By Careesa Gee
The walls and spaces inside the old bread factory on Gladstone Avenue may look bare now, but in a week they will be transformed for the Enriched Bread Artists’ annual open studio exhibition.
That’s when the two-storey warehouse will be open for the public to come in and see works by the 24 artists that inhabit the studios inside.
Eliza Griffiths, a member of the Enriched Bread Artists (EBA), says the exhibition is a great chance for people who would not normally go to an art gallery, to see contemporary local works in a casual setting.
“It’s like a really great party … it’s really fun,” she says. “It’s a chance to socialize and be stimulated.”
Conversation-provoking art and hundreds of people inside a building that likely never saw anything more exciting than sliced bread?
Not what you might expect from looking at its drab, utilitarian exterior, but the converted space inside is now filled with an eclectic assortment of artworks, ranging from painting and assemblage, to large installation works and video art that promises to inspire lively debates.
Inside Griffiths’s studio space, the red tile floor is splattered with paint and her desk is cluttered by scattered photos, but it is the canvases that catch your attention.
They hang or lean on the white block walls, covered with the characters that play out the fictional narratives of her imagination.
One giant painting shows a gritty, urban couple posturing in a tough stance, but Griffiths points out there is still “a soft underbelly” to the piece, and says it shows them adopting a façade of bravado.
It is part of a painting series called “Romance” that explores themes of desire and sexuality in couples, as well as the role that females play inside relationships.
Marika Jemma, another EBA artist, is preparing pieces that combine painting with ordinary items like string and flowers to create works based on a mother-child theme.
Jemma, who usually works in installation, will also be showing an art video she made in 1996, called Pieces of Her Become You, which combines a documentary style with prose and poetry in a discussion of lesbian relationships.
However, the exhibition is not only about finished works, but about the means and manner in which the artist arrives there as well.
Unfinished pieces will be left in the studio, and this year they will be hanging a laundry line with all of their work clothes on it, which Jemma says “speaks to process.”
The works in progress show one of the differences between the open studio, and a typical gallery show. Another will be that the artists will all be there, live and in person to interact directly with those viewing their works.
Because the warehouse is meant as a working space for professional artists, it is not usually open during the year to the public, and Griffiths says this is a chance for them to receive direct feedback.
“It’s great to see how people interpret things,” she says. “You make youself very vulnerable … to criticisms or hurt, it’s like exposing something.”
“Not everyone is going to like what you do,” Griffiths adds. “I mean, you never really get used to it (rejection).”
The Enriched Bread Artists factory was created in 1991 by Laura Margita, a graduate from the fine arts program at the Universtiy of Ottawa.
In addition to the opening on Oct. 19, the studio will be open on Oct. 20.to 22 and again Oct. 27 to 29.
All of the viewings are free, and the event will be licensed.