Double Take

The buildings in Aldcroft Residence and Dubois Residence are both at home and displaced. The photographs are a record of a site-specific installation that the artist created in Bear Creek, Yukon Territory in 2013.

Titled the Homecoming, Fuller's installation integrated five of these buildings back into their original location using large-scale prints on linen. The end result is a ghost-like conjuring of the past—one that reminds us of the transient nature of place.

Light passes through a small hole in a darkened room and the space is transformed. An inverted image of the exterior world is cast over the interior walls and the effect is photographed by the artist using a single exposure that can take hours.

Smith creates his work using a camera obscura, an optical device that dates back to antiquity and has been used as a tool by artists including Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675).

Like the camera obscura, the scenes that Smith captures have a rich connection to the past. Sebee, Vulcan Aerodome and 56 Trolley are all records of abandoned Albertan landscapes.

Smith's journey into photography began during a motorcycle trip from Calgary to Santiago in 1997. The influence of the road is apparent in Satellite Motel.

For anyone who has traveled through Medicine Hat on the trans Canada highway, the sign in Satellite Motel may look familiar.

Payce's work is an exploration of binary relationships—shape and form, background and foreground, reality and illusion.

In Pairadocs and Vase to Vase the result of this exploration creates compelling optical illusions that formalize in the negative spaces between the vases.

Furthermore, the artist adds a layer of humour to each work through the clever wordplay in his titles; Pairadocs rather than paradox and Vase to Vase recalling the term face to face.

These vases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a garniture (a traditional arrangement of 2 to 5 vases on a mantelpiece)...

and yet their skillfully articulated profiles reveal unexpected subjects – a pair of Doc Marten shoes and two faces.

Kiss Detail documents a portion of the artist’s three-dimensional work through the use of photography.

Unlike Pairadocs and Vase to Vase, the whole of the ceramic work is not visible and the shape created by the negative space is quite ambiguous.

Instead the figurative component in this work is connected to the vessel itself.

The modulation of the edge on each piece reveals a generic depiction of two figures, one male and one female ready for an embrace.

Payce alters our experience of ceramic objects by moving away from an emphasis on the handmade, tactile quality of the medium towards a fascinating optical effect using lenticular photography.

Pantheon Verismilus, which depicts 40 vessels with implied male and female forms, is the artist’s first large scale image using this method.

When viewed in person, it has a holographic-like appearance, an effect that is created by interlacing multiple images of an object from different vantage points.

By using this technology, the artist is able to work on a monumental scale in a way that would not be practical in ceramics.

Greg Payce is an accomplished ceramic artist who creates compelling cognitive illusions by exploring the negative spaces between pottery forms. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, he studied Art History at the University of Victoria, received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Alberta and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.