Heather Passmore: Rejection, Revised
Heather Passmore Form Letters 2008–11 Detail Courtesy the artist
Vancouver artist Heather Passmore has taken to heart the old saying “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” That’s to say, she’s turned a decade’s worth of impersonal form letters from art institutions into an exciting series and exhibition at the New Gallery in Calgary. The show includes a wall-sized installation of 250 such letters and a series of 10 enlarged commissions of similar letters that she has illustrated by hand. The latter interventions would seem to serve a therapeutic purpose for the artist—just as they might, also, for the viewer. On one letter from the Canada Council which denies Passmore’s application for a travel grant to a residency in Finland, the artist has drawn a maternal figure presenting a piping hot roasted chicken—classic comfort food. On another from the Vancouver Art Gallery, which accompanied an undoubtedly disappointing cheque for the amount of $150, Passmore imagines a house coddled by a thicket of trees and a lawn littered with bunnies. The volume of letters presented and the unexpectedness of Passmore’s reinterpretations make a moving testament to the perseverance required to survive the “emerging artist” category. Moreover, these works transcend the individual’s struggle and ask us to consider the ramifications of a professionalized art world—one which imposes limitations and hierarchies onto a field that supposedly celebrates experimentation and imagination. (212-100 7 Ave SW, Calgary AB)
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Heather Passmore Form Letters 2008–11 Detail Courtesy the artist |
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Heather Passmore Form Letters 2008–11 Detail Courtesy the artist |
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