Most people would think of concrete as an unforgiving medium. Not so, says Marion Lea Jamieson, whose works in concrete as well as her drawings, oils and acrylics will appear Jan. 5 to Feb. 20 at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery in a show called Becoming/Unbecoming. Jamieson, who has an MA in art from University of British Columbia, studied design, but turned to concrete sculpture in order to have more control over the medium. In 2002, she created Running Man, a 16-foot high, 10,000 pound plasma-cut steel and resin sculpture installed in Kelowna as part of a sculpture symposium. It was a fabricated piece and required major equipment to handle it. That's when she decided to switch.
"I like concrete because I can hand build it," she says. "I can do it quietly in my back yard without enraging the neighbours. I like the roughness of it."
She also likes the substance precisely because it is not an artist's medium - it's a workaday substance, it's not precious. Concrete is also cheap - at least cheaper than sculpting in bronze or chiselling a piece of marble. That makes the price tag more friendly for a public garden or park. The four pieces to be seen at the GPAG would look terrific in a garden, primarily because the viewer can see through them. They each have a window, a cut out that frames the scenery.
Jamieson likes the idea of a garden setting. "Why does all garden sculpture have to be old fashioned and Victorian?" she asks. "Why not think of it as modern art?"
She acknowledges that most people are afraid of the controversy around sculpture, particularly when it involves large contemporary pieces such as those that appeared in Vancouver around Expo '86. Will something that looks like a giant paper clip be acceptable to the public? America is often more welcoming of large, public art. Recent work of Jamieson's has appeared in various U.S. exhibits including the Peace Arch Park International Sculpture Exhibition in Washington state.The artist works with repeating shapes: the sphere, the inner space, the combination of hard and soft edges, angles and curved interlocking pieces. She explores their relationships and strives for balance. The oil paintings, particularly, show great depth. The forms appear to leap from the frame and they are reprised in the sculptures.
The concrete works start life as sketches, with each one developing into a vocabulary of forms that the viewer finds repeated. Once Jamieson has developed a plan for a three-dimensional piece, she builds an armature of Styrofoam, carving it with hot wire to the desired shape. The Styrofoam core is covered with cement to which some pigment has been added. It takes about 24 hours to harden, during which time she can hand build or wet carve to its final shape. The plinths on which the sculptural pieces are mounted are an integral part of the design; they are cast from a mould. Because the pieces (sculpture, plinth and base) can be taken apart, they can be transported relatively easily - in this case by dolly and several muscular helpers to a gallery.The Vancouver artist became familiar with the Coast when she worked for the B.C. environment department developing a watershed plan. About 10 years ago she decided to quit government work and focus on making a living as an artist. For a time she tried illustration but her work with commercial art felt as if she were going backwards. Now, she's not afraid to take risks and follow the natural evolution of the process of art.
The Jamieson show opened Jan. 5 with an artist's reception tomorrow (Jan. 7) from 2 to 4 p.m. at the GPAG, 271 Gower Point Road.
In the spring, the gallery will exhibit the abstract paintings of Melissa Dipietro, followed by Pender Harbour artist Helen Broadfoot's paintings of children of war, A Show of Respect.
