Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
E-mail: nat.fergie[at]gmail.com
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
E-mail: pishcheck[at]gmail.com
Raised in La Salle, Manitoba, Natalie Ferguson has always had an awareness of the human interference in a process that seems so natural to most.
The conflict between artifice and natural process in agricultural production is reflected in her series Pom-pom Grow Op. The camera lens distorts reality,
but by imbuing foreign objects into a natural setting, Ferguson celebrates the tension of multiple perceptions by creating installation works that tell stories
about the people that have inhabited spaces and environments that would not otherwise exist.
Although pom-poms are harmless, inviting, and recognizable objects, their appearance in nature and photography is unsettling. In Weightless, the emergence
of pom-poms suggests that they have been born out of some sort of agricultural intervention. The cultivation of these objects then continues in Hay bales,
where the pom-poms are being harvested for whatever properties they possess. Trickling down the food chain, the pom-poms eventually wreak havoc on the
animal world. Are these pom-poms mere objects, are they foodstuffs, or are they intoxicants?
--- Przemek Pyszczek, curator
Natalie Ferguson is a Winnipeg-based artist. Working with photography and installation, she creates works that describe the stories of
constructed environments. Ferguson studied at the University of Manitoba (BFA, 2007), and her award-winning thesis work went on to be exhibited at the
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. She is currently working as Workshop Facilitator at Art City.
Przemek Pyszczek (born in Bialystok, Poland) is a Winnipeg-based artist and curator. His current research focuses on new migrant
communities in Poland, and their relationship to contemporary art production. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba
(B. Env. D., 2007), Pyszczek is currently working on a documentary about the Winnipeg International Airport. He is currently the Programming Coordinator
at Video Pool Media Arts Centre.
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