Meredith Snider - Still Life: Bouquet

September 11th - October 16th, 2015

Vernissage 7-10pm Sept 11th

Meredith Snider is a multi-media artist who investigates the dynamic interplay between humour and sincerity while pointing to potential gaps in the everyday experience. Her work embraces the uncertainty of common activities, from the repetitive action of chopping squash to physically dealing with the onset of frustration. In her video and sculptural works Snider explores the idea of the pursuit of pleasure by staging impossible or imaginary scenarios in familiar sites, such as urban areas and domestic environments, where outcomes are often determined by the accidental passersby or deliberate gestures performed by the artist.

In her recent body of work that will be on exhibit at Central Art Garage, Snider has paired sculpture with photography to explore how one medium is implicated in the development and interpretation of the other. A launching point for this work was the site of a century old home in Hull, Quebec and the receipt of a bouquet of fake flowers. Flowers are often used to communicate an expression or an emotion, such as, ‘I’ll Never Disappoint You Again’. The bouquet, in particular, is used as a transaction within a relationship, or a stand-in in the case of an absence.  Transforming these types of expression into sculpture captures the sentiment in absurdly abstract forms, revealing methods through which to preserve the intimacy of history. The photographs highlight details of the form and surface in order to draw attention to the shapes, curves, crevices and texture of the object as well as the complicated relationship between home and the feminist body. In other words, the photos embrace powerful imagery and symbolism through their embodiment of the political and the personal. 

Snider grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She completed her BFA with a Specialization in Art Education at Concordia University in 2005 and her MFA at the University of Ottawa in 2013. She is the co-founder and Director of PDA Projects and a sessional instructor at the University of Ottawa in the Visual Arts Department. She currently resides in the Ottawa/Gatineau region.