Tourism, Culture and Recreation
December 4, 2009The
following is being distributed at the request of The
Rooms:
Unrequited Death: Helen
Gregory,
Curated by Lisa Moore, Opens Today at The Rooms
Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory,
curated by writer Lisa Moore,
opens today at The Rooms. Exploring ideas of
humanity and permanence, nature and culture, Ms.
Gregory�s work utilizes painting and printmaking as a
method of research and examines how the imagery of
biological specimens can be represented in relation to
the natural world and our understanding of cultural
meaning. Unrequited Death draws inspiration from
The Rooms Provincial Museum Division�s own Natural
History Collections, incorporating various biological
specimens and artifacts which Ms. Gregory used to
inspire the works on display.
"Helen Gregory�s exhibit is a
magnificent, complex response to the idea of museum
collections, both cultural and natural. The show thrums
with the obsession of gathering objects and the forging
of meaning that occurs when disparate objects are put
side by side." Ms. Moore noted in her curatorial essay,
Unrequited Death: the Anarchy of the Collector.
"Helen Gregory makes the public collection personal, by
exhibiting it out of context, by altering it through
representation in paint."
"Focusing on specimens from Canadian
natural history collections, I examine the act of
collecting as an activity which is at once scientific
and sentimental. Through the juxtaposition of images of
the natural and the decorative, I explore the human
compulsion to collect: to acquire and categorize"
commented Ms. Gregory. "Objects are imbued with layers
of meaning that shift with their context. For example
when a dead bird is picked up, preserved, labeled,
catalogued, and held in a museum collection, it becomes
more than a biological specimen: it makes the transition
from natural to cultural artifact."
Helen Gregory has exhibited across
Canada, as well as in the United States and in the
United Kingdom. Her work is held in numerous public and
private collections, including The National Gallery of
Canada.
Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory
will be on view at The Rooms until May 16, 2010.
- 30 �
Media contact:
Chrysta Collins
Communications Officer
The Rooms
709-757-8091
chrystacollins@therooms.ca
BACKGROUNDER
Helen Gregory lives and works in St.
John�s, Newfoundland. She holds a BFA from Concordia
University in Montreal, and is currently studying
towards a Masters in Philosophy in Humanities at
Memorial University. The research associated with her
graduate has acted as a springboard for Unrequited
Death: Helen Gregory.
Helen Gregory has exhibited across
Canada, as well as in the United States and in the
United Kingdom. Her work is held in numerous public and
private collections, including The National Gallery of
Canada, The National Library of Canada, The Victoria and
Albert Museum, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Loto-Quebec
Collection, and The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery.
Ms. Gregory�s work explores notions of
transience and permanence, nature and culture. Using
painting and printmaking as a method of research, she
examines how the image of the specimen can be
re-presented in order to question our relationship with
the natural world, and how classification and display
systems used in the natural sciences can produce
cultural meaning.
Curator Lisa Moore is the author of
two collections of short stories, Degrees of
Nakedness and Open, as well as two novels,
Alligator and February. She has selected and
introduced the Penguin Anthology of Short Fiction by
Canadian Women and she is the co-editor, along with Dede
Crane, of a collection of essays, Great Expectations,
24 True Stories about Birth by Canadian authors. Ms.
Moore has written for the Globe and Mail, The National
Post, The Walrus, Chatelaine and EnRoute. She teaches
creative writing at the University of British Columbia�s
online program and is a graduate of the Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design. She currently lives in St.
John�s.
2009 12 03 2:00 p.m.
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