APRIL 16 TO MAY 30, 2010

CAROLE EPP (Saskatchewan)

OPENING
FRIDAY, APRIL 16 at 5 p.m.

From April 16 to May 30, as part of Manif d’art 5, a bi-annual event in visual arts, under this year’s theme “CATASTROPHE? QUELLE CATASTROPHE!”, MATERIA presents “A Collection of Small Miseries”. It is the first solo exhibition in Province of Quebec devoted to the ceramist Carole Epp, originally from Saskatchewan.

For several years now, Epp has created works that carry messages and moral reflections. The artist believes that art can have an impact on public opinion and thereby influence the individual. Fascinated by the concept of the collection, the artist creates works that are both kitsch and stereotypes.

For Epp, the pervasiveness of kitsch objects represents the ideal vehicle for promoting dialogue. Not only does it speak to the portrayal of cultural stereotypes and the simplification of events in the media but it also offers the advantage of being connected to totalitarian politics and propaganda. Through these associations, the artist aims to bring to light the media’s role in the proliferation of information and “knowledge” and the desensitization that results. This parallel is brought out in many of Epp’s figurines, which reflect the nature of war, terrorism, poverty, genetic technology and environmental degradation.

In an aesthetically traditional display, A Collection of Small Miseries presents some 35 recent collectible figurines. Using childhood imagery, the artist prompts the individual to reflect upon the consequences of their actions on the environment. Epp’s exhibition questions our consumer culture, while drawing on the relationship between our consumerist ways and the political, social and environmental events that shape our world.

Visitors are invited both to reflect upon their own role in society and to participate in the collective reflection as put forth by the artist.

Carole Epp is a Canadian ceramic artist and writer who received her Masters Degree in Ceramics from the Australian National University. Her ceramics branch off into two distinct bodies of work wherein she produces lines of sculptural and functional objects. Her sculptural-based work incorporates the production of collectible figurines whose traditional genre is subverted by revealing a more truthful representation of behavior and morality in contemporary society. An analysis of consumer culture is unveiled and dialogue is presented regarding the personal relationship one has with global events and politics. The functional domestic wares investigate contemporary industrial design aesthetics and their sustainability through handmade qualities, including what has traditionally been deemed glaze-faults, in combination with the clean and calculated look of mass-produced wares. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, Australia, Scotland and the United States. Her artwork and writing has also been published in the past few years in magazine publications, websites and books.