Sailor

Winnipeg-based artist Andrew Harwood considers his family's heritage in Great Lake shipping from a decidedly queer perspective. Utilizing hand making and decorative traditions, the artist reframes personal history and imagery, creating a celebratory and theatrical spectacle.

The gallery will be transformed into a giant disco ball like wall of water and sparkling light with a video installation, Sailor, made up of a compilation of images of water and boats, shot in Toronto Harbour, Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, the Assiniboine and Red Rivers and other locations at various times of the day and night. This video will be screened onto large panels of a screen made from sequins, glitter and hot glue, with the projection filling the room with speckles of light that reflect on the walls and floor of the surrounding gallery.

Two new series of works Op Art Lakes and The View from Davie Jones's Locker accompany the video installation Sailor. Op Art Lakes references '60's and '70's optical abstraction - counting down the top ten largest lakes in Canada. This work has a crafted twist in the optical illusions and these blue and green collages are created from geometrically printed scrapbook papers.

The View from Davie Jones's Locker are several hot glue, glitter, plastic and sequin works that playfully depict fantasy underwater views of lakes and oceans.
The artist gratefully acknowledges the generous funding of this project from the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. Thank you to the Tom Thomson Art Gallery for their support and encouragement of this new body of work.