MILK & OIL

Giselle Peters

Dates: April 20 – June 17, 2017

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 11, 2017 6-8pm

In Giselle’s words…

With this exhibition, I associate contemporary political topics with childlike aesthetics in order to highlight the childish behaviour of the adult world and the vicious state of modern society. I speculate about how the decisions we are making today might affect our future as a human species. By presenting terrifying ideas with images of children and toys, I question how these decisions will affect the most vulnerable members of our society. This exhibition primarily points at war and the fight for resources; particularly the fight for oil, but also the fight for money and power.

Artist Statement

I create figurative sculpture that addresses the human condition in a way that is cute and child-like and explores through childhood naivety the savage reality of modern Western culture. Using the lens of childhood, I disguise and subsequently exaggerate the gravity of the ideas I present with an air of naivety. I am specifically interested in topics such as evolution, extinction, nationalism, colonization, and civility as they relate to the present human condition and to the future of our species.

I use the ceramic material because it speaks inherently of human culture and technology and about our long history as a species. Clay is not only an icon of our cultural and technological growth, but also contains associations to our bodies, our mortality and our connection to the earth. I am curious about the divide between humans as natural beings and humans as cultural beings.

Biography

Giselle Peters was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Alberta College of Art and Design and a Bachelor of Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal. Giselle has participated in artist residence programs in Canada and in the U.S. and has been involved in research for the creative arts in human development.