The following group of images will walk the viewer through an exhibition at Art Windsor Essex, (AWE) located in Windsor, Ontario. The show is of my work curated by Emily McKibbon with selections I've chosen to include from the collection - alongside my work. AWE is a collecting institution and I was invited to think through what they have and select pieces from it to include with mine. These are often my favourite shows when looking at exhibitions. It can be surprisingly fun and always adds new layers and dimensions to the look and feel of a show. Plus, there's the added bonus of everyone getting to see something they haven’t seen for awhile or that which may be new to them entirely.
For 'Cracks in the Clockwork', I incorporated 11 pieces from 9 different artists along with the 29 pieces of my work that the curator chose to build the show around.
This first image is a context shot of the title wall with a framed gouache on grey paper of 'Golden Eagle' from 1934 by Allan Brooks. Included in the image on the inner wall is Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Apotropaic Magic', found chain, custom mount, cast bronze charms , 2022
Title wall handpainted by Julie Hall and photo documentation by Frank Piccolo
Allan Brooks, 'Golden Eagle', gouache on grey paper, 1934
Brooks was an orthinologist and bird artist who immigrated from India to England and eventually settled in British Columbia. Hanging it at the start of the exhibition is intended as an auspicious omen and gesture to invite the viewer inside the exhibition.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Apotropaic Magic', found chain, custom mount, cast bronze charms, 2022
The word apotropaic is an adjective that comes from the Greek and the meaning is that which has the power to avert evil influences or bad luck. The chain has 5 bronze cast talisman hanging, including a cast of burned sage to clear the air, an empty toilet roll signalling poverty, with safety pins and a button added as a promise of repair. A mature garlic bulb cast in bronze hangs plumb in the centre; a reference to aging decorated with a vagina dentata charm. Move up the hanging chain to find a bronze cast tassel that represents the sweeping away of bad blood. Above that, a bronze cast of a naturally occurring formation on a tree, a gall. This one is quite pointy and could be weaponised making this a protective charm decorated with a dove amulet.
Detail: Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Apotropaic Magic', toilet roll charm, 2022
Installation shot of exhibition space. Visible on the left is a painting by Henry Morland, 'Girl Reading by the Light of a Paper Lantern', early 1700's. Also, purple landscape painting by KM Graham, also known professionally as Kathleen Graham. The painting is titled 'Northumberland Hills' and is from 1987. On the mahogany scalloped foyer table sits a ceramic head by an artist named Philip Hakuluk - attributed only, not confirmed. The head comes from the Rankin Inlet ceramic studios c. 1968. It depicts the visage of a Caucasian male with pock marks - a rare depiction of a major defining event of colonialism in Canada. The rest of the works hanging are all mine. Keep looking, I'll get to detail shots.
Bacchanal (After Titian), 2009
The Orgy Scene III from the Rake’s Progress (After Hogarth), 2009
Equestrian Statue (After Verrechio), 2009
Tower of Babel (After Brueghel), 2009
The Polar Sea (After Friedrich), 2009
These works were originally shown in an exhibition at Vancouver’s Western Front in 2009. The exhibition featured these sculptures alongside handcut collages from the 1972 HW Jansen textbook, History of Art. Together, the collages and sculptures poked fun at the imperialist and sexist nature of Western art history as it has been taught to generations of students.
Detail shots of some of the porcelain finger sculptures, this one titled, 'Bacchanel, (After Titian), 2009
As described by curator Emily McKibbon;
Elizabeth Zvonar created these small porcelain sculptures using a mold of an index (or pointer) finger. These works reproduce famous works from the Western art historical canon, using fingers in the place of the central figures.
'Bacchanal (After Titian)', recreates Titian’s major painting, 'The Bacchanal of the Andrians' (1523-1526). A single reclining finger recalls Titian’s Ariadne, reclining nude in the lower right-hand corner of the original painting. Titian’s composition showed how the god Bacchus transformed the rivers of the Andros Island into wine, and the celebration that followed. Ariadne’s pose indicates her availability to the viewer, assumed at the time to be male.
