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Yael Brotman

A Space Windows

April 2 – May 28, 2011

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The title embodies the varied modes in which time and the imaginary are bracketed by quotidian icons of the Canadian backyard landscape. The etchings used in the composition and construction of these prints are re-purposed and transformed into unexpected images and juxtapositions. Copper plates were etched using sugar lift, hard ground and dry point techniques. They documented trees on my street, which evolved into a meditation on houses, homes, back yard accessories, memory, poetry, experience, and space. Serendipitously, I was re-introduced to a philosopher and phenomenologist, Gaston Bachelard, who addresses these issues in a perceptive and pithy way in his book The Poetics of Space.

Biographies

Yael Brotman’s experience of immigration to Canada included her family’s desire for a home with its accoutrements of lawn chairs, plastic wading pools and laundry trees. She grew up in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto. She teaches visual arts at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Recent exhibitions include a solo at Loop Gallery, Toronto, and a group exhibition in Jingdezhen, China. Brotman has curated an upcoming exhibition in Melbourne, Australia and has been awarded an artist residency in Ireland in 2012.