Callum Schuster: Ferrdolia

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 10th 6-9pm Exhibition Dates: January 10th – 27th Location: Project Gallery, Queen Location (1151 Queen Street E)

Project Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition entitled 'Ferrodolia' by Callum Schuster.

Ferrum - Iron (Latin)

Ferromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets. In physics, several different types of magnetism are distinguished.

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists.

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, by a prism.

STATEMENT

These works are made from things collected from around a place I call home. Home is also an idea and feeling represented by the colours made by things collected from that area. Iron is mixed into the colour pigment to give body to the feeling. Iron dust is then magnetized to create an image that is a symbol of the place or object the colour was made from. The coupling of matter and energy, here becoming form through the laws of attraction and given meaning through the act of looking by a conscious observer, creates the experience of the artwork.

A thought on “home”; a place, memory, and identity...

This summer I moved into an apartment that was recently built on the same land as my childhood home. Returning to this location brings comfort, nostalgia as well as notions of disassociation. There are both subtle and substantial similarities but many more major changes in the neighborhood. Realizing that these changes coincide with changes in my personal growth revealed a tension I hold between the idea of my self, what I call Home and time. These relationships test how I see myself presently which ironically are reinforced through past memory and future aspirations. In Toronto, locations are changing/developing all the time and as individuals (and a whole species) we are too. Learning to embrace change in oneself can be as difficult as accepting changes in one’s environment. We cannot hold onto memories forever even though they inform us of where we’ve come from and inspire hope and direction for a future. Being in the present can be just as difficult but can be the fulcrum between inside and outside, past and future...

Artist Bio:

Schuster’s art practice pivots around his interests in the psychology of space, perception and its effects on peoples behaviour. He explores this idea by collecting materials from his environment and turning the things he finds into paint. The paint and colour become symbols for the external world and one's internal beliefs. The relationship between spaces becomes important as binaries are blended and one's idea of a thing is met with the thing itself represented in a pure form, its essence in colour and texture. Schuster graduated from OCADU's Drawing and Painting program in 2011. His work has been exhibited in a number of solo and group exhibitions, including Palindrome Dome Metronome Home at O'Born Contemporary (Toronto), More Than Two (curated by Micah Lexier) at The Power Plant (Toronto), an off-site exhibition at the Havana Biennale, as well as public installations for the City of Toronto's Nuit Blanche and WayHome Music and Arts Festival.