ANDREW ATANASOFF

Today we are living in a world controlled by expectations, rules, and responsibilities. A world that is highly structured by deadlines, schedules, and routines. A world of politics, concerns, and issues. This tent is a means to escape and block out the world that lies beyond. Embracing the spectator within, the tent’s goal is to create a truly immersive experience for guests. With no distractions, guidelines to follow, or expectations, it is hoped that a truly unique and meaningful work will continue to grow, evolve, and be enjoyed by many.

Please take a seat within the tent. Make yourself comfortable and relax. Please read and reflect on the contributions shared by others in the book.

Just like when you were a child,  you are invited to let your imagination run free. Where does your imagination take you? Think, reflect, dream. Please consider leaving your mark on this work by sharing and contributing a thought, feeling, memory, story, emotion, drawing, or idea.

ASHLEI STEWART

Imagine finding this portfolio unexpectedly. You rifle through the belongings of someone you’ve never met, trying to discern parts of their life, their experiences, their personality. Do you try to imagine the world through their eyes? Or is the experience too distant? Is the attempt to live their life, even if only for a while, a violation or a revival? 

Look through the items in this folder. What are its contents about? Whose is it? What sort of person are they, and do you feel any connection to them? You may want to answer these questions, or you may simply enjoy the appearance of the items.

Either way, an image is likely to form in your mind -some imagining of the world this portfolio describes. 

There is a certain wonder in the ability of images and words to create worlds for us to visit.

It’s almost like magic.

EMMA WEBSTER

Old photographs have always fascinated me. Relics of a bygone era; leaving me with more questions than answers. Who were these people? Why was this picture taken? Within my own work I investigate these photographs as a site of memory. I find that there is an intrinsically cryptic quality to photographs wherein the meaning is often hidden. This peculiar quality is what draws me in and calls me to uncover more information. Where meaning is lost, I create my own. I embellish these photographs either through using embroidery to producing disfigurement or ornamentation. This process of transformation produces new meanings and captures my own reaction to these images.

I utilize the melancholic atmosphere within these images to re-imagine the past and pose my own questions surrounding the values of a bygone era. In using embroidery I aim to allude to the generational and interpersonal ties being investigated within the work.

SIMON PELLERIN

It is said that all things heal over time. That over time, things get better, yet ironically time is the cause of everything’s demise. It is the reason why people grow old, why things stop growing and die, and why things break down and stop working. Fear plays a large role in my work. Maybe it’s just because I’m scared. Afraid of myself and my art not lasting the test of time. Or maybe I’m just afraid of a lot of things that most people don’t blink twice over. I take these fears, the viewer’s and my own, and reinvent them in a very dreamlike yet dark and cryptic manner.

My work focuses on these cycles of decay and destruction reflecting on how time eventually ravages all things obsolete and questioning at what point in their existence do we determine them as such.

YUKI TAM

You will see photos of an artist’s book, a combination of analog and digital technology. You will find out that it is made up of 64 pages that lay flat. You will realize that it explores psychology, trauma, and expression. You will read sample pages of memories disguised as recipes. You will be able to identify personal stories and over-generalizations. You will see that our society is able-ist. You will see that sometimes it is difficult to live but that there is humour in living. You will miss something that the artist intended for you to see and make a connection to something that the artist did not intend for you to make.

Whether or not you walk away with something gained or lost is up to you.