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Reviews / Essays / ... | |
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Art of the egg cracks old ideas of beauty Go – The Hamilton Spectator Tuesday June 15, 2004 Fiona Kinsella: fine line (swoon) transit gallery, 230 Locke St. S., until June 27 By Elaine Hujer Artists don’t like to talk about beauty very much. Definitions of beauty are so subjective that they are practically meaningless, and besides, serious artists prefer to communicate something more than simply ornamental. Still – what other word can be used to describe a series of artworks in which the perfect oval shape of the egg is nestled in sumptuous, richly coloured velvet and inscribed with the fine-lined patterns of delicate, handmade lace and filigreed silver? So lets agree that the first impression of Fiona Kinsella’s mixed media pieces, currently on view at the transit gallery, is that they are as wonderful to look at as finely crafted jewelry and that they are elegant and decorative in a very feminine way – they are eggs, after all. Still, a closer look at the fragile artifacts, mounted and displayed in shadow boxes like relics of the saints, reveals not only exquisite and precious elements, but also bits of bone, teeth, hair, fur and a plethora of organic materials that signal the human female as much as the divine. And lets not be surprised that a trip to Italy – where artists have been seducing viewers with pure beauty for hundreds of years – provided the inspiration for the work. Kinsella explains: "I found a shop in Florence that sold silver rosary cases. I had never seen them before and felt compelled to buy one. When I got back to Canada, I knew that I had to use them in my work. I’m very much driven by materials and I wanted to make beautiful things that would move the viewer, but some of the materials are very strange….the show became an investigation into the nature of beauty…" |
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