(cake) Skin & Bone (Osenary), 2005

Heart, 2005

February 7th / 2007

fiona kinsella – Artist’s Statement

The objects I make originate from an investigation of materials, and for the past year I have been working with sugar as a key component in my mixed media pieces. Icing sugar has been employed to create a series of (fake) cakes in my most recent body of work titled sweet fresh. The familiarity of these objects offer the viewer a personal point of entry to experience the work. Cakes traditionally mark celebrations associated with rights of passage from one station of life to another: from birth, baptism, and childhood, into adulthood or marriage, and inevitably, death (cake and cold cuts in the church basement).

These confections are decorated with curious objects: teeth, skin, hair, fur, bone, claws, dust, dirt, hat pins, broken glass, dental tools, bullets, etc., and are displayed in small glass vitrines.  The combination of materials is intended to be provocative, and the resulting imagery is simultaneously disturbing and humorous. Collaged elements work on the subconscious to provoke a personal emotional response. The work references religious relics and the curious bits of DNA attributed to Saints. Conceptually, this series is informed by a condition known as the Stendhal Syndrome, and the phenomena of the incorruptible bodies of Saints. The Stendhal Syndrome and the Incorruptibles share the idea of the extraordinary. The work initiates a dialogue which moves between subjects of beauty, hope, pilgrimage, and the ephemeral.

Stendhal Syndrome:

Named after the 19th century French novelist and travel writer, the Stendhal Syndrome is a condition induced by the engagement of beautiful artwork. Emotionally and physically overwhelmed by the experience, viewers suffer a range of symptoms with varying severity: a racing heart, dizziness, fainting, nausea, ecstasy, emotional releases, temporary madness, or a feeling of elation related to spiritual enlightenment. The kind of beauty discussed here, may equally inspire joy or sorrow. Diagnosis of this syndrome is most commonly cited in Florence, Italy.

Incorruptibles:

Religious relics and incorruptibles inspire hope, reverence, and awe in the faithful. Their resting places have been the sites of miracles and focus of pilgrimages for centuries. Incorruptibles is a term used to describe the phenomena of the bodies of saints which have not decayed. These bodies may last for decades or centuries without decay, and are characteristically in tact with flexible limbs. They often exude a sweet floral scent, and some are said to occasionally bleed, or emit bodily oils. There are hundreds of cited stories about incorruptibles. One example is St. Catherine of Bologna, the Patron Saint of Art. She died in 1463 and her body can still be seen, seated upright, in the Church of the Poor Clare convent in Bologna, Italy.

The series I’ve chosen to present at WWG is titled sweet fresh, the Wilderness. As this series has evolved, I have maintained the themes described above, however the most recent work is also informed by parables including Plato’s story of the Cave. My interest in the Wilderness has more to do with ‘revelation’ and / or confronting the devil in the desert (dessert?), than spotting a deer in the woods.

Bio

Fiona Kinsella was born on the same day as Jonarno Lawson at Henderson General hospital in Hamilton, Ontario in 1968.  Kinsella is a mixed media artist and a painter, and her work has been exhibited across Canada, and in the US. She studied art in Guelph, Ontario, and London England, and is a graduate of the University of Guelph’s Fine Art Department.

Her work has recently been exhibited at Cambridge Galleries, the Latcham Gallery, Transit Gallery, and the Toronto Alternative Art Fair, in Ontario, and Ruby Green Center for Contemporary Art in Nashville. Current and upcoming exhibitions include the, “Shakespeare Made in Canada” at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph, and solo shows at White Water Gallery, North Bay, Transit Gallery, Hamilton, and the Elora Centre for the Arts, in Elora, Ontario.

back