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ARTICLES:
Article
for Folio Magazine
Liz Ingram's
Water Based Art Runs Deep, By Gilbert Bouchard September
2, 2001
Fragile
Source, Liz Ingram's breath-taking installation work
at the Edmonton Art Gallery highlights that old adage
that says the more things change, the more they remain
the same.
The
12-part exhibit in the Kitchen Gallery until October
28, encompassing both etchings and digital output transparencies,
some layered with Plexiglass framed in large back-lit
display units, seems a departure from her typical print
and drawing work. But the U of A professor of print
making sees a definite continuity.
For
example, these recent pieces are figurative in nature
and involve the depiction of water - two visual tropes
that date back to Ingram's U of A grad study days.
"I've
been working with the images of water and the (human)
body for many, many years - since my graduate work in
1975," Ingram explains of her show's primary subject
matter: a human figure photographed in a bathtub.
According
to Ingram, the underlying images for the installation
arise from "a very domestic situation" - snapshots
of herself in her own bathtub taken open-shutter-style
with an old 4x5-inch camera. In the pitch dark, the
exposures were created when her husband set off a flash.
She then blows up and manipulates the images (via the
layering) so as to take them "out of context to
minimize the source."
As
for her seemingly ground-breaking choice of media in
this series of work, the use of transparencies and back-lit
pieces directly rises out of Ingram's long-standing
studio process. "For years I've been layering transparencies
on a light table to make my print pieces, and I saw
potential to work with depth and illusion that go beyond
that two-dimensional sheet of paper, but still rising
out of my work with prints."
For
example, in the large "pool" piece in the
centre of the Kitchen Gallery floor, the printmaker
was striving to create layered plates with "space
in between the layers" to give real physical depth
to the piece - "an air space" between the
images, so to speak.
"I
was attempting to give the feeling that you could fall
into this piece," she explains, her comments echoing
statements made in the 1989 U of A Press book Printmaking
in Alberta (1945-1985), in which she outlined her desire
to create an illusion of space even in her two-dimensional
work.
The
artist is also trying to give the viewer a sense of
"the movement of water, a shimmering and rippling
via the movement of the image, underlining the element's
sensuality, purity and wonder."
Her use of transient, shimmering and "less concrete"
images becomes a perfect visual metaphor for the "transient
and fragile nature of life itself" emphasizing
the deep connection between humans and the larger natural
world.
"I want to evoke that internal memory of
sticking your hand in water and realizing that you yourself
are mainly made of water - a fundamental element."
Fully
embracing hybrid nature in this particular work, Ingram
is pleased with the range of media utilized - including
a string of text that she's varnished on the show's
largest print - and also with the way the installation
process emerged organically "bit by bit."
"While
I don't want to stop making smaller prints that are
on a more intimate scale or drawing, this piece has
spurred me to do further work (in installation and using
hybrid media). I have other ideas."
Ingram
isn't simply moved by the process and the intellectual
layers of her work; the artist is keenly aware of the
deep political, ecological and emotional value these
pieces possess.
For
starters, she notes her use of "computers and the
language and techniques of advertising" (including
rounded back-lit pieces resembling rounded soda pop
vending machines), are subversively being presented
in such a way as to "counter the culture of advertising
and materialism and the world we live in."
On
a direct ecological level, Ingram's work reflects her
concern about the "political debates around water
and the possibility that water might be sold,"
but from a more local, personal point of view.
Ingram and her husband own property on a lake
between Hinton and Edson, a connection to wetlands that
has made the artist keenly aware of the fragility of
Alberta's water sheds.
"I'm
not making a direct political message, but I do hope
that it serves as a reminder of the essential nature,
the wonder, the beauty and the absolute fundamental
nature of water," she says. "I hope that it
does have ecological meaning."
The
long-time U of A professor is also excited that her
work is on display at the same time as that of friend
and U of A printmaking colleague Lyndal Osborne, creator
of another installation-based, water-themed piece. Osborne's
work is part of the River City show on display in the
gallery's main space until October 28.
Additional Articles
Article For ISPA
authored article by Liz Ingram about her work for ISPA Japan
Article for
the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan
Under The Skin a review of figurative drawing
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