TWYLA EXNER (Prince Albert, SK) | ENTANGLED
October 11 – November 23, 2012
Opening Thursday October 11, 2012 | Artist Talk at 7:00pm | Reception at 8:00pm
Entangled is comprised of drawings and sculptures that use discarded telephone wires as both material and conceptual inspiration. Striped from their original casings, exploited for their colour and maliability, wires have been woven into organic forms that recall nature. Media descriptions of self-perpetuating electronic devices refer to scientists and factories pumping out new iPods faster than we can fill them with the latest mp3s, but Exner manages this idea of electronic self-perpetuation as more of a sci-fi development. Wires become plants, organisms, organs and bones, evolving to form habitats and systems feeding solely off themselves and growing in and out of abandoned and obsolete electronics. These sculptures seriously engage with many current social, political, and environmental issues, but are also whimsical imaginings of an alternative ending for the residues of the electronic evolution.
TWYLA EXNER is an artist and arts educator living and working in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She studied visual art in Regina and Montreal, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the University of Regina in 2004 and a Masters of Fine arts in studio arts from Concordia University in 2010. She has exhibited her work and given lectures and workshops in small and large galleries, universities, schools and community centers across Canada.
Twyla draws inspiration from materials and images that comprise electronics and the idea of a sublime technological landscape wherein our companion electronic devices go awry, spawning and evolving like biological organisms. She works with a variety of mediums, materials and objects and prefers hands-on, labour-intensive processes that allow intimate understanding of materials, their histories and contextual significance.