Detail shots of some of the porcelain finger sculptures, this one titled, 'The Polar Sea, (after Friedrich)', 2009
Detail shots of some of the porcelain finger sculptures, this one titled, 'Equestrian Statue, (after Verrochio)', 2009
As described by curator Emily McKibbon; 'Equestrian Statue (After Verrechio)' reproduces the monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, Italy, by Andrea del Verrocchio (1480-1488). Equestrian statues have a long history in Western art, typically depicting powerful men astride equally powerful horses. With this work, Zvonar has reversed the position of Colleoni and his horse, emphasizing the technical wizardry of Verrechio. Verrechio was the first artist to determine how to support the weight of a bronze horse and rider on three legs, rather than four. The impact of this small innovation allowed for more dynamic equestrian statues, reinforcing the masculine power of the men astride these horses.
Detail shots of some of the porcelain finger sculptures, this one titled, 'Tower of Babel, (after Bruegel)', 2009
Elizabeth Zvonar, collage, ‘Madame de Pompadour dans une Nature Morte’, 2016. The layers of collage include a reproduction of a mezzotint by Mario Avati, late 1960’s with a picture of a painting by Francois Boucher’s ‘Madame de Pompadour in a Garden’, 1758. The gilded frame is by The Workshop in Vancouver.
Elizabeth Zvonar, ‘Marcel Meets Judy’, found object, 2013. If Marcel Duchamp had crossed paths with Judy Chicago, this could have been the outcome.
Side detail: 'Marcel Meets Judy'
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Wants + Needs', my work from 2023. A slightly distorted ball made by gluing receipts I collected of my wants and needs over a one year period. The foil on top is from chocolate bar wrappings.
Kathleen Graham, 'Northumberland Hills', acrylic on canvas, 1987 paired with Elizabeth Zvonar, 'It's the Gaps that Change the Sequence', collage of a arched leg paired with a cast of my thigh, diptych, 2015.
Together the diptych mimics a mountain in miniature and echos the beautiful behemoth purple hills in their own quiet way.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'It's the Gaps that Change the Sequence', collage and sculpture diptych, 2015
The title is a line taken from the Lis Rhodes film 'Pictures on Pink Paper', 1982
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Hello Helen', collage, 2018.
The Helen referenced in the title is a nod to Light + Space artist Helen Pashgian - the image of the glass piece in the middle of the collage is a work by her titled 'Untitled, (1968-1969)'
'Chandelier', Unknown Artisan, crystal/wood, English/Irish from 1770-1800 hanging with my work 'History, Influence, New Bag', bronze from 2022. Behind this is an oil painting from the 1700’s by Henry Morland, 'Girl Reading by the Light of a Paper Lantern'.
The chandelier is hung low so that the viewer encounters the work mid-body and can really see the light fixture in a new way. I love how the form resembles an octopus in an otherworldly, lead crystal sort of way. Allusions to light with the lantern and shadows and chandelier.
To the left of this image is a collage by Elizabeth Zvonar titled, 'Magic Mountain', 2016
Detail: Henry Morland, 'Girl Reading by the Light of a Paper Lantern', 1700's
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'History, Influence, New Bag', bronze cast hanging from log chain, 2022
As described by curator Emily McKibbon: With these works, Elizabeth Zvonar is considering baggage—specifically, the baggage of art history, of white supremacy, of patriarchy, and of aspiration culture. Zvonar is also playing with the idea of an “old bag,” or an older woman, against the values and attachments that we have for our purses (new bags and old bags, designer or vintage, cheap or expensive).
The three bronze “bags” in this exhibition examine what can be a monument. Two hang from the ceiling on Everbilt log chains with slip hooks, evoking a hanging carcass as much as bags. Another one sits on a scorched log rendered in bronze, modeled on a stump taken from a controlled burn on Storm Bay, in British Columbia.
