It's about time ... time travel
Is Pavitra Wickramasinghe the next Doctor Who?
The MFA in Studio Arts alumna explores concepts of place, time and travel – and time travel – by manipulating light, shadow and projection. That may be worthy of contemplating as a replacement for the TARDIS, the quirky spaceship used by the time- and space-hopping Doctor in the long-running BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who.
Wickramasinghe’s exhibition, Time Machine, is at Concordia’s FOFA Gallery until May 24. The artist, who has travelled extensively, says she was in South Korea last year talking to a friend many time zones away on Skype when she realized how place and time had melted away. “It’s easy to forget where you are when you’re talking to someone who’s far away,” she notes. “The sense of place and time is fluid.”
This is not just any exhibition; it’s the culmination of two years of research, travel, studio exploration and teaching that Wickramasinghe undertook after receiving the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art in 2011, just as she graduated.
The award allows fine arts graduates to develop their professional practice, exhibit their research-creation and broaden their teaching experience. Valued at about $55,000, the fellowship is given each year to a promising postgraduate in visual art and design from each of Concordia and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The winners of the 2013 Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship will be announced on Wednesday, May 22, 2013.
Thanks to the award, Wickramasinghe has been able to focus on working with imagery that evokes concepts of travelling and the fluidity of place, using light as her primary tool. One of the resulting works in Time Machine, for example, consists of paper airplanes - chosen for their universality - folded from 8.5-by-11-inch paper, laser-cut with patterns from classic wallpaper that cast fragile but elaborate shadows.
“Wallpaper both attracts attention and hides something, as does light and shadow,” she explains.
The exhibition includes an installation featuring a ship made of found crystal objects with three masts with rectangular sails made of laser-cut paper. With a light projected from behind, it looks like a galleon from the Age of Exploration. Also on view will be Wickramasinghe’s experiments to give physical form to light and shadow.
The exhibition catalogue, The Book of Light and Shadows, will be launched on Thursday, May 9.
Fellowship ‘fantastic’
Wickramasinghe, who was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Canada when she was 12, was insatiably curious about how the world around her worked, asking her father “a hundred questions a day”. As a botanist, he was always conducting simple science experiments, which may explain why Wickramasinghe has a methodical approach to her own creative trials.
She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Video remained her main focus but she revelled in the opportunity to try such disciplines as ceramics, photography, glass-blowing and painting. Three years as an assistant director introduced her to a vast range of work and approaches, while having her own studio during a residency at the Banff Centre allowed her to realize she could indulge in the multidisciplinary style that she truly wanted. “It made a real difference in my practice, and affected how I looked at art,” she says.
Wickramasinghe has been busy since then, having worked in solo and group exhibitions and screenings across Canada and around the world. Residencies have included the Art Omi International Artists Residency program in Ghent, New York, and Pépinières Européennes pour jeunes artistes in Spain. She completed her MFA in 2011, where the calibre of her work was duly noted with the prestigious award.
The Bronfman fellowship has been “fantastic,” she says, a big boon to helping her maintain her momentum and launch her practice — just as it was intended. She was able to travel to research, keep her studio, buy materials, pay the bills while she attended residencies both in Canada and abroad, and continue to teach.
“It’s a lot of expectation and a big commitment and you want to do well, but it can be overwhelming,” Wickramasinghe says about the fellowship, advising this year’s recipients to take a few months at the outset to plan their travels for research.
“I’m a bit nervous, but I’ve been working very hard so I feel ready – and excited – about exhibiting at the FOFA Gallery and launching the catalogue for it,” she says.
The Doctor is in.
What: Time Machine exhibition
When: Monday, April 15, to Friday, May 24, 2013
Where: FOFA Gallery, EV 1.715, Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.,) Montreal
What: Time Machine catalogue launch
When: Thursday, May 9, 2013, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.
Where: FOFA Gallery, EV-1.715, Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.,) Montreal
Related links:
• Pavitra Wickramasinghe
• FOFA Gallery
• Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art
• Concordia’s MFA program in Studio Arts
• Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts