Briana Palmer: Traversing the line, with no fixed point

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Briana Palmer, "Traversing the line, with no fixed point," 2019

installation detail

Opening Reception: April 26, 2018, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Artist Statement: 

I question the intersections between perception, experience, and social ideologies of my own cultural practices and upbringing. Traversing the line, with no fixed point is the title for this body of work, and it encapsulates various prevailing ideologies, by neither denying, nor allowing one fixed meaning, but cultivating an experience of constant flux instead. The main component of this work is the “Iron horse”; a railway system that runs through the installation. The use of the railway has been part of society’s cultural fabric since the Industrial Revolution and, for many, it evokes personal memories and experiences. It can be a reminder of one’s heritage, or bring to mind positive history like the daunting feat of binding nations while for others, it is the symbol of the diabolical underbelly of human experience through genocide or colonization.

In my installation, I create larger abstracted biomorphic components made through print media that are also accompanied by ceramic biomorphic components of various sizes. These are punctuated by a multiplicity of miniature narrative assemblages that are made from collected found objects (both natural and human-made) and handmade elements. Similar narrative elements are also echoed in numerous collages. These miniature 2D and 3D tableaux are the result of a practice of collecting bricolage and are imbued with nostalgia, societal values and the detritus of a media saturated culture.

The recontextualisation and juxtaposing of the objects as a narrative strategy, points to a flux of meaning and interpretation; as the objects and images are transformed from their original context, relocating their history. This poses these objects between uncertainty and new possibilities of meaning. While the narratives constructed in these miniatures seem whimsically surreal on first viewing, it is important for them to be regarded within a social and historical framework. - Briana Palmer

Artist Bio:

Briana Palmer lives in Hamilton Ontario, and teaches in the studio arts program at McMaster University. Originally from the west coast Briana received her BFA from the Alberta Collage of Art and Design and her MFA from the University of Alberta. Her primary practice is in printmaking, sculpture and installation; creating works that reflect an intersection between perception, experience, and social ideologies taken from her own cultural practices, up-bringing and daily experiences.

Her works have been exhibited in Canada, the U.S and Europe. Her prints are in the collections of Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Southern Graphics Print Council, and University of Alberta.