen I obtained was a very old 6 ft trunk. The wood is exceptionally hard, light coloured on the exterior and darker with some deep red on the inside. The image of the inner surface was captured via 3D scanning and then realized in bronze. The enigma of the ancient tree seems to be revealed only by the interior of the tree and is witnessed by exposing its inner structure. All animate organisms seem to contain this characteristic of only being truly known by their inner lives.”
CHARLOTTE WALL, Part of ‘Quartet’ (Muslin Series), 2024, Acrylic and muslin, 12 x 12 in. each
“The muslin series uses a utilitarian material most often applied in plaster castings. There is an element of the protective bandage and wrapping inherent in its medical related usages and it often acts as a preventative agent against further damage. These traits highlight the conditions of pain and injury, recovery and repair, that is constantly associated with the human experience.”
CHARLOTTE WALL, The Very Last Song, 2024, Nickel plate, satin lacquered old organ pipes and parts, 24 x 34 x 41 in.
“These old pipe organ pieces were salvaged from the original pipe organ in Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver. When a new organ was purchased 2004 to replace the Casavant organ installed in 1949, some of these pipes were saved by a parishioner in his barn for many years. These are the last of the remaining pipes, now quiet and serene in the role of retired music makers of many past glorious years. This piece pays homage to the dedication of former generations of early Vancouver citizens and their love of music and song.”
Photo credits: Kyle Juron