Modern Fuel unveils two fall exhibits

Artists Amanda White and Carolyn Code re-evaluate modern life with new showings

On display from Oct. 14 until Nov. 25, Infinite Silence by Amanda White and Spill by Carolyn Code are two new exhibits at the Modern Fuel Art Centre that both work to address issues regarding our current way of life. 

Displayed in the centre’s Main Gallery, White’s Infinite Silence is comprised of a dome-shaped installation and four framed pictures hung on the opposite wall. The white glowing dome called “A Breathing Room” resembles an igloo but instead of housing people, it contains plants, enough so to maintain someone’s breath over the span of 24 hours. 

The dome instillation is extremely small so visitors can enter one at a time. The exhibit comforts you as the smells of dill and sweet florals fills your nose and you can’t help but smile at the thought of eating dill pickle chips. Sitting in that aroma, you feel pleasantly disconnected, as the exhibit offers a quiet refuge from the constant distractions of daily life. 

According to her artistic statement on the Modern Fuel website, White’s “A Breathing Room” is “a comment on the troubled ecological times we live in. Emphasizing the importance and the fragility of our most fundamental relationship, it is a reminder that breathing is not a singular act performed by an individual, but one of symbiosis with many participants.”

On the opposite wall of the room, the four framed pictures independently titled “Compositions” features what looks like star constellations but is revealed to be a compilation of plant movement over 46 hours in the sun. 

The State of Flux Gallery room holds Carolyn Code’s Spill, an exhibition comprised of four collections that exaggerate the accumulation of material objects that tend to pile up over time in our 

personal spaces. 

Upon entering the room, you’re first confronted by the collection titled “Morph” which displays pieces of a broken mirror on the ground that builds into a complete mirror over the course of four slowly improving stages.  

To your left is Code’s piece “Ephemera”,which is a pile of empty charcoal-coloured baskets and containers, suggesting mismanaged overconsumption that remains as empty as the containers. 

This leads your eye to the corner piece called “Swell” where white ceramic mugs lay piled on top of an overflowing cabinet. Lines of white string that attaches different mugs together give off a sense of order amongst the ever-continuing pile of mugs. 

Turning right once more to Code’s final collection of the exhibit, “Stack,” newspapers are sculpted into a small arch supported by steel rods in the middle of the room. The newspaper arch-stack indicates a renewed life for what we assume to be one time-use objects. 

According to her statement, Code is addressing how humans attempt to maintain or create order in the middle of the chaotic collection of material. Within that chaos, she wants to figure out how we give purpose and meaning to these objects that will exist after us. It’s about taking responsibility for our material lives.

While attending the new exhibits, I didn’t fully understand the meaning behind them — until I went outside and sat on the grass by the waterfront.  

Away from the exhibit, one begins to consider plants as an essential part of all life here on earth. Without plant life, there would be the anxieties and disorder White and Code create and express in their exhibits. 

Their work suggests consumerism is unsustainable and if we don’t change, life on this planet would cease to exist. It’s art with a purpose, drawing attention to the comfortable but ultimately dangerous aspects of contemporary culture.  

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