SPOT ON

Sandra Smirle

October 30th – November 27th, 2010

Opening Reception

Saturday, October 30th, 2 – 5 PM

Sandra Smirle, Spot On, Mixed Media Installation.

A spot is a place, a blemish, a predicament, an optical imaging satellite system (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre*). SPOT ON echoes all of the above, zeroing in on our many locations – our scarred landscapes, imagined topographies, imperiled futures – in time and space. Applying a new perspective or a different lens may help us to spot the obvious, to shine a light on negative action and – in this shadow-space, this critical in-between space – to break free.

Spot On uses randomly selected locations, translated from aerial maps into large-scale cut drawings, to pull the viewer into the work, exploring places that exist projected in the shadow play of a spotlight. Using materials such as paper, plexiglass and tyvek, they are hung out from the wall, where the shifting interplay of light and shadow informs what we see and how we interpret the work. The aim is to continue to break down our tools of classification and visualization, playing with other ways of perceiving place.

* SPOT (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre) is a high-resolution, optical imaging system operating from space. It is run by Spot Image based in Toulouse, France. It was initiated by the CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales — the French space agency) in the 1970s and was developed in association with the SSTC (Belgian scientific, technical and cultural services) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). It has been designed to improve the knowledge and management of the Earth by exploring the Earth's resources, detecting and forecasting phenomena involving climatology and oceanography, and monitoring Earth observation satellitehuman activities and natural phenomena

SANDRA SMIRLE

Sandra Smirle is a mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions and juried group shows, and is in private collections in Canada, Australia and Europe. Recently, her work was selected for inclusion in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2009. Sandra graduated from Concordia University with a B.F.A. in Experimental Design.

This exhibition was produced with the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council.

WARC Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of our members, volunteers and the following funders: