From Fabrics to Flowers
September 18, 2008
This isn’t Ayre’s first attempt at screen printing. She had abandoned the process as a student because she couldn’t relate to it. But with a refined sense of her own imagery she found this time around she was able to use the technique to emphasize her ideas.
Instead of layering physical layers to create a sensation memory, Ayre is layering print over print to create a fragmented sensation. Drawing on her memories of the massive lupin fields in Newfoundland where she grew up, Ayre choose flower images for her first screen print series.
“When we remember something we’re looking back at it through all the layers of our experiences, so it’s never the same as the original experience. Not that that is terribly important, but I’ve always found that an interesting thing that we think things stay the same but they don’t.”
In order to have the works transcend her own memories and transcend into the viewer’s, she sewed screen printed bugs and feathers into the design to make it seem like things were happening.
Flowers were also an ideal choice because they let her to experiment with colour. Using fabric her old work had to be always blue over brown. With the screen prints she says it was almost like she was using watercolours.
As she was putting her series together Ayre thought she must be nuts to put together a show soon in a new medium. Once she saw the work on the walls though she thought better of her decision.
“Now that it’s there it was a good push for me to really understand the medium really quickly, and yet there are endless possibilities I haven’t even tapped into at this point. It’s just the beginning.”
Sally Ayre’s new works will be on display along with new works from Gaye Jackson until Sun October 5 at Toronto’s *New* Gallery.
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