Traversing the line, with no fixed point

SNAP is pleased to present Traversing the line, with no fixed point, featuring work by Briana Palmer. The exhibition runs from October 19 – November 16, 2024 at SNAP Gallery.

Briana’s practice includes print media, sculpture, and installation, which reflects an intersection between, perception, experience, and social ideologies as euro-settler in Canada. Her work is a continuum of questions and explorations that challenges the impact of colonialisms and systems of oppression which continues to govern the landscape of Canada.

Opening Reception: Saturday October 19, 7pm-9pm

Artist Talk: Saturday October 19, 6pm-7pm

Artist Statement

Using my own position and privilege as a Euro-settler, I question the intersection of perception, experience and social ideologies, to deconstruct the post-colonial landscape; my art practice is a collection of the nostalgic paraphernalia, cultural artifacts, family traditions, and language, encapsulating these ideologies. I reinvent the anthology of objects and images to create conflicting narratives, relocating their stereotypical context to create a new understanding.

‘Traversing the line, with no fixed point’, is the title for the exhibition and the main component of this work is the “Iron horse”; a railway system that runs through the installation. The seductive power of the railways carries the splendor and wonder of the dominant culture which has been part of society’s cultural fabric for more than a century. For many, it evokes personal memories and experiences. It can be a reminder of one’s heritage or recalls the daunting feat of binding nations while for others, it is the symbol of the diabolical underbelly of human experience through, slavery, genocide and colonization.

Within this railway system, a fictional world has been created, that is comprised of various biomorphic components of various sizes in print ceramics and drawings. These miniature 2D and 3D tableaux are punctuated by a multiplicity of miniature narrative assemblages that are made from a practice of collecting. Similar to these fictional narratives worlds, are the print/drawing collages pieces that are accompanied by reproduction postcards reminiscent to that of the Canadian postcards for holidayer(s) that are imbued with nostalgia, societal values and the detritus of a media saturated culture.

The re-contextualization and juxtaposition of these enchanted worlds where the objects and images are transported from their original source relocating their history, which now becomes poised between the uncertainly of what we know and understand, and what we must reconsidered.

About the Artist

Briana Palmer resides in Hamilton Ontario, Treaty No.3, “Between the Lakes” which is the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. Briana currently teaches in the School of the Arts, iARTS program at McMaster University. Originally from the west coast Briana received her BFA, at the Alberta Collage of Art and Design and an MFA at University of Alberta. Her works have been exhibited in Canada, USA, India and European countries. Her prints are in the collections of the Alberta Foundations of the Arts, Southern Graphics Print Council, and University of Alberta.