Visiting artist Cal Lane comes to VIU Nov. 20

Sculptor Cal Lane is the next artist to come to VIU as part of the Visiting Artist series on Thursday, November 20, 2008.

This is a great opportunity to showcase a sculptor raised on Vancouver Island who now lives and works in New York. Lane’s work will be of particular interest to artists, designers, welders and of general interest to the VIU student body and community.

Lane uses functional objects in her work such as shovels, wheelbarrows, oil cans, and I-beams – items otherwise viewed in an industrial context are subverted and elevated to the status of high art when transformed by plasma cutter and oxyacetylene torch into lacy sculptures, and occupying space in prestigious art galleries and sculpture gardens.

“I have always been interested in embracing the very thing that repel me in order to understand it,” she said. “I prefer to make sense of things in order to suspend (or pass) judgment.”

Lane’s provocative recycled forms amaze and delight.  She says of one example of her more political New York work entitled ‘Filigree Car Bombing’, - “I focused on creating a tasteless relationship of images... The crushed steel of the car is cut into fine lace creating a drapery of disruption and sadness, a conflict of attraction to fancy work and the attraction to a horrific image.”

She seeks contradiction in her use of media and message.  In her series ‘Industrial Doilies’, the juxtaposition of industrial and domestic, masculine and feminine, ornament and function, forge new meanings and formal interplays.

Lane obtained her MFA with a major in Sculpture at State University of New York and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.  She has exhibited nationally and internationally and received a number of awards including a Canada Council Grant and the Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship.

Lane will be visiting VIU’s Nanaimo Campus on Thursday November 20 from 4:30-6:00 p.m. in bldg. 200, room 203.

The Fall 2008 Visiting Artist Series at Vancouver Island University is made possible through the generosity of our sponsors: VIU's Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Art and Design Department and Office of Aboriginal Education. The series is coordinated by Professor Ellen McCluskey, Department of Art and Design.

For further information, please contact Ellen McCluskey at ellen.mccluskey@viu.ca; or 250-753-3245, local 2397