Artist Monika Napier investigates the overlooked accoutrements of everyday living. In mad, mad, mad, mad world, she has hyperbolized the physical properties of extension cords, erased their utilitarian qualities and transformed them into quizzical objects. The orange cords have been coiled into slouching, leaden nests, the blue cords have the feel of an invasive vine, and the huge braided yellow cord leads us into both fable and critique of energy usage. Napier's work recharges speculation, and invites us to reconsider anew the spatial qualities of technology and our firmly held values of consumption and material entitlement.
In order to deepen the exploration of these values, Monika Napier invites Oakvillians to lend her an indoor or outdoor extension cord, which they use, preferably, on a daily basis. Monika Napier will use these borrowed cords in the construction of one of her sculptures titled Braid. In lending a power cord from your home to become part of an artwork, you are invited to make a symbolic gesture that points to the necessity to conserve our resources. In this way, Monika Napier welcomes us into a pleasurably unsettling place, our place, a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
Originally from Montreal, Monika Napier moved to Saskatoon in 2000, where for the following four years she continued her obsessive, labour-intensive art practice and taught at the University of Saskatchewan. Previously, Napier studied and taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. In addition, she has served on the executives of both Eye-Level and AKA artist-run centres in Halifax and Saskatoon respectively. She has exhibited nationally and internationally for the past twelve years. Now she lives and works in Montreal.
mad, mad, mad, mad world is organized and circulated by the Kenderdine Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan and is co-curated by Helen Marzolf (Kenderdine Art Gallery) and Brenda Barry-Byrne (Art Gallery of Prince Albert).
Kenderdine Art Gallery acknowledges financial support from the University of Saskatchewan, the Kenderdine Beamish Trust, U.S.T.E.P., Young Canada Works, Museums Association of Saskatchewan and The Canada Council for the Arts. The Saskatchewan Arts Board and The Canada Council for the Arts supported Monika Napier in the production of this body of work.
This exhibition is presented in conjunction with The Craft Year 2007.
