Ione Thorkelsson: Synthia’s Closet

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Ione Thorkelsson, "Synthia's Closet, sph-07," nd

cast glass, feather shafts, LED light

Artist Talk: Thursday, February 2, 6:30 pm, 136 ARTlab

Demonstration: Kiln Cast Glass, January 31, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, 101 Art Barn

Ione Thorkelsson’s installation Synthia’s Closet is the artist’s most recent body of work and is a beautiful illustration of her technical range. Adopting the nickname given to the first synthetically-fashioned genome—Synthia—Thorkelsson has constructed miniature landscapes inside delicate glass spheres. The artist’s self-fashioned worlds incorporate organic elements, including animal bones and feathers, with fiber optics and LED technology, providing a poetic, visual metaphor for the bioengineer’s pursuit of synthetic life. The lighted spheres remind viewers of the fragility of existence and the risks inherent in scientific experimentation and discovery. While genetic manipulation allows scientists to design new realities, it also modifies fundamental understandings of the natural world. With wonder, there is also trepidation: Thorkelsson asks how these innovations in bioengineering might, in turn, shape us.

About the Artist:

Ione Thorkelsson has delighted national and international audiences with solo shows at The Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Art Gallery of Thunder Bay, and Toronto Free Gallery and exhibitions in Korea, Belgium, and Thailand. Notable commissions include designs for the Manitoba Motion Picture Association’s ‘Blizzard’ award and the ‘Wave’ for the Gimli Film Festival, as well as public art installations at the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport in Winnipeg and the Canadian Embassy in Hong Kong. In 2007 Thorkelsson was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and in 2010 she received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Installation sound work is by Don Benedictson. Essay by Helen Delacretaz.

The artist is grateful for support from The Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Arts Council.