Stephen Rife: here lies
Léola Le Blanc: Désoreille
March 23 – April 4th, 2009
Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD

Artist Stephen Rife. Image: mnartists.org

STEPHEN RIFE

Pyrotechnic artist Stephen Rife opens at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Anna Leonowens Gallery tomorrow, as one of several thesis exhibitors.

Rife has long been experimenting with fire and the moving image in his art, and this exhibition presents “a combination of “active installation” and “miniature film palace,” and is a rough survey of his work from the past two years.

Stephen Rife, Carbonera, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Winter 2007. Image: mnartists.org

A large, mandala-like sand painting of a bird of prey using symbolic materials as charcoal and salt gradually develops in the center of the gallery. The motto, in Latin, “LEARN OR LEAVE,” spelled out in a sulphur-like chemical around the painting’s edge.

Artist presentation: Wednesday March 25 at 12noon

For more on Stephen Rife, please click HERE.

LEOLA LE BLANC

Leola Le Blanc, The Route of all Evil, 2006. Image: vans.ednet.ns.ca

Le Blanc’s work has often dealt with body, gender and ritual using pattern and repetition. Having worked mostly in textiles, Le Blanc’s Désoreille presents a different experience: it is an aural gallery installation. As the audience listens, everyday sounds and noise, questions of identity, desire and the act listening unfold as sensory awareness.

Artist presentation: Thursday March 26 at 12noon
Artist Performance: Friday March 27 at 1:00pm

Check out Le Blanc’s website HERE.