Elaine Cameron-Weir

UNTITLED (PLATE 96)

2016
aluminum
20 x 12 inches

I think of my work as a system of inquiry related to science — an experiment with parameters and results that are applicable beyond the work itself. The idea that you can model the universe in a tabletop experiment is, to me, deeply related to art because art can model something that is so far beyond itself. – Elaine Cameron-Weir

The instinctual process of Canadian artist Elaine Cameron-Weir leads to a wide variety of sculptures that explore the different sensorial characteristics of her media, be they leather, metal, rubber, neon gasses, or labdanum. One of her interests is the manipulation of a solid material’s surface to produce an effect unlike its qualities found in nature — rough marble once polished, for instance — and how that surface, through force, becomes unnatural or “synthetic.” Cameron-Weir’s series of solid plates of aluminum demonstrate her manipulation of the metal, revealing the casting process and elevating the elemental properties of aluminum. The finished surface reads as a swirling, liquid mass with chance bubbles and discolorations giving each piece an individual aura.