Seeing the Light
2011
This body of work features dozens of diagrams and schematics from her self-help collection installed as a constellation within the gallery. These diagrams, to varying degrees, were stripped of their accompanying text rendering their instructional value all but useless. What remains are a set of homogenous forms (intersecting and clustering circles, triangles and star-shapes in particular), as floating signifiers – unstable and indistinct. Offering rich, and at times humorous terrain, the blurring of these generic diagrams reinforces the confusion and futility often experienced with self-help books in tandem with a sense of familiarity and comfort in that their appearance of authority conveys a sense of legitimacy.
Installation views in Helping Yourself at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (photos by David C. Miller and Petra Mala Miller) and Tools for Conviviality at the Power Plant (photos by Toni Hafkenscheid).
Seeing the Light, 2011
52 inkjet prints
Dimensions variable
Kyla Mallett
Associate Professor
Faculty of Visual Art and Material Practice
Emily Carr University of Art and Design
1399 Johnston Street, Vancouver BC V6H 3R9
www.ecuad.ca/people/profile/
email: kylamallett@gmail.com