elizabeth fearon at the Natural Light Window (506 Adelaide West) to November 29. 416-504-1311. Rating: NNNN
in her own artistic practice,Elizabeth Fearon has turned to photo- booth photography to explore the boundaries between public and private domains, high and low art-making. So it seems perfect that her latest project, Buttress, has its debut at one of the city’s most public spaces, the Natural Light Window on Adelaide at Portland, the pretension-free site curated by resident artist Rupen.
Fearon has made hundreds of black-and-white photo-booth strips of single pairs of hands clapping that, thanks to the miracles of movement and overexposure, morph into Rorschach forms. By mounting them as a large rectangle running from knee height to the top of the partition wall on which it hangs, she further transforms the hands into a single minimalist composition, but one that never denies the parts that form it.
Enough of the frames read as human hands (after all, few forms are more distinctive, at least to our species) so that the gesture depicted, over and over again, is clear. Simultaneously evoking gratitude, applause, delight and formal aesthetic values, it’s a deep piece without being pretentious.