Back Detail: Elizabeth Zvonar, 'History, Influence, New Bag', bronze cast hanging from log chain, 2022
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork'
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork', including Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Ghosts', collage, 2018
Detail: Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Ghosts', collage, 2018
The two collages and sculpture in foreground are all made by Elizabeth Zvonar. The small gold framed collage is titled 'Portrait, Life is but a Puff of Smoke', 2016 and the bubblegum pink framed work is titled 'Samari', 2018. The bag sitting on the stump is all bronze and titled 'History, Onus, Old Bag' from 2022.
Trio of works on wall: Luke Anguhadluq’s ‘Untitled (Faces Watching Drum Dance)’ 1977, AJ Casson - attributed, ’Still Life with Panther’, date unknown, and my work titled ‘Hardcore History', 2018.
This is one of two pencil crayon drawings from Luke Anguhadluq from the early and late 1970’s included in the exhibition. Titled 'Untitled, Faces Watching Drum Dance', 1977.
Anguhadluq was born at Chantrey Inlet in 1895 and grew up living traditionally off the land. As an adult, he was a hunter and camp leader. As the caribou migration patterns shifted, he led his family to Schultz Lake and Whitehills Lake before settling in Qamani’tuaq or Baker Lake in 1961. He started making art later in his adult life, at age 65, which would have been the year 1960. He focused on drawing and printmaking. The two drawings included in the exhibition are from his later period of art making and focus on the drum dance.
This small painting is attributed to AJ Casson. Titled 'Still Life with Panther', date unknown.
It was brought into the AWE’s collection in the early 2000’s and is still not definitively an AJ Casson. I’ve done a little sleuthing and back dating. There is an entry in the OSA (Ontario Society of Artists) Exhibition catalogue for the 50th Annual CNE art exhibition that indicates that Casson showed a painting titled The Red Cup with a price detail of $35.00 and no image to compare with this painting. This exhibition catalogue would have been produced in 1922 for the 50th anniversary of the CNE (1872-1922). Casson was born in 1898, he would have been 24 years old at the time and yet to be invited into the Group of Seven - this happened in 1926. He was invited into the fold by Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston and was the youngest member of the group. Hence, it’s not impossible to think that this could be an early work of his, painted in the early 1920’s. It’s a sweet little painting regardless.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Hardcore History', collage, 2018
The top layer of a dreamy pinky hilly landscape with beautiful hands cut out is an image by French illustrator Pierre Henri c. 1970. The layer underneath with the books peeking out show a portion of a bookshelf full of occult books of the Harvard Lampoon library collection.
Quartet of works, includes Mary Wrinch's small oil painting 'Spruce on a Gray Day' with my work, 'Bronze Finger Pointing' leading the viewer through the trees and into the gallery proper. Alongside are works by Elizabeth Zvonar including a collage titled 'Louis Legs', a table holding a pair of gloves titled 'Wise Guys' and 'Face', a collage held up by a pair of bronze cast stilettos with a finger holding the picture in place.
Mary Wrinch, 'SpruceTree on a Gray Day' c. 1910-28, oil on board with my work Bronze Finger Pointing (2020) positioned above this small and sweet painting. Mary Wrinch immigrated to Canada at a young age from Essex, England and worked out of Toronto. She was well known for her miniature portrait paintings on ivory, block prints and oil paintings of landscapes. She was a member of the Heliconian Club, a non-profit association of women involved in the arts based out of the Heliconian Hall in Toronto, founded in 1909. 'Bronze Finger Pointing' above the spruce tree painting is a directive to lead the viewer through the trees and into the gallery proper.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Louis Legs', collage, 2016
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Wise Guys', bronze, 2022
A pair of hot pink leather gloves were stuffed with organic material that would burn out in the casting process. Hence, the hot pink enamel bits, here and there.
