Where Aitken builds her material into space, Monnet cuts hers down. Whether carving into circular-cut laminated insulation board, layering rectangular pieces of housewrap into wooden frames, or embroidering directly onto polyethylene foam, each application of her singularly elegant geometric motifs demonstrates the potential for a surface to transform through minimal intervention. Most of the works selected for this exhibition were created using materials linked to the troubled architectures of government-\u00adsubsidized housing in remote northern Indigenous communities. Generic, impractical, and out of place, these structures represent a complete fail\u00adure and lack of vision on the part of the Canadian government to fulfil their obligation to provide appropriate and dignified housing. By unearthing the visual poetry of mundane materials like DuroSpan, ComfortSeal, and Tyvek, Monnet reminds us of the long-standing integrity and cohesion inherent to the traditional building techniques of her own Algonquin Anishinaabe origins. The works employ insulation as a metaphor for isolation, emphasizing how physical and mental health are deeply tied to dignified housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether literally or conceptually, Aitken and Monnet both take their visual cues from existing structures in the built environment. Together, their work explores the emotive potential of architecture. Aitken\u2019s sculptures draw our attention to the physical makeup of the gallery space, its familiar form and structure, and its thwarted attempt at neutrality. The emotion in her work is located beneath the surface, in her highly personal labouring with the physicality of construction materials. The almost complete lack of overt content in her sculptures necessitates the primacy of an intuitive re\u00adsponse. Where Aitken\u2019s works ground us in place, Monnet\u2019s pull us back out. Her emphasis on the intimate connection between body and building connects to Aitken\u2019s, amplifying the potential for materials to act as transmitters of culture, history, and identity. Viewing Monnet\u2019s work in such close proximity to Aitken\u2019s gives us permission to feel before analyzing, so that we may indulge our senses freely in the materiality of these human-scale works that feature geometry as pattern, ornament, volume, and subject at once.<\/p>\n\n\n

Alex Bowron, Caroline Monnet, Jen Aitken<\/div>