The McMaster Museum of Art presents:

Thelma Rosner: Homeland
29 August – 14 December 2013

Curator: Cassandra Getty   

       

RECEPTION:  September 19, 6 – 8 pm
ARTIST’S TALK by THELMA ROSNER:  October 2, 1:30 – 2:20 pm

 

The Museum proudly presents new and recent work by London-based artist Thelma Rosner (Canadian b. 1941). Over the last decade the practice of Rosner has moved quite literally to new territory. While the play of pattern, derived from processes referencing everything from textiles to book illuminations, informed much of her past work, Rosner now focuses her practice on aspects of geographic place, culture, and notions of “home.”

 

More specifically, Rosner’s recent projects Border and Israeli-Palestinian Dictionary emphasize the cultural similarities between Palestinian and Israeli communities in a region divided by conflict. In the Dictionary work, Rosner uses Hebrew and Arabic words, and duplicates selected imagery in positive and negative formats to affirm the values and validity of both cultures

 

Equalizing processes, such as the duplication of imagery and negative/positive renderings of an object, point to shared human experience. As in her past work, Rosner employs a keen sense of order, used to great effect in her large Cross-Stitch paintings which comment on war as an experience literally woven into the fabric of daily life.  

 

Thelma Rosner studied painting at the University of Western Ontario, where Paterson Ewen was her teacher and mentor. She has exhibited her work in Canada, the USA, and England. She has received grants from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Banff Centre for the Arts. For the last decade, her production has focused on Muslim-Jewish issues, most recently on the Israel-Palestine situation.

 

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication co-produced with Museum London.

Works in the exhibition

 

5 Cross Stitch Paintings
Cross Stitch paintings, #1, 2011; #2, 2011-2012;
#3, 2011-2012; #4, 2012-2013; #5, 2013
Oil on canvas, each diptych 243.8 x 182.9 cm
(8 x 6 feet)

 

Border, 2006-2007
22 archival digital prints, 11 supports,    
each print 86.3 x 58.4 cm (34 x 23 inches)    
Installed dimensions: 91.4 x 670.5 x 12.7 cm
(3 x 22 feet x 5 inches)

 

Dictionary, 2009-2011
36 archival digital prints
Each print 76.2 x 61 cm (30 x 24 inches)
Installed dimensions: 76.2 x 731.5 x 91.4 cm (2.5 x 24 x 3 feet)

detail in banner image: Israeli / Palestinian Dictionary, 2009-2011, (installation view), archival digital print on paper.
photo: John Tamblyn