Stefanie Villeneuve
CSPACE KING EDWARD
4th floor
BIOTIC
Exhibition dates: February 5 - March 1
Gallery hours: Monday to Saturday 8:00-20:00
Opening reception: February 6, 17:00-21:00
Stefanie Villeneuve’s exhibition, BIOTIC, is a conversation on falling apart. This mixed-media collaboration between the artist and the medium explores how our memories can change into new interpretations over time. Stefanie Villeneuve was an Exposure Emerging Photographers Showcase finalist in 2019.
Each time we choose to remember things, they change. Our long term memory is not a sterile archive with endless catalogue space. It is a volatile dump of information that is always mutating, decaying, and constantly susceptible to the influence of our current experiences. It is an interesting practice to choose which memories to alter. Some being more difficult than others, but I suppose that is why we take photographs; to try to remember things exactly as they were. I compose the base images with purpose using a plastic Lomography camera. Then I select prints, coat parts of them in candle wax in an attempt to slow the process of decay and preserve their most important details. Prints are then placed in a bacteria-rich environment, and the conversation between myself and the medium begins. While the process is similar, the way it chooses to manifest in each piece is unique. The bacterial blooms take on a life of their own. I cannot control it once it has begun, but I can change the way I see it. Some views are teetering on the edge of abstraction, while others are completely immersed in it. At the end of the day, all we have are our experiences and how we choose to remember them.
This exhibition is wheelchair accessible.
172129 Ave SW
Calgary, AB