Ed Pien has taken his pieces across Canada and the world.
The Toronto based artist has come back to the Forest City to show his latest exhibition.
Luminous Shadows is a two part exhibition: the first installation has a tent, mylar houses, projectors, sound, and mirrors that create a piece that moves and never gets repeated. The other component of the exhibition displays white ink drawings on black paper in a dimmed lit room, giving them a ‘ghost’ like feel.
Ed Pien was really excited when showing XFM the first installation. “Because the refraction is not in the mirror per se what’s refracted becomes even more ghostly… Just tangible. So, the whole idea is to play with perception and kind of sense of disappearance or appearance” said Pein while pointing to the shadow of a girl inside of one of the mylar houses, “when she is in there and the mirror is moving, it takes the silhouette around the whole space.”
Pien started this project while at the UK giving refugees an art workshop in 2009. “I asked them to build houses that represent the ones they left behind or the ones they will have in the future” said Pien, “The houses are collapsible, so they all fit in a suitcase. We got here and pop them open.”
Pein was looking forward to the exhibition. He said, “I’m really excited because I think I’m having a small reunion with some of the people I gone to school with. So that’s really, really exciting, and to present something that to me… Because is an installation the only time that comes into aliveness is when is presented, so I’m doubly excited.”
The exhibition is made inspired in the landscapes upnorth. The tent is made based in an inuit tent, and around the houses, a layer of mylar with different cut outs gives the look of frost in a window.
Luminous Shadows will be at the McIntosh gallery till December 12.