Elizabeth Zvonar, Detail of 'Wise Guys', bronze, 2022
Elizabeth Zvonar, Detail of 'Wise Guys', bronze, 2022
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Face', collage on bronze Mary Jane stiletto heels with a bronze finger balancing the collage in place, 2013
Luke Anguhadluq, 'Drum Dance', 1970, coloured pencils and graphite on paper, 1983 installed with Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Daytripper', bronze cast backpack hanging from a log chain, 2023
Detail: Luke Anguhadluq, 'Drum Dance', coloured pencils and graphite on paper, 1970
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Daytripper', bronze cast hanging from a log chain, 2023
This is the third bag in the series of bronze cast bags. Where the first two bags examine the weight of the collective cultural inheritances that include white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy bolstered by the colonial impulse, aspiration culture, western art history and western white feminism; this smaller sack represents a paradigm shift in attitude to shouldering those burdens. It is evidence of independence and confidence in the path chosen. Hangs at a height you could almost slip on and trip the day away with.
Detail: Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Daytripper', bronze cast hanging from a log chain, 2023
Back Detail: Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Daytripper', bronze cast hanging from a log chain, 2023
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork'
Astral Apollo, Elizabeth Zvonar, collage, 2016.
As described by curator Emily McKibbon: This collage is produced by layering three separate works. The first layer is a reproduction of 'Moschophoros', or “calf-bearer,” an ancient Greek statue dating to 560 BC. The image is interrupted by a central, cut-out form. This silhouette is taken from a grave marker for a fallen solder named Kroisos, from roughly the same period—ca. 540 BC. Seen through this silhouette is a work by abstract painter Paul Jenkins, 'Phenomena Astral Signal', from 1964. Jenkins was known for how he pooled paint across the surface of his canvasses, creating fluid colours fields that evoke a spiritual realm. Taken together, it appears as though an astral figure is stepping through time, moving between an alien future and an ancient past.
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork'
All the leaning things.
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork'
Elizabeth Zvonar, ‘Legs’, 12 mannequin arms holding up a slanted wall, 2009.
Viewed from the front, it appears as though the twelve mannequin arms are casually holding up the wall itself, with just the tips of the mannequins’ middle fingers resting easily on the floor. There are twelve arms referencing the twelve-hour clock.
Mannequins have a long history within art movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Artists like George de Chirico, René Magritte, Salvador Dali and Hans Bellmer often depicted them in their surrealist works, highlighting the strangeness of their serial anonymity. For similar reasons, mannequins often appear in horror and science fiction films.
The overall impact of Zvonar’s work is more playful, suggestive of the work of the choreographer Busby Berkeley of Hollywood’s golden age of musicals. Berkeley was known for his intricate dance scenes that abstracted his (young, attractive) female dancers’ bodies into elaborate geometric patterns. Berkeley’s last known work, a cold medicine commercial entitled the "Cold Diggers of 1969," fittingly included a scene of dancers forming the moving arms of a ticking clock.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Interference', collage, 2022 with 'Magic Mountain', 2016 peeking out from the background.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Clusterfuck', 2013
A set of 6 nesting elbows cast in porcelain and gold tipped with splooges of creamy white glaze.
Installation shot, 'Cracks in the Clockwork'
Kathleen Graham, 'Cape Dorset Spring Light 77-99 (Arctic) with Whiplash as Seen Over Warm Arctic Currents in the Ocean', acrylic on canvas, 1977
Margaret Lawrence, 'Memorial #11', coloured pencil on paper, 1987
This drawing was an essential inclusion, I fell in love with it as soon as I laid eyes on it. The most overlooked works in a collection can be the works on paper because of how they’re stored - in drawers, in layers, easily forgotten. Yet often, they’re fabulous and hilarious or just plain beautifully rendered. It’s a sweet little surrealist drawing of a landscape that is also a face. Margaret Lawrence was an artist who lived and worked in Windsor, Ontario in the mid to late 20th Century. Not the writer/different spelling.
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Tongue with Incense', ceramic, handrolled incense, cedar/lavender
Detail: Margaret Lawrence, 'Memorial #11', coloured pencil on paper, 1987
Elizabeth Zvonar, 'Tongue with Incense', ceramic, handrolled incense, cedar/lavender