FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2008

Heather Passmore’s “Mis-Takes” at McGill Library

Until November 17

(BURNABY, BC) – On display at the McGill Library local artist Heather Passmore’s passion to re-valuate and re-work unwanted media is the focus of this interesting series of drawings on reclaimed photographic “Mis-Takes”. Loosely based on personal mistakes, her drawings start as doodles directly on photographs using bic pen and/or jiffy markers. Within the past year the artist has discovered that the ink reacts to the photo paper to change colour – drawings fade from black to bruise-like hues of blue, purple, pink, orange and yellow. An assortment of prints document these changes beside the initial drawings and their final progression remains yet to be determined.

“The first frame of 35 mm film is occasionally half-exposed within the camera. It is assumed that these partial exposures are failures and they are typically ignored and unprinted during development,” notes the artist. “This series of graphic drawings and snapshots explores the politics of taste, class, and art. I am not using up-to-date materials and costly media such as large-scale back-lit transparencies in brand-new frames. I am using more familiar, domestic media that are not widely legitimized throughout the contemporary art-world. These include recycled thrift store frames, otherwise unprinted snapshot photography, and drawings begun directly as doodles in bic pen and jiffy marker. The assortment of styles presented by the frames, as well as the graphic quality of the drawings investigates various "outsider" tastes. The history of labour evident in the old frames, and meticulously worked drawings also explore the politics of taste, class, and art. I strive to nuance my considerations rather than reassert a dichotomy between high and the low taste. Many of my projects extend the notion of art as an everyday category of experience and popular practice.”

Heather Passmore is a contemporary artist who works across a variety of processes and mediums. She has exhibited extensively in major solo and group exhibitions across Canada and the USA. She obtained an MFA from the University of British Columbia in 2004, and has since published critical essays, and reviews. She has been awarded grants, prizes, scholarships, and fellowships for her artwork and theoretical writing. In 2007 Heather was a resident artist at Orivesi Art College (Oriveden Opisto) in Finland. She has engaged in numerous community and public art projects. Heather’s work is held in several private and official public collections. Heather was recently selected as an international resident artist for the LKV Lademon Kunstnerverksteder Residency in Norway.