Archive
Search
Artspeak,

Artspeak

  • Lorna Brown

    Lorna Brown is a visual artist, writer, educator and editor, exhibiting her work internationally since 1984. Brown was the Director/Curator of Artspeak Gallery from 1999 to 2004 and is a founding member of Other Sights for Artists’ Projects, a collective of artists, architects and curators presenting projects that consider the varying conditions of public places and public life. She has taught at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Simon Fraser University. Brown received an honorary degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2015), the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts Award (1996) and the Canada Council Paris Studio Award (2000). Her work is in the collections of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Canada, the BC Arts Council, the Surrey Art Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank.

    Director/Curator of Artspeak 1999–2004.

  • Elspeth Pratt

    Elspeth Pratt has exhibited her work since 1984 in solo exhibitions at Contemporary Art Gallery (1985), YYZ , Toronto (1991) and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (1992). Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Weak Thought (Vancouver Art Gallery), Vancouver Perspective (Yokahama and Taipei) and Contingent (Dunlop Art Gallery) along with Martha Townsend and Eva Hesse and Architettura: Astrazione (Rome). She has been awarded grants from Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts. Currently (2002), she is collaborating with Javier Campos on a City of Vancouver Ridgeway East Greenway Public Art Project.

  • Lisa Robertson

    Lisa Robertson is a poet currently based in France. Recent books include Occasional Work and Seven Walks From The Office For Soft Architecture: Essays, Toronto (Coach House Books, 2006), The Men, Toronto (Bookthug, 2006); Occasional Works and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture, Astoria (Clearcut Press, 2003); Doubt, Vancouver (Artspeak, 2002); The Weather, Vancouver (New Star Books, 2001); Soft Architecture: A Manifesto, Vancouver and Montreal (Artspeak and Dazibao). She teaches at the California College of the Arts.

Exhibitions

Doubt

ELSPETH PRATT
February 16–March 23, 2002

Doubt features new and recent sculptural work by Elspeth Pratt, known for her exploration of architecture and furnishings, and for her inventive use of ubiquitous building supplies such as foam insulation, metal corner bead and veneers. Pratt’s new projects further her recent interest in concepts of leisure and consumerism in domestic and public spaces.

One work, “Escape to Paradise”, uses countertop laminate (named Spa by its manufacturer) which mimics the effect of light on the surface of a swimming pool. This wall construction evokes a kidney shaped pool or a sheltered tropical cove, yet also suggests an abstracted logo or sign in a play of heft and surface.

In “Adrift”, candy-pink foam insulation and metal mesh arouse the numbed buoyancy intrinsic to the fragile fantasy of the poolside lounge or the beachfront property. The works hinge on the familiarity of the lumberyard materials, and the surprising and contingent methods used to combine them; woodgrain ‘columns’ are stitched together with chain, model-sized balconies are propped on sponge in shapes that suggest a racetrack viewing platform or a cliff-top dwelling.

The wry humour in Doubt leans upon a critique of the seamless aims of our built environment and the fetish of the custom finish. The work in Doubt suggests the skepticism with which the artist approaches the weight and permanence of sculptural tradition as well as the viewers’ hesitant response to her contingent and ephemeral negotiation of gravity.

Artspeak and the artist would like to thank the Vancouver Art Gallery for the loan of Adrift.

Publications

  • Doubt & The History of Scaffolding

    Doubt front
    Doubt spine
    Doubt back

    Title: Doubt & The History of Scaffolding
    Category: Exhibition Catalogue
    Artist: Elspeth Pratt
    Writers: Lisa Robertson
    Editor: Lorna Brown
    Design: Judith Steedman
    Publisher: Artspeak
    Year published: 2002
    Pages: 32 pp
    Cover: Paper
    Binding: Perfect Bound
    Process: Offset
    Features: 7 b&w images, 4 colour images
    Dimensions: 16 x 12 x 0.6 cm
    Weight: 53 g
    ISBN: 0-921394-39-X
    Out of print

    Doubt, an exhibition of new and recent sculptural work by Elspeth Pratt, took place at Artspeak in the spring of 2002. Known for her exploration of architecture and furnishings and for her inventive use of ubiquitous building supplies such as foam insulation, metal corner bead and veneers, Pratt’s new projects further her recent interest in concepts of leisure and consumerism in domestic and public spaces. The works hinge on the familiarity of the lumberyard materials, and the surprising and contingent methods used to combine them; woodgrain ‘columns’ are stitched together with chain, model-sized balconies are propped on sponge in shapes that suggest a racetrack viewing platform or a cliff-top dwelling. The wry humour in Doubt leans upon a critique of the seamless aims of our built environment and the fetish of the custom finish. The work in Doubt suggests the skepticism with which the artist approaches the weight and permanence of sculptural tradition as well as the viewers’ hesitant response to her contingent and ephemeral negotiation of gravity.

    In Doubt & The History of Scaffolding, The Office for Soft Architecture embraces the architectural paradox of scaffolding as both stable and “almost a catastrophe”; as a skin, as ceremonial furnishing and as an obscuring grove. Scaffolding’s shaky contract with gravity is drafted in the letters of the alphabet suggested by its form – Ts and Xs. This essay luxuriates in the fluid grammar and transience of such a system. Doubt and The History of Scaffolding builds on a body of work undertaken by The Office for Soft Architecture, beginning with Soft Architecture: A Manifesto, published by Artspeak and Dazibao in 1999 and including numerous contributions to Nest Magazine.