Lorna Brown

Character

1993
Site-specific Installation

Involving both exhibition spaces as well as two fire exits Character is based on the aging North Vancouver building that houses the galleries, a building that has been revived and rescued from demolition several times in its history. The archival history of this ‘character’ building and is compared to another nearby – the St. Alice Hotel, demolished in 1989. The images on mylar are studio ‘detail’ shots of an Annie, a resuscitation training device. The panels are placed in front of painted sections of wall in which are embedded slices of molding and hardware. The hinges and locks are engraved with the words heave, thump, yawn, crack. Blueprints containing texts culled from the archive material are rolled and built up against the walls. The work investigates the construction of the ‘grand and stately’ character of the one building and the ‘decrepit’ and derelict’ character of the other and the relation of these identities to class and gender.

Solo Exhibition
Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver