7th Edition
Contemporary
Art Event
June 12 —
September 11
2022
2022
7th Edition
Contemporary
Art Event
June 12 —
September 11
2022
Katherine Boyer

Katherine
Boyer

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EXPRESSION, Centre d’exposition

Cyan Blue Eclipse, 2021-2022
Cyanotype on cotton, wood

The act of gardening, slowly, attentively, carefully, is the basis of Katherine Boyer’s work Cyan Blue Eclipse. The work was made through learning processes that demand relinquishing control, welcoming failure, and being guided by collaboration with natural forces. The cyanotypes, which show stenciled plant motifs fixed by sunlight on pieces of cotton, present plants in a way that exhibits simultaneously all that they can be—leaves, flowers, and seeds. Here, Boyer is intertwining the different phases of growth—a way to depict plants that is recurrent in some beadwork traditions, which are also an important part of her practice. She undertook the project both to bring to light the lifecycle of tobacco plants, prairie rose, and dye plants such as goldenrod and dyer’s woad and to illustrate the reciprocal relationship between herself and the plants, insects, and animals around her. The structures made of lumber also bring to mind the support and mutual care woven among living beings in this learning experience, and they evoke the knowledge found in Boyer’s family.

Katherine Boyer
Photo credit: Jason Simmons

Katherine Boyer (Métis/settler) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is focused on methods bound to textile arts and the handmade – primarily woodworking and beadwork. Boyer’s art and research encompass personal family narratives entwined with Métis history, material culture, and architectural spaces (human-made and natural). She often explores boundaries between two opposing things as an effort to better understand both sides of a perceived dichotomous identity. This is manifested in long, slow, and considerate laborious processes that attempt to unravel and better comprehend history, environmental influences, and personal memories.

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Katherine Boyer, Cyan Blue Eclipse (détail), cyanotype sur coton et bois, 2021-2022
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Katherine Boyer, Cyan Blue Eclipse (detail), cyanotype on cotton and wood, 2021–22

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Katherine Boyer, Cyan Blue Eclipse (detail), cyanotype on cotton and wood, 2021–22

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Katherine Boyer, Cyan Blue Eclipse, cyanotype on cotton and wood, 2021–22