Art Windsor-Essex respectfully acknowledges that we are located on Anishinaabe Territory – the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, comprised of the Ojibway, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. Today the Anishinaabe of the Three Fires Confederacy are represented by Bkejwanong. We want to state our respect for the ancestral and ongoing authority of Walpole Island First Nation over its Territory.
- Home
- Exhibitions + Displays
- Sarah Maloney’s Pleasure Ground: A Feminist Take on the Natural World
Sarah Maloney’s Pleasure Ground: A Feminist Take on the Natural World
October 19, 2023 - January 21, 2024
Second Floor
Sarah Maloney. Pleasure Grounds (detail), 2019. Installation, bronze, 15 pieces. Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
English
Sarah Maloney, RCA (b. 1965) is a contemporary sculptor and textile artist who is nationally recognized for her representations of botanicals and the human body. Using media ranging from embroidery to bronze, Maloney challenges ideas of “women’s work,” craft, and artistic labour. She looks at Western history and culture through a feminist lens, and the results are depictions of plants, bones, and organs that reference gender, pleasure, desire, and power. Her craft is joyful, beautiful, and indicative of the structured nature of our biological, social and economic systems.
Meticulous, witty and historically researched, Maloney interprets mythology and symbolism in labour-intensive techniques from welding to stitching. Her work challenges how people think about icons of Western colonialism, such as museum collections, domestic gardens, and landscape art.
Sarah Maloney’s Pleasure Ground showcases artworks created between 1993 and 2021 that show her development as an artist. This selection exemplifies her ongoing explorations of sexuality, reproductivity, economics, and colonial systems of representation.
Français
Sarah Maloney (née en 1965), ARC est une sculptrice et artiste textile contemporaine reconnue pour ses représentations de plantes et du corps humain. Employant des médias tels que la broderie et le bronze, Maloney remet en question les idées du « travail de la femme », de l’artisanat et de la création artistique en tant que travail. Elle examine l’histoire et la culture occidentales à travers une lentille féministe, ce qui aboutit à des représentations de plantes, d’os et d’organes qui font référence au genre, au plaisir, au désir et au pouvoir. Ses œuvres, pleines de joie et de beauté, révèlent le caractère structuré de nos systèmes biologiques, sociaux et économiques.
Fondées sur des recherches historiques, tout en étant méticuleuses et pleines d’esprit, les œuvres de Maloney interprètent la mythologie et le symbolisme d’une certaine sorte de main-d’œuvre comme le soudage et la couture. Son travail remet en question la façon dont les gens perçoivent les icônes et les tropes du colonialisme occidental, telles que les collections muséales, les jardins domestiques et la peinture du paysage.
Sarah Maloney’s Pleasure Ground présente des œuvres créées entre 1993 et 2021 qui montrent l’évolution de la pratique artistique de Maloney. Cette sélection illustre ses explorations de la sexualité, de la reproductivité, de l’économie et des systèmes de représentation coloniaux.
Artist talk with Sarah Maloney
Join us for an artist talk with Sarah Maloney on October 17, 2:30pm-3:30pm, exploring some of the main themes in her practice. The talk will take place at the Wildeman Centre for the Creative Arts, Room AW104. Read more here.
About the artist: Sarah Maloney
Sarah Maloney, RCA, holds an MFA from the University of Windsor and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She is the recipient of numerous grants, and has been part of group and solo shows across Canada. Her works are held in the collections of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, among others. In 2012, she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She is a recipient of the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council Established Artist Recognition Award.
