The Contemporary Art Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in Vancouver of Canadian artist Kelly Richardson.
Richardson’s work touches on notions of the sublime, that mixture of awe, hope and fear that reveals something about the depth and darkness of human desire. Speaking about her work she has stated ‘I am interested in that contradiction at this critical time in human history when predictions for our future are not just unsettling, but terrifying.’
The exhibition showcases the multi-screen installation ‘Leviathan’ (2011). The image and the projections on the floor implicate us as audience as we simultaneously behold and are contained within the image.
In ‘Orion Tide’ (2013) visitors see rocks and foliage littering the ground, convincing us of some form of scrub land. Then an eerie distant sound warns us of that which follows, the slow eruption of a lit pod from within the surface. Are they escape pods - final humans abandoning all hope - or are they the death rattle of a dying planet? Richardson deftly avoids simplistic environmental and sci-fi cliché with a painterly sense of narrative mystery.
