STUDENT COLLECTS, installation detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, installation, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, detail of orange letter-press invitation made to mimic FACULTY COLLECTS printed in blue, both exhibitions took place in the same time-frame at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS, detail, found linoleum from home renovation sites, in Women Confronting the Issues, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
(left) FACULTY COLLECTS letter-press invitation in blue, (right) STUDENT COLLECTS letter-press invitations in orange designed to mimic the faculty's exhibition material, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1984
STUDENT COLLECTS (1984)
While working at the Anna Leonowens Gallery, one of my tasks was to print the invitations for gallery exhibitions on the letter press. Shortly after printing the invitation for a show entitled Faculty Collects, I was invited to be part of the exhibition Women Confronting the Issues taking place at the same gallery. As a response to the Faculty Collects show that featured valuable art objects, I decided to show my collection of found linoleum flooring under the title Student Collects.
With the two shows running concurrently, with Faculty Collects opening at the end of September and Women Confronting the Issues opening in early October, I was interested in opening up a conversation about what is considered meaningful to collect. My collection of linoleum fragments was a direct response to the wave of home renovations going on in North End Halifax at the time. I collected these fragments from various renovations sites, piecing together design trends of the 1940's and '50s, including Bauhaus inspired looks and the pastiche of the Persian carpet. I liked that I was finding new life in these fragments by using the flooring to make a composition that filled the entire wall, and where there were boarders in the linoleum I used them to create a frame around the work. This work is an early example of my attentiveness to pattern and desire to fill whatever space I had to work with.