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Editors Note: We were profoundly saddened to
discover that the Artist's Statement below was erroneously omitted from the
Summer 2007 Rock & Sling as intended. Our sincerest apologies to Ms. Vance
and our readers.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Erica Grimm
Vance
The body plays a part in all
apprenticeships. –Simone Weil
Embodiment has been the focus of my image
making for the past twenty years. All that we understand is mediated through
the body, making it, inescapably, the central site of meaning. My work
depicts the human body and uses pure materials, such as wax, steel, and
pigments to discuss embodiment and liminality, memory and identity. I am not
interested in the surface superficialities of the body but in going deeper
into an exploration of states of being.
Images often explore our questions about
the problem of pain and the existence of beauty and ask the question “who am
I?” They hint at the answer buried within the memory—that every human being
is made in the Imago Dei. Affliction and beauty, transcendence and
imminence—all are contained within the images. Simone Weil speaks of these
as being God’s means of direct access to our souls:
Through joy, the beauty of the world penetrates our soul. Through suffering
it penetrates our body. We could no more become
friends of God through joy
alone than one becomes a ship’s captain by studying
books on navigation.
The body plays a part in all apprenticeships.
The figures in most of my
images are drawn with graphite, layered with wax and pigments (encaustic),
and contrasted with silent planes of steel and gold. Materials such as
steel, wax, lead, and gold carry meanings in themselves, ranging from
precious to toxic, and when paired with the figure, heighten a corporeal
reading of the figure.
My recent work has furthered
the exploration of the meaning of body to include signs and symbols, PET
scans (positron emission tomography scans), MRI scans, topographical,
navigational and aerial maps, stock market charts, and texts of various
sorts. One critic has described my work as engaging in the “post-ironic
search for meaning.”
Erica Grimm-Vance is an Assistant Professor of Art
at Trinity Western University. She has had over 25 solo exhibitions and her
work appears in numerous private and public collections, including the
Vatican, Canada Council Art Bank, and the Richmond Art Gallery. She was, in
2002, the Distinguished Nash Lecturer at Campion College at the University
of Regina, was the first Prize recipient of the Imago National Juried Art
Competition, and was honored as the Distinguished Alumnae from the
University of Regina. Erica is currently working on a collaborative
multimedia installation project called (im)Balance that includes a 20’ x 5’
encaustic and steel panel, 3 digital film sequences projected on steel and
scrim, and soundscape triggered by viewer interaction. She is working toward
a Ph.D. in Art Education with a focus in Drawing. She lives in Vancouver,
British Columbia with her husband, Craig, and children, Daniel and Amadea.
B.F.A. University of Regina, Great Distinction
(1982)
Banff School of Fine Arts (1980)
Academie der Bildenden Kunste, Munich, Germany
(1983-4)
SFU Arts Education Ph.D. (candidate)
For more about Erica Grimm Vance please visit her
website:
www.egrimmvance.com.
Copyright © by Linda McCullough Moore 2007. All rights reserved. |