A watery Madonna and a jet-pack bustier: Victoria Wonnacott and Alison Smith-Welsh at Cube Gallery
Water is the life of Montreal artist Victoria Wonnacott’s paintings and photographs at Cube Gallery . “We are born in water,” Wonnacott writes on Cube’s web page . “It transports us. It can be a very peaceful place, a mysterious place.”
'Captive,' (18 x 12 in, acrylic on panel) by Victoria Wonnacott at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)
It can also be a curtain. In her paintings, drops of water are between the viewer and subject, and it’s fascinating how Wonnacott has created the drops. Most of the figures in the paintings are Wonnacott’s husband (who, btw, luxuriously framed the works in thick, rich woods). Small drops of water are applied with paint or wood stain, variously blurring the figures on the other side. Others pieces have larger drops, such as Magnetic Madonna , where the drops also create a circular effect that draws the eye to the centre and the madonna’s placid face. Some pieces have drops created with epoxy directly on the board, creating depth, and still others have epoxy on the inside of the glass, which creates a whole different effect.
Also at Cube is an exhibition by Ottawa’s Alison Smith-Welsh, who makes shoes and other bits of clothing from pieces of found and colourful metal. The pieces are charming and whimsical, especially the sky-scraping Kick-Stand Boot , though my favourite piece is Fork Thing 2 . It’s a bustier cut from found metal, with a row of rivets beneath the breast cups and the heads of dinner forks as a stand. Attached to the back are two strange canisters with tubes sticking out, and the whole thing looks like a bustier jet pack.
I ask you, how can you not love a bustier jet pack?
Both shows continue to Nov. 27 at Cube Gallery, 1285 Wellington West.
'Honey Shoes,' by Alison Smith-Welsh at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)
'Fork Thing 2,' by Alison Smith-Welsh at Cube Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)
Chamber opera comes to Cube Gallery Nov. 19 with Montreal composer Sebastian Hutchings’ Did I escape, I wonder… Next Arts post On the road in the dark of night, with Ramses Madina’s new photos Previous Arts post
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