SANDRA BLEUE | JUXTAPOSITIONS
Artist Statement
For twenty years I have worked in the figurative tradition in a method that combines sculpture with painting. I like the idea that, taken separately, the various art forms have different connotations (e.g. figurative sculpture conveys tactile permanence, flat colour in a painting can express narrative or abstract themes, while construction creates surprise through the juxtaposition of diverse elements), but taken together, these attributes can subvert each other. My work predominantly plays with the solidity/solitude of a figure within a metaphoric setting of an intimately scaled, painted construction. These compositional devises allow me to contrast solid 3D with illusory 2D, permanence versus precariousness and thus explore ideas such as what is important, what is secure, or play with themes of separation, otherness, detachment and anxiety.
Initially, my paintings were small reliefs, but they quickly became three-dimensional. My earliest influences were Renaissance portraits - I particularly liked the concept of an important figure being painted in their intimate surroundings but, through the device of a window, alluding to their greater sphere of influence. Other influences are the distorted architectural dreamings of de Chirico's world of mannequins and Alex Katz's night paintings.
The figures are modelled in a flour, salt, water and detergent medium that is baked until hardened, then gessoed and epoxied into the construction and finally painted in oil. I view the resultant rough, pitted surface as a metaphor for the contradictory vulnerability and resilience of the human condition. Similarly, the coarse jagged plywood constructions are deliberately angled to create an uncomfortable setting.
The first twenty years dealt exclusively with the role of women in society: entitled "Actualities", the series explored the gulf between the intent of societal institutions (marriage, motherhood, etc.) and the reality often experienced. The figures struggled to maintain their place on tilted, sloping, glass shard beds, or were claustrophobically constrained within small personal spaces. Towards the end of the series, they advanced from the shadow of men, but always at a cost.
In my new work, the sense of 'dis-ease' and the intimate scale remain common denominators, but the works move from the home to the world stage. The human figure is replaced by that of an animal (removing gender connotations) and an architectural element is added through the use of aluminium. Collisions between the natural and the man-made world, post-9/11 angst, animal as powerful predator or victim of urbanization, these works are intentionally ambiguous -the viewer must interpret the meaning of these new (inhumane?) pieces.
Biography
I was born in Toronto but grew up on the west coast in Vancouver. I attended the University of British Columbia, but unsure of my path, left after completing first year. I moved to Calgary in 1977 to pursue job opportunities; however, several years working in the oil industry prompted my resolve to go back to school. Over the next two and a half years, I attended the Alberta College of Art and Design and subsequently began working on and exhibiting the paintings represented here. I returned to the oil patch in 1993 where I now am employed as a petrophysicist for an international company. Despite working full time for the past thirteen years, I have generated a new piece every year.
Awards:
Illingworth Kerr Scholarship for Drawing and Design 1982
Province of Alberta Vocational Award 1983
Canada Council Project Grant in the Visual Arts 1989
Shows:
"Nancy Edell & Sandra Bleue" "dl" Gallery, Calgary 1988
"No Place like Home" SAW Galerie SAW, Ottawa 1989
"Sandra Bleue" Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal 1989
"Quotations" Glenbow Museum, Calgary 1991
Group Show Edmonton Art Gallery 1991
Group Show Sun Life Plaza, Calgary 1993