DEBORA ALANNAEarly Work1984 - 1991

Debora Alanna graduated from Ontario College of Art in 1983. She returned to the West Coast of British Columbia after graduation.

Exhibitions in Vancouver BC between 1984 – 1991 concentrated on her installation work.

Theinstallation

titledSculpture:

Garden wasexhibited at the Unit Pittgallery in Vancouver BC in

1984.

Sculpture: Garden by Debora Alanna

Sculpture: Garden by Debora Alanna

Blocks or modules of squared, welded

steel armatures were addressed with terracotta

coloured cement in various

configurations to denote the

exploration of the cube, the natural

building block shape.

Sculpture: Garden

by Debora Alanna

Cubes were clustered on the floor grid under 9-9’ steel poles. The pivotal and imposing poles were hung from the ceiling. These suspended extremities, protruding marks allowed a convergence or repellent force to interact with the groupings resulting in a range of dynamics.

Sculpture: Garden by Debora Alanna

Each pigmented cement

augmentation was unique.

Dust-bane was added to the

multiple configurations to develop the arrangements

and to articulate the

ground. The rough reddish

cement surface complemented the green floor

treatment.

Sculpture: Garden by Debora Alanna

The central ‘pool’ made of polystyrene with pigmented cement ‘stones’ in its parenthesised boarder drew the modules, became

a focal point of the installation. The ‘pool’ with its black glass ‘waterwas the wellspring from which ideas begin.

Sculpture: Garden – Concept

Sculpture: Garden was conceived to reveal the congregation of ideas as they exist in the state of cultivation.

3 Forms by Debora Alanna

1986 – or Gallery, Vancouver, BCPlaster, black paraffin, welded aluminum

3 Forms by Debora Alanna

- detail

Each of the three shapes were built with a metal armature, and then carved.

Black dye was added to the paraffin coating, and then painted onto the work.

Each form represents three different aspects of existence