Secret Garden by Angelina McCormick is, on the surface, a collection of flower photographs spanning 5 years of obsessive imaging of dying and artificial flora. Assembled for the first time in the Red Wall Gallery, the resulting array of images is much more than a botanical collection.
This exhibition reveals how McCormick’s practice has evolved over time. The formal elements of her photographs have changed with each collection; passing through several film formats, camera types and production approaches to the most recent iconic 8” X 10” shot, large, clean images.
More significantly, the expressive content of her work has also evolved. Each successive grouping, although always of either real or artificial flora, conveys a different aspect of the artist’s search for self.
Early work tackles aging, sickness and also death as transformation. Images of this ultimate of changes from life to death are made by someone who describes herself as “ruined and living in both worlds”, and pose important questions about our perceptions of both states of being. McCormick’s Holga series is playful and made with deliberate misdirection. These photos of fake flowers cloak gallows humour in a seductive surface of candy colours and soft edges. The most recent works become larger and more iconic. Crisp and bright, they induce awe sometimes at odds with their unpretentious look at human relationships, personalities and archetypes.
Artist: Angelina McCormick
On View: June 18 – August 28, 2010 | Mon – Fri 10am – 6pm, Sat 10am – 3pm
Where: The Red Wall Gallery @ SPAO, 168 Dalhousie (at the corner of Bruyère, in the Byward Market)
For more info contact: 613.562.3824 or info@spao.ca