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2 of 2
Gallery is
pleased to
announce an exhibition of sculptures by Sarah Farndon
and Heidi Johansen. Sarah Farndon has sought to problematize notions long codified within traditional “doll culture”. The “Male Dolls” stand (or sit) as uncomfortable monuments to age, physical decay, and ultimately death. The polymer-clay figures manage to walk gently on the line between hyper-reality and surrealism, blending these disparate concepts seamlessly. Their meticulously rendered heads, hands, and feet momentarily betray the viewer’s visual expectation and comprehension, while their soft, elongated, incongruous torsos and limbs suggest an unreal realm where natural growth is replaced by mutation. Essentially, the “realism” of traditional porcelain dolls, has been expounded upon and juxtaposed with the corporal abjection inherent in the home-crafted “rag doll” to balance opposites; this suggests various and sometimes conflicting readings. Rendered in a careful and almost Naive fashion, some of Heidi Johansen´s characters, with their striped shirts and exaggerated mustaches, could have stepped out of a Rousseau painting and into her cardboard watercrafts. The ambiguous time period that has always been present in Johansen´s photographic work is seen here as well. One craft has an "Old Man in the Sea" looking guy steering an old rowboat, while another a slick rich blond kid, sunglasses atop his head, in a Navy Seal superboat. The interplay of young people in playing out in nature that has been a hallmark of her photographic work has been dismantled in this show by taking away the background and giving all the attention to the subjects, which in this case is, people in boats. Sarah Farndon recently finished her BFA from OCAD University (June 2010). She has presented her work at several school and neighborhood shows, including the 94th Annual OCAD Graduate Exhibition and a solo show at 2 of 2 Gallery. A 2005 graduate from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver BC, Johansen was born in 1977 in Asker, Norway and lives and works between Vancouver, Oslo and California. Johansen’s work has been subject of numerous exhibitions in Toronto (2 of 2 Gallery solo show) Vancouver, California, Washington DC, London, Oslo, Berlin and Frankfurt. For more information about Sarah Farndon, Heidi Johansen or the gallery, please visit our website www.2of2gallery.com or contact the gallery at info@2of2gallery.com, 254 Niagara St., Toronto, Canada or 416-591-6464. |
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2 of 2 Gallery | 254 Niagara Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M6J
2L8 | 416-591-6464 | info@2of2gallery.com
| www.2of2gallery.com