The Diamond Maker; or, the Alchemist’s Daughter

Aubrey Reeves

A Space Windows

February 1 – March 15, 2014

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The Diamond Maker; or, the Alchemist’s Daughter is a series of hand-painted glass slides inspired by a Victorian “picture-play” or “magic lantern show” of the same name. Shows fell into four main categories: spectacles and stories; moralistic shows given by churches and charities; news and sights of the world and educational shows.
 
The original Victorian script and storyline has been lost; however, I have re-written it so that it is a tale that explores the junction between science and spectacle using a visual style reminiscent of magic lantern shows. A fairy-tale of sorts that reveals the Victorian conflict between the rational and the spiritual, The Diamond Maker demonstrates that era’s mounting anxiety about progress, an issue that is pertinent to contemporary culture.

Biographies

Raised in New Brunswick, Aubrey Reeves is an artist, curator and arts manager based in Toronto. She holds a M.A. in Curatorial Studies from Bard College in New York and a B.A. in Visual Arts and Arts Management from the University of Toronto. Aubrey has shown her work internationally at the Kasseler Documentary Film und VideoFest in Kassel, Germany and across Canada at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Images Festival and Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography (Toronto), Khyber ICA (Halifax), Ed Video (Guelph), Modern Fuel (Kingston), Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina), and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, among others.