Artist talk with Shary Boyle, The Making of White Elephant
Recorded Monday, July 26, 2021
Presented in partnership with Cambridge Art Galleries | Idea Exchange
Shary Boyle, ‘White Elephant’ (2021)
On display from July 22 - August 7, 2021
Cambridge Art Galleries | Idea Exchange, Queens Square, Cambridge
Programming from the CAFKA.21 Biennial, "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost"
cafka21.cafka.org
Please join artist Shary Boyle as she discusses the two-year process of creating the sculpture ‘White Elephant’; thoughts and processes that led to the work's inception; addressing white supremacy through an artistic practice from Shary’s personal perspective and experience as a white artist; and the relationships and contributions of the fabrication team that assisted in the creation of the work.
Commissioned by CAFKA for the 2021 biennale, ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost’, Shary Boyle’s ‘White Elephant’, is a 9-foot tall, seated figure with a head that electro-mechanically rotates at irregular intervals. This gigantic figure is constructed with structural steel and shaped with foam, dressed in a custom hand-knitted sweater, bespoke trousers, sourced dress shoes and wig - all in white. The hands and face are rendered in porcelain, and its head enigmatically turns 360 degrees at irregular intervals. The work is inspired by the artist’s investigation into the historical moment of racial recognition in Canadian (and world) culture, in particular, Canada’s grappling with its white supremacist/colonial settler history and our currently evolving comprehension of what it means to be “white.”
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Shary Boyle works across diverse media, including sculpture, drawing, installation and performance. She is known for her bold, fantastical explorations of the figure. Highly crafted and deeply imaginative, her practice is activated through collaboration, volunteerism and apprenticeship. Boyle’s work considers the social history of ceramic figurines, animist mythologies, antiquated technologies and folk art forms to create a symbolic, feminist and politically charged language uniquely her own.
Shary Boyle’s work is exhibited and collected internationally. She represented Canada with her project Music for Silence at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, and has been commissioned to create a new project for the 2021 Kaunus Biennial in Lithuania. Boyle is the recipient of Canada’s Hnatyshyn Foundation Award and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize. In 2021, the Ontario College of Art and Design University awarded her with an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts.
Outside the Palace of Me, a solo touring exhibition of Shary Boyle’s work, will be presented at The Gardiner Museum, Toronto and the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal in 2022, and the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2023. Art Canada Institute will publish an accompanying monograph in Fall 2021.
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White Elephant has been made possible with the generous support of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund and the Good Foundation.
Shary Boyle has compiled the White Elephant Reading List: bit.ly/3ydmfaG
CAFKA is animating the themes of the work with a suggested reading list, public lectures, book clubs, and discussion groups as part of the Summer Reading Series: White Elephant Edition. Visit cafka21.cafka.org for more information.
CAFKA gratefully acknowledges the support of our funders, donors, and in-kind partners for the 2021 biennial Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: The City of Kitchener, The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, The Province of Ontario, The Region of Waterloo, The City of Waterloo, Musagetes Funds, Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Momentum Partnership, Vive Development, JG Group, Good Foundation, Civilian Screen Printing, Westmount Signs & Printing, Deutschmann Law, Europro, Perimeter, Workhaus, Yeti Cafe
4 окт 2024
