Sarah Van Sloten

CAAF Residency @4Five, November 2016

#503 319 – 10 Avenue SW (located around the back of the building)

Open Studio: November 29th 5-7

Portrait of the artist as a Lady Painter (2016)

 Image Credit: Luke Maddaford   

In her work van Sloten attempts to create connections between seemingly disparate images, objects, and text. Within her paintings, collections, and installations she presents a loose narrative, without any direct or linear storyline. What is presented in the work is formed with a reduced filter, and by welcoming the errors and unpredictability in the work, new unconscious images and words begin to surface. The resulting work is unpredictable and the imperfections that result from this are welcomed.

Van Sloten’s work provides a new appreciation of the everyday and the familiar, by enlivening objects and allowing the viewer to consider the secret lives of those objects, and perhaps other objects they encounter on a daily basis. Language exploration, pop culture references, and inside jokes all permeate the work, and by allowing a stream of consciousness technique, the pieces become an extension of the artist’s everyday life. The very subjective nature of the work comes from the fact that it is filtered through the artist’s own experience.

During her time at the CAAF Residency, van Sloten will be collecting objects, gathering text, and creating work which forms a disjointed narrative which will be presented in the form of an artist book. Included in this book will be such things as: overheard phrases, drawings of objects of significance, and a record of various mark-making within the studio space. The content of this book will move between being serious and not, and its playful nature will undermine any one authoritative or definitive statement. This loose narrative will perhaps allow the viewer to relate to a specific fragment, and may then relate that piece to their own experiences.

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Sarah van Sloten is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Edmonton, AB. She received her BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2010, and completed her MFA at the University of Windsor in 2016. She has been involved in several solo and group exhibitions across Canada.