Women-Bird-Moonlight

We are thrilled about the opening of Ashleigh Bartlett’s inaugural exhibition Women-Bird-Moonlight at TrépanierBaer.

About her latest work Ashleigh Bartlett (Sessional Instructor) writes, “Last year, I came across a work by Joan Miró—Women and Bird in the Moonlight (1949). I was drawn to the symbolic nature of the imagery and felt a strong personal connection to the painting. I gravitated towards this image during a time of personal shifts, habitually awake at night, not sleeping often. I spent a lot of time looking at the moon. I took this inspiration, and it provoked a response. At first, I intended to make a collage using the reproduction of the painting. After cutting it up, I decided to tape it back together. I began making drawings and painting collages; through that process, a new personal visual language developed in the studio. 

I begin the collages through painting multiple sheets of paper, layering colours, overlapping forms and then drawing with a knife. Sometimes, I’m using older paintings, failures or unfinished things and I’m breathing new life into them. I work on multiple pieces simultaneously. I like how the simple activity of cut and paste creates a system yet allows for an experimental framework. Within these parameters, I can play. 

The collage lends itself as a reference for a large-scale work, inviting painting’s ability to be performative and intensely physical. I mold the canvas with sticker stencils, and respond to the surface intuitively with oil paint, working wet into wet. I aim for the paintings to animate, behave strangely and present unexpected outcomes. I’m interested in the idea that they’re in conversation with each other.”