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Alyssa Bornn / placeholder

Alyssa Bornn, placeholder
Alyssa Bornn, Untitled (knit slippers, beige carpet), digital composite image, 3D scans. 10” x 8”. 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.

November 10 – December 15, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, November 10, 7–9 pm

placeholder is a collection of photographic constructions engaged with imperfectly replicating spatial memory. Analog photographic processes are used alongside digital and experimental means of image capture including photogrammetry, desktop recording, and flatbed scanning. Compositing these sources results in images that refute the notion of accurate portrayal, favouring instead a frustrated sentimental muddling. The expected precision in these acts of documentation buckles as surfaces interlace and layers seep into one another and congeal. Perimeters become faulty, a hard edge wilts as disparate surfaces negotiate their meeting through generative fills and meticulous mending.

Still life configurations are arranged in accordance with rituals of etiquette or habitude, alluding to a certain domestic mysticism. A formal table setting, a groove worn into the floor, a game played wordlessly with a close friend. Many of the works feature glassware, personal artifacts, or objects that easily absorb projected sentimentality. Preserving intimate fictions and heirloom stand ins. As with time, objective details lose their dominance scenes instead lean into small details which overrun: the texture of a floor, a soft fringe of a towel, a patterned wall. An affectionately faulty screen.

Gallery Hours
Tuesdays–Fridays 12–6 pm
Saturdays 12–4 pm

Artist Bio

Alyssa Bornn lives and works in Winnipeg, MB. Her work is primarily centered around ideas relating to transference, interchangeability, language, failure, and the poetics of technical processes. She makes images and objects informed by an interest in early computing, textile production, play, and in the pursuit of visual joy.

She holds a BFA (Hons.) from the University of Manitoba. In 2021 she was awarded the Photography Award by PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, and in 2019 the Emerging Digital Artist Award presented by EQ Bank and Trinity Square Video. Her work has recently been exhibited at PLATFORM Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts (Winnipeg, 2021), Dunlop Art Gallery, (Regina, 2020), Plug In ICA, (Winnipeg, 2019), Trinity Square Video (Toronto, 2019).

Feature image description: Still life image in landscape format composed of collaged digital elements merged together. A 3D scan of lilac knit slippers sits atop a pink blanket to the lower right while a scanned handmade ceramic mug sits to the left. The ground is a mush of beige carpet that morphs into other fabric. The wall is papered with a small floral motif that repeats, there is a double light switch that sits near to the carpet and a set of teal blinds that is partially visible to the right of the frame. Where the wall meets the floor it is uneven, an undulating meeting of textures without a clean seamline.

Artist photo description: Self portrait of the artist, a white female person facing the left side of the frame with a neutral expression. She is wearing a blue sleeveless top with a grid pattern. Her hair is dark brown and cut into a short mullet. She wears large translucent grey glasses and has gold earrings and septum ring. The backdrop is a soft floral striped sheet with blurry vignetting around the edges.

The work in this exhibition was supported by Winnipeg Arts Council and Manitoba Arts Council. PAVED Arts acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, SK Arts, Sask Lotteries, and the City of Saskatoon.