Rachel Yoder: By This Means
to
Fort Gallery 9048 Glover Road, PO Box 685, Fort Langley, British Columbia V1M 2S1

Rachel Yoder, "Revision Variant 7," 2021
monoprints on cotton fabric on canvas panel. Showcard Design: Alannah Clamp
The Fort Gallery is pleased to present By This Means, an exhibition by visual artist Rachel Yoder, who lives and maintains a studio in a mountain valley near Nelson, BC.
Over the last three years, Yoder has explored how working as a carpenter for 25 years has affected her art practice. In By This Means: Segment Ladders, Yoder takes the tools and the components familiar from her daily experience of construction and uses these images and processes in making paintings, prints and sculpture.
In this exhibition, the central tool explored is the ladder. The repetition of the ladder echoes the repetition of the years of Yoder’s labor. The ladder empowered her to change the landscape by enabling her to work as a building carpenter.
However, as Yoder used the tools to change her environment, the tools themselves also changed her. They changed her body and her relationships, and later they changed her understanding of herself. Now the tools no longer function as instruments for home-building; they are instruments for mark making.
An opening reception will be held in the gallery’s back garden on Friday, August 20 at 7:30pm. A Philosopher’s Café will be held online via Zoom on Thursday, September 9, 7:30pm. The Café will feature the artist and guest Nancy Pollak in conversation. See fortgallery.ca for more information and to RSVP to the Philosopher’s Café. All are welcome to attend these events.