Artist reflects on the pandemic at AGN
Article and images by Bill Hornbostel
In her exhibition at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, [en]shroud, Fiona Crangle explores the personal experience of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The exhibition occupies a small space in the gallery, through the archway at the south end which has been transformed with Tyvek sheeting into a cave-like tunnel. “I wanted us to literally tunnel into the space, to hibernate in a little tiny cocoon of space,” says the Port Hope-based artist.
Elements of that room – the tile floor, the grid of the window-pane, echo parts of the pandemic experience. “During the pandemic,” says Crangle, “I felt like everything came to me in squares, like Zoom calls and Instagrams, Facetimes, everything. My world became quite delineated by the four corners of a screen.”
“Generally, my work explores the notion of coming of age, the time during adolescence where we draft our first worldview, we adhere to it in an idealistic and raw fashion,” says Crangle.
“I realized this idea of coming of age isn’t shackled to the notion of adolescence; we do it all the time,” Crangle continues. “We have a coming of age whenever we change our minds, whenever we edit that initial worldview. I think the pandemic forced us into a collective coming of age, we were given an outrageous amount of time, and an isolated sense of space to think about what we believed in.”
“We were all in it together, was the was the tagline; but we were all in it alone,” adds Crangle. “And you had to sit with yourself for a long time, and maybe change your mind about a few things.”
During the lockdowns, Crangle used herself as a model. She points to the first image in the series, a painted self-portrait of her in a box titled “Fort.” “After a while, I started to notice that although we were stuck in a box, and we kind of got comfortable with the box,” says Crangle.
Another image from the series of her own eyes, seen through a small opening. “I started to think about all the people that I missed, their live gaze, my gaze on them, their gaze on me,” says Crangle. “I still managed to make connection in contact with them, but largely it was through a screen.”
Central to the show is a boiler suit or coverall made of Tyvek. “I was making boiler suits for myself to live in while I was at home,” Crangle says. “They’re super-comfortable, and they are a protective garment.”
The idea of making a coverall out of Tyvek after a home renovation during the pandemic. “When you think about Tyvek as a membrane between the outside world and our inside world of our domestic homes, I thought ‘Oh yeah, that’s there’s a good materiality and choosing Tyvek,’” Crangle says.
Crangle painted the pattern for the boiler suit on a six-metre length of Tyvek. Crangle says, “I had this 18-foot-long painting, which I then took to all the places in the pandemic where I sought refuge, where we were allowed to go, where it was okay to meet up with a friend to have a connection. And I photographed this enormous piece of Tyvek in those locations.”
Translucent photos of the pattern, taken in places like Gage’s Creek in Port Hope, are arranged in a grid over the window in the gallery. The coverall itself, now assembled, stands on a tailor’s form in the centre of the room.
“I feel like this was a divergent path I took for the last two years,” Crangle adds. “This was me, coming to grips with something over the last few years, and I think this is me attempting to connect with others after two years of non-connection.”
[en]shroud will be on display at the Art Gallery of Northumberland through October 15, 2022.
For more information on Fiona Crangle and her artwork, check out her Instagram profile, @adhocstudio.
For more information about the Art Gallery of Northumberland or to arrange a time to visit, you may visit their Web site, artgalleryofnorthumberland.com, or call 905-372-0333. You may also follow the AGN on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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