Shelf Life

Open Studio presented Shelf Life, a solo exhibition by Red Deer, Alberta-based artist Lisa Turner from January 14 to February 20, 2010. Lisa Turner’s artistic practice has been concerned with using popular imagery to examine mass media, material culture and consumerism, with a specific interest in how contemporary buying behavior is influenced by the 24-hour shop window created by the Internet. Using Google™ image searches, Turner appropriates images that she then transforms through collage and screenprinting to construct her own contemporary or futuristic ‘products’—amalgamations of several objects that often combine the organic and the mechanical. During the creation process, the objects’ form and function becomes disconnected so that they appear familiar yet enigmatic. Turner entices viewers by enhancing the aesthetic qualities of the objects, simultaneously confusing viewers as to their purpose. Further inspection reveals multiple functions, some of which are incompatible or make the objects impossible to use.

Lisa Turner’s hybrid products—according to the accompanying essay by Sally Frater—are difficult to divorce from the social commentary that they provide. The viewer is encouraged to question his/her relationship to the ‘products’ they are viewing, and subsequently to question their own relationship to consumerism.

Lisa Turner, a print-based artist in Red Deer, AB, holds an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Alberta and a BFA from NSCAD University. She has exhibited in Canada, the US, Europe and Korea. Upcoming exhibitions include the solo exhibit Strange Form of Ordinary at Martha Street Studio (Winnipeg, MB) and the group exhibits International Printmaking Exchange between Canada and Japan at the Embassy of Canada Prince Takamado Gallery (Tokyo, Japan) and Contexture: New Directions and Intersections in Printmaking at the Untitled Arts Society Gallery (Calgary, AB). Recent solo exhibitions include: Plastic Passions, Artist Proof Gallery (Calgary, AB); This Modern Love, FAB Gallery (Edmonton, AB) and the group exhibitions Prospectus at SNAP Gallery (Edmonton, Alberta); the Internationale d’ Estampe Contemporaine de Trois-Rivieres (Trois-Rivieres, Quebec); WAVE 2008: Blurring Boundaries at Camberwell College of Arts (London, UK); and Edmonton Prints at SNAP Gallery.Lisa has received numerous awards and grants including a Canada Council for the Arts Production Grant, an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Production Grant, a SSHRC Canadian Graduate Master’s Scholarship, and the Walter H Johns Graduate Fellowship. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Red Deer College.

Sally Frater is an independent curator and writer. She holds an Honours BA in Studio Art from the University of Guelph and an MA in Contemporary Art from The University of Manchester and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. In her curatorial practice she is interested in exploring issues of identity, history, memory, environment as well as issues of representation and equity in gallery and museum practices. She has curated exhibitions for A Space Gallery in Toronto (2006, 2008) and the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton (2005, 2006). Her writing has appeared in Prefix Photo and Women and Environments Magazine. In 2010, she will co-curate an exhibit of Toronto-based artist Dionne Simpson’s work at the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

Exhibition Brochure: Download Brochure Here