Rustad Galleria – July 16th to August 16th, 2015

Shyra de Souza

In the long-shadow days of autumn, when the sun is low reality is skewed. My perceptions move beyond boundaries and edges. The planes of my remote body cross, and pass through one another, and through other bodies as I cut across ground and walls. Forms find freedom from servitude in slanted, alien shadows and I am reminded of something primal, and dangerous. Their adumbrations reach out into open space hoping to escape containment, redrawing themselves with new life.

This work consists of four separate installation areas. Each area contains a display of altered objects with found lighting and furniture, contrasted with a sparseness in the gallery. Again, these forms are sourced from found objects which I have altered in differing combinations for each installation area. Each bundle, or mass, or arrangement references instances of domination of nature, and our place within this structure signified by the furniture and the “looking” lamps. The re-orientation of the typically nature-like forms causes the viewer to re-read the way each form is affected by the surrounding forces. A long, erect neck of a bird becomes limp and serpentine upon inverting the form. I hope this process creates empathy in the viewer, and makes them more relatable, as the forms seem to dissipate into their shadow selves.

This work was completed with support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Featured artwork: Shyra de Souza, Longshadow. 2014. Found objects/trinkets, epoxy, plaster, wire, lighting.