Port Moody artist Sara Graham has a large collection of tabletop books that showcase cities around B.C. and Canada.
They’re from a specific timeframe, between the 1980s and 90s, that represents unique perspectives of urban places.
In those dated books, the cityscapes are typically identified by landmarks or nature. For example, a Toronto picture usually includes the CN Tower; however, for Vancouver, there are waterfront images, as well as downtown scenes that give off more of a sense of culture.
Recently, Graham, who is influenced in her artwork by the British architect Cedric Price and his ideas around movement of static buildings, started playing with the photos in her coffee table books to create a new body of visual work — with overlapping scenes through hard shapes.
Titled Fata Morgana, the eight collage pieces in her series present a kind of mirage or vibration that challenges viewers to see beyond the buildings and into the nooks and crannies surrounding them.
“It’s always been my interest or goal to have the viewers look at the city with different eyes,” she said.
“I find a lot of beauty in areas of the city that I know a lot of people find ugly, but there’s something very interesting with these nondescript areas. They make up the whole city.”
Graham hopes the show will not only spark conversation and get viewers to demand more variety and colour in public realms, but will also force the audience to slow down and drink in the blurred viewpoints of Vancouver.
Up until Friday, Nov. 1, her solo exhibition can be seen at the (885 West Georgia, Vancouver). An artist talk will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.
Still, besides Fata Morgana, Graham also offers another glimpse of her previous urban studies in the gallery display.
Called The Spaces That Were Missed Have Been Rearranged, that series of 24 pieces “is not a retrospective,” Graham told the Tri-City News on Thursday, Oct. 24.
“It’s more of a survey of the common threads I’ve worked on over the last 10 years […] I’ve just decided to represent them differently, so the audience can see how Fata Morgana has been informed by these past works.”
The City of Port Moody’s first , Graham is best known for her large-scale for the International Bridge Project in Windsor, Ont., which opens next year.
She has a bachelor’s degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a master’s degree from the University of Guelph.
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