leigh bridges

Outpost

April 10 - May 10

With this body of work, I have been exploring the subject of provisional living and the sublime pastoral – what I think of as ‘beauty fused with terror’. To me, these subjects suggest conditions of wonder, uncertainty, anxiety and yet openness to possibilities, and these themes motivate my work. Broadly, I am interested in exploring how one relates, connects and adapts to the world. Sources are varied, ranging from survivalist manuals, do-it-yourself backyard fort building, animation, folk tales, and 19th century romantic landscape paintings.

My work has been influenced by my research and experience in the three places I consider home - Edmonton, Vancouver and Berlin. I recently spent two years living in Berlin, where I was influenced by German Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich. Another strong motivational interest has been colour field abstraction and a phenomenological experience of the work, due in part to developmental time spent in Edmonton. These influences have synthesized to become my current practice.

Other motivations for me are an interest in narrative, combined with what may seem to be the opposite impulse: a materialist, formalist approach. I find these interests combine in interesting and mutually beneficial ways; one painting can contain various senses of time, both as the suggestion of a moment in a narrative sequence, and in the layering and material evidence of the painting’s construction.