shannon partridge

Chenille Aquaticus

August 17 - September 9

On a recent trip to the Vancouver Aquarium I fell in love with a jellyfish and imagined myself living in harmony with this beautiful creature. I was overwhelmed by the bizarre nature of the many mini artificial worlds contained beyond the curving glass sides of the tank. The underwater world is a weird array of organic shapes that lend perfectly to pipe cleaner sculpture. There is a multifaceted contrast between wet and smooth aquatics to fuzzy and dry pipe cleaners. These "pipe cleaners" are not meant for pipe cleaning, though they are made similarly by twisting wires together in a way to hold tufts of yarn (cotton for actual pipe cleaners and chenille for handicraft pipe cleaners). Each object was made with a focus on the external surface shape and internal vacancy and inherently contains an imitation within another imitation.

The window at Paul Petro Multiples + Small Works is an ideal location for an aquarium (a tank, bowl or pool in which aquatic animals and plants are kept for pleasure, study or exhibition) of pipe cleaner aquatics.

Shannon Partridge, August 2007