ANN MARIE PEÑA
History is an unstable juggernaut: urban and rural landscapes expand, contract and merge; geographic boundaries are temporary containers; communication technology brings us closer in the abstract while practically it permits us to be farther apart; memories are transported in devices held in the palms of our hands. We are always in flux, always caught up in moments of transition. I am interested in the processes and narratives that may be revealed in the attempt to capture and examine these moments.
My work intends to reveal a personal interest in history that relates to contemporary culture and is both nostalgic and irreverent. Thus the work often appropriates and shifts the status of historical references by disassociating them from normal contexts to form new narratives in the present. Often done in collaboration with other artists, my work brings together unlikely combinations of images and stories to show these from new perspectives, a kind of reconstruction or reconsideration of history, memory and everyday life.
Paper City (detail)
Paper montage
2004
Project / Show
Franchise, Johannesburg South Africa
Paper City
Paper City (detail)
Paper montage
2004
Project / Show
Franchise, Johannesburg South Africa
For the work in Paper City I have explored the inherent fragile and temporary properties of the materials and images I use in my work such as newsprint, recycled wood and product packaging. I turned to mass printed media sources including newspapers and magazines for architectural and other imagery that represents the places, information and stories we consume on a daily basis that are meant to be a documentation of our lives. By taking parts of one image in a newspaper and adding them to another, the images began to feed off each other. New structures emerged that created an opposite or different effect outside of their initial context and highlighted a precarious and fragile state of being similar to the disposable quality of the newsprint itself.
I am interested in the places and things we use to frame our lives and how we construct our notions of ‘home’ from these. In this case sources such as newspapers are meant to record and account for events that occur, to document the place we know as our present tense. Surprisingly there is a lack of tension that occurs when this place (home) is taken apart, reconfigured and put back together again to accompany sound bites and headlines or to construct a paper city. In this sense home has adopted and normalized the refugee status.
Education
2003
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London
London, England
Master of Arts in Fine Art
1999
Queen’s University
Kingston, Canada
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours)
Solo Exhibitions
2004
Paper City
Franchise Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
Forest
Outlet Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2006
Eco Vandalism
Confessional # 4 (Thomas Dry Barry, New York City 2006)
"Activist Confessional is a collection of stories documented from casual conversations that touch on people’s own experiences with political activism, vandalism and the culture of protest.
2005
In the Clearing
Exhibition with Jane Thurley and Elly Clarke
Seven-Seven Gallery London, England
The Electric Eye
Sis Boom Bah Gallery Toronto, Canada
Art 36 Basel
Screening of video “Verna’s Wake-Up Call” at Art Film series Basel, Switzerland
In Collaboration with Dora Longo Bahia and Galeria Luisa Strina - Sao Paulo, Brazil
Vacant Lots
Group Exhibition
Free Gallery Toronto, Canada
2004
Agora
Transition Gallery London, England
Johannesburg
Collaborative Exhibition with Dora Longo Bahia
The Bag Factory Johannesburg, South Africa
Curator
One Night Show
291 Gallery London, England
2003
Recycling the Future
Biennale di Venezia 50th International Art Exhibition
Group Exhibition Venice, Italy
Heartbeat
291 Gallery, London England
Rooftop Billboard Project
London England
Salon Dollop
Rad’a Gallery Montréal, Canada
Touch and Go: 60 Oblique Notations on Encroaching Terror
Space 44 London, England
2002
The Enchanted Forest: Collaborative Works
Exhibition with Margaux Williamson and Erin O’Hara
Union Gallery Kingston, Canada
The Flag Project
Outdoor flag installation curated by Giuliana Racco
Harbourfront Centre for the Arts Toronto, Canada
Consuming Constructs - Curator
Works by Chi-Ping Lee, Kulwinder Bajar and Francis Leung
York Quay Gallery Toronto, Canada
Player
Collaboration with Laurie Petrou
Luft Gallery Toronto, Canada
2001
Workplace @ Office
curated by Instant Coffee Toronto, Canada
2000
Warm: The In-Out Project
Co-Curator
Works by: Mike Mills, Dean and others
Sis Boom Bah Gallery Toronto, Canada
2001
Ramona and Co
Art at the Union Toronto, Canada
Isolated Ground
Kor Gallery Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada
1999
unwashed
Exhibition with Erin O’Hara
Sis Boom Bah Gallery Toronto, Canada
Young Canadian Artists
Canadian Sculptor’s Society Toronto, Canada
Headlock
curated by Mindy Yan Miller
Agnes Etherington Art Centre Kingston, Canada
Bibliography
Collections
Publications
a-n Magazine
Written review of The Art of Permanence and Change – July 2005 Issue
Biennale di Venezia 50th International Art Exhibition: Dreams and Conflicts – The Viewer’s Dictatorship
Official Catalogue, MarVeslio (ed.) 2003
VV2: Recycling The Future, Biennale di Venezia 2003
Exhibition Catalogue, MarVeslio (ed.) 2003
Lola Magazine Toronto, Canada
Issue #11
Review by Andrew of exhibition entitled Player at Luft Gallery, 2002
Muse Magazine Ottawa, Canada
Issue 11-12/2001
Written review
Lola Magazine Toronto, Canada
Issue #5
Review by Mark Beldan of exhibition entitled unwashed at Sis Boom Bah Gallery, 1999
Residencies
2004
The Bag Factory Johannesburg, South Africa
Three month residency in The Bag Factory studios in central Johannesburg to produce work for a collaborative exhibition with artist Dora Longo Bahia
2003
La Biennale di Venezia 2003 Venice, Italy
Five week residency supported by IUAV (University of Architecture Venice) to produce work for the exhibition Recycling the Future that took place in the Biennale Gardens for the duration of the Biennial
Awards and Distinctions
Ray Finnis Trust – Exhibition Grant 2003, England
Canadian Sculpture Society – Award 2000, Canada