MARLENE CREATES Paul Petro Contemporary Art (980 Queen West, 416-979-7874), to June 1. See listing.
This retrospective spans 30 years in the career of Creates, who’s lived in rural Newfoundland since 1985. Her subtle, sometimes humorous projects explore the idea of place and the human imprint on the landscape. Early 80s photos document outdoor sleeping places she used in a walking trip around the island. She shot a series of her hand resting against standing stones in the Hebrides in the 80s and a recent one in which her hand appears on tree trunks on her Newfoundland property. Other photos focus on signage as a linguistic or pictographic interaction with the landscape. Some of her interventions are reminiscent of Andy Goldsworthy’s, but she definitely has her own gentle, quirky approach to artistic wanderings in the woods.
