Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain ::

Karilee Fuglem

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Karilee Fuglem continues her interest in non-visible phenomena that occupy what we perceive as “empty” space in the work currently on view at the National Gallery of Canada until September 3 in the exhibition De-cons-tructions curated by Josée Drouin-Brisebois. . For more than a decade, her semi-visible, ephemeral constructions such as Continuous Thread (2005), with its fine monofilament looped continually in and out of itself, have drawn attention to what lies beyond our concrete perception. For De-con-structions , Fuglem's objective is to make us more conscious of that space, of our bodily relationship to it, and how we move through it. Imaginary Range , made from 18 km of invisible nylon thread, mimics the unmappable path one's thoughts might take through space and helps “visualize where the mind goes,” says Fuglem. “Now incorporated into this place, my imaginary travels are invisible, but the evidence is there.” Please consult the press release for more details: http://www.gallery.ca/english/default_4301.htm

Karilee Fuglem is interested in revealing that which is invisible at first sight. Using translucent, delicate and supple materials, she can make the air we breathe and the space we are living in tangible. The magic of Karilee Fuglem's installations, drawings and photographs comes from an aesthetic approaching nothingness, where negligible elements, such as bubblegum, dust, plastic bags and nylon thread, are charged with unforeseen potential.

Originally from Southern B.C., Karilee Fuglem's art encompasses various disciplines, both learned and invented, often combining body-mimicking characteristics with bug-imitating methods. It is supported financially by graphic design contracts and artist grants, and in every other way by the generosity of her young family. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, most recently in Oakville (Ontario), Edmonton and Quebec City.

June 15 - August 13
Trashformations: Michel de Broin, Jérôme Fortin, Karilee Fuglem, Louis Joncas

In 1997 I made Fluff, a set of photographs enlarged just beyond what the size of the negative could really accommodate, so that the images -- three dust bunnies and a cloud -- are difficult to "read." The fluffy bits, made fuzzier with the photographic process, look like alien life forms, or insects, or scars on skin. More Fluff (Particular) again celebrates the humble dust bunny, but in colour, using digital photography with its ready-made particle-dispersion of pixels instead of "grain." Photographed with a modest digital camera, these ubiquitous, barely noticeable clusters of domestic bits are enlarged well beyond any "recommended" resolution, giving them them a bigger, bolder presence than they normally get drifting about under the bed. The inkjet process further disperses the particles that compose the images so that they defy microscopic scrutiny. coaxing our affection even if we don't know everything about them."

Originally from Southern BC, Karilee Fuglem has made her home in Montreal since moving here to pursue an MFA at Concordia University in 1989. Untitled (invisible thread), a sculpture which almost disappears in some kinds of light is currently part of the Advancing in the fog exhibition at many things were left unsaid at Oakville Galleries in 2003. In last year's "Sense" exhibition at the Edmonton Art Gallery she remade nothing between -- a wall built up with lightbulb-heated, raised bumps first shown at Optica in 1996 as well as Secret Visibility , an installation of transparent discs which flutter in and out of sight, first shownat Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain in 2002 . At the 2nd Manif d'art in Quebec in 2003 she presented "cumulous" , a cloud of thousands of breath-inflated plastic bags suspended at head height so the visitor can walk through them. It was first shown at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in 2000 and again at the Dunlop Gallery in Regina in 2001. Her "breathing wall" was shown at CIAC's first Montreal Biennial in 1998 and her work was part of Of Fire and Passion at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1997.

April 23 - June 4, 2005
Karilee Fuglem: Connective Tissue

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is pleased to present Karilee Fuglem's exhibition of new work, entitled "connective tissue", April 23 - June 4, 2005. The artist will be at the vernissage April 23, 3-6 pm. The artist sincerely thanks Louis Barrette, Michael Merrill, Carolyn Oord, Anne Kim, Le conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council. The artist will be presenting new work which furthers her ongoing preoccupation with physically comprehending everyday non-visible phenomena such as conversation residue, the lingering presence of someone who has just left, or the notion of someone "being with us" after they have died.

"Taking my cue from the tenacious spiders whose wisps disturb my presumption of an empty room, I've made two sculptures by slowly building up threads in accumulative weaving systems. From their outer area, roughly the scale of my arms, outstretched, the threads' imprecise, gestural geometry gradually embrace human-scale spaces. Kilometres of thread are massed in an area within arms' length. In one, a continuous nearly invisible thread has been looped in and out of itself to form a colulmn of light; the other criss-crossed in a skin-based constellation pattern, to form an elastic core of pressing darkness. [ ] Tension holds everything together, making architecture out of otherwise unsupportable flimsiness. Unseen meditative distances -- where my mind "goes" when I do this repetitive work-- have their touched counterpart in the lengths of material, reminding that touch makes "a dwelling-place for interiority" as Irigaray put it, and so makes consciousness possible. My commitment to the task -- to concentrate on the place left by one who is gone -- in this way becomes embodied in it. I get lost in the process, at which point, I am space, as much as in it." Alongside these sculptures are drawings of massed circles and lines painstakingly scratched into clear vinyl sheets, subtly distorting the smooth, reflective surfaces. They continue the artist's ongoing "invisible drawings" series -- so called because of their challenge to visual perception.

"Shifts in habitual perception can heighten awareness of the complexities of visual experience, valuing primary physicality as much as mental assessment of the object being regarded. These latest drawings attest to reflection as a thing in itself: one cannot look at them without having to deal with the maddeningly shiny surface. Finally, the reflected room around -- indeed, one's own physical presence -- are necessarily part of the experience of looking."

May 11 - June 23, 2002
Karilee Fuglem: Some day soon you'll stop searching for meaning

"Outside my studio there's a corner where the wind eddies bits of things about, tossing bags and newspapers, leaves and cigarette butts against my window, startling me. Peripheral life has that way of giving an occasional instructive jolt. Inside that studio I've been preoccupied with what I call invisible drawings, even though they're not quite invisible, not necessarily drawings, but are a struggle to see and so to make. When something is barely visible, it can heighten awareness of what is and how it reaches us, the bodily echo of the visual. Between "What's that?" and "I think I saw!" there's a flash of comprehension that defies naming. Distant office buildings that a moment ago were afire with the setting sun now mingle in the darkness with my stuff twinned and floating out there, a room turned inside out. Why insist on seeing things one way? Reflection - both kinds - merges one view with another, so you're seeing and unseeing at the same time, moving with the light." - Karilee Fuglem