3 minute read
Feature Gallery: Mise en Scene
October 8 - December 24, 2016
Mise en Scene
Setting the scene with contemporary ceramics
Mise en Scene is a French cinematographic and theatrical term, referring to the visual and design aspects of a film set or stage production. The chosen elements inform the overall look and feel of a shot or set, with all the components working together including the objects and their placement, lighting, colour, scale and architectural elements. Through three inventive approaches; Triniruth Bautista, E.M. Alysse Bowd and Anne Drew Potter are all creating dynamic ceramic work that sets a scene. Their diverse and rich contemporary ceramics are reflective of their geographically varied career experiences.
Triniruth Bautista is a Filipino-Canadian ceramic artist, she grew up in Quezon City, Philippines and migrated to Alberta in 2010. Since completing her Bachelor of Industrial Design Degree from the University of the Philippines, Triniruth has focused on combining function and sculpture in her ceramic work while continuing her studies at Selkirk College in Nelson, British Columbia. Her narrative process with clay always begins with questions of what, how and why? “With the result of my experiments, I began to unfold the character of clay. In my own means, I began to create its identity. The discoveries I have made resulted in innovative, one-of-a-kind pieces.” With enthusiasm, sense and instinct, her vision is to create imaginative functional art that entices audiences to integrate it into their personal space as an object that will rebel against mundanity.
A child of the prairies, E. m. Alysse Bowd has recently returned to Calgary after completing MFA from NSCAD University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has particpated in several residencies, including in 2014 at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary and in 2013 she was an Artist in Residence at Listhus in Iceland. Her artistic practice navigates the combination of a material studio practice, performance and the examination of identity as friction between ideals and reality. Her series As is and will be again speaks to the continuum of desire. Consider the obsession, desperation and perseverance that a desire insists; yet, the tragic notion that once a desire is achieved it no longer exists. Desires are either being lost or being found, never existing in the present, but as citizens of both the past and the future.
Anne Drew Potter is a ceramic sculptor currently working at Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary. She received her MFA cum laude in Ceramics from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana and MFA cum laude in Figurative Sculpture from the New York Academy of Art, New York, New York. Her figurative sculptures are situated in theatrical installations, often with props and costumes, all of which are made by Anne Drew. She is particularly interested in the ways that social meaning is projected onto the form of the body and the role this plays in our construction of self. By manipulating anatomical signifiers of gender, race and age; Anne Drew encourages viewers to confront their feelings about normalcy, difference and what defines humans, questioning our tendency for binary categorizations.
