SYDNEY LANCASTER, "thought & memory: curiosities," March 1 to 23, 2008, Arts on Atlantic, Calgary
"Souvenirs"
Sydney Lancaster, "Souvenirs," 2007, mixed media.
SYDNEY LANCASTER, thought & memory: curiosities
Arts on Atlantic, Calgary
March 1 to 23, 2008
By Jill Sawyer
Like the crows and ravens that figure so prominently in her work, Edmonton-based artist Sydney Lancaster is a collector. She collects found objects to use in her work, and also the memories and ideas that form the basis of the mixed-media pieces. “I’m really interested in the relationships we establish between memory and tangible reality, and how part of the human path is really about re-writing our own stories as we go,” she says. “Sometimes this is absolutely conscious, sometimes less so.” Her current work mixes assemblage and collage to create something unique and powerful with an underpinning of good design. Incorporated found objects — bark, inkjet prints, fragments of text — are layered with oil and acrylic paints, inks, plaster and beeswax, sometimes carved through to reveal new surfaces. “I’m focused on the intersection between an outward reality (what we want to or choose to see and reveal) and what lies below the surface,” Lancaster says, adding that she’s also trying to impart a sense of the risk involved in revealing what’s hidden. On the staff at Latitude 53 artist-run centre in Edmonton, Lancaster has participated in a series of group shows and festivals, both as an artist and as a poet.
Represented by: Arts on Atlantic, Calgary