Dissections - 2001

Screenprints on gampi paper, five paired images
Plates I and II, Plates III and IV, Plates V and VI, Plates VII and VIII, Plates IX and X
Dimensions: each 64cm x 44cm (25" x 17¼") unframed
Photo: Cheryl O'Brien
Edition: 5
Exhibition history: Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2001, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, USA, 2002, Ferneyhough Contemporary, North Bay, ON, 2004
Collections: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, ON

The source for the Dissections series was five 19th century allover designs which drew on European arts from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque eras as well as from Middle and Far Eastern traditions. Each pair of plates uses one of the designs as its source. The "images", which suggest insects and butterflies, are fragments of these historical patterns, created by excising them from their surroundings. The edited motifs are arranged symmetrically to suggest encyclopedia pages or natural history displays.