“Backgrounds: Sarah Davidson”
20 November 2015-8 January 2016
Born of an interest in the history of book publishing and printed ephemera, especially the daily comic, the work in Sarah Davidson’s first solo show explores print and paper-based techniques.
Blurring the distinction between drawing, printmaking, collage and sculpture, Davidson makes many of the collage elements in the work from scratch and silkscreens others which appear to be drawn.
Mirroring the opposing connotations of the word itself—a background that both frames the
main event and acts as individual narrative—the works in “Backgrounds” marry landscape scenes from lived experience to auxiliary reference. These works continue an exploration of the fragment as symbol, the medium as gendered, and the map as it exists in lived time. To do so, Davidson borrows compositional strategies from Victorian-era family quilts and personal travel photos. They also play host to a shifting array of influences. Among these Sue Williams, Bruegel, newspaper comics from the 1930s, and postmodern architecture all weave between the fractured foliage.
Sarah Davidson is an artist based in Vancouver, with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art &
Design. She works primarily on paper and is interested in the places where ornament and information intersect.
(text adapted from the artist’s press materials)
INFORMATION
Chernoff Fine Art
265 East 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia V5T 1B8 Canada
(604) 681-8042
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 10:30AM-5:30PM
Saturday, Noon-5PM
Image:
Walking
by Sarah Davidson
44.5″x30″
ink, watercolour, silkscreen, collage on paper
2015
courtesy of the artist