The Art of Life: October 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wendy Welch Show at Open Space

Circuitous Routes: Excess/Abundance

Friday, November 6, 2009

This content is directly from the Open Space web site.

Opening reception is on Friday, November 6 at 7:00pm.

Circuitous Routes: Excess/Abundance runs from November 6 through December 12, 2009.

Victoria artist Wendy Welch is fascinated by contemporary desire, and the tangible evidence left in its wake. Circuitous Routes: Excess/Abundance will feature six new works that originate in Welch’s commitment to drawing and installation. She honours the everyday materials that come into her life—whether the gifts of materials from her students, or found objects or the various envelopes and print materials that cross her desk.

An inveterate collector and recycler of objects, Welch examines the impulse to collect, to store and to amass material goods, both as an individual and as a contributor to a wider consumer culture. Welch gives unexpected form to the accumulated residue of consumerism by transforming ephemera into a monumental study of abundance, identifying exactly where abundance tips into excess. Welch describes the installation as a “three-dimensional scribble,” a deliberately non-functional, provisional, structured and chaotic milieu, in which visitors might consider materiality, process, accumulation and, indirectly, landscape.

Wendy Welch studied visual art at the University of Victoria (MFA), California State University in Los Angeles and Concordia University, Montreal (BFA). Her work has been presented at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Richmond Art Gallery among other galleries and artist-run centres. In addition to her visual art practice, Welch is an art writer, curator and educator. She is the Founder and Director of the Vancouver Island School of Art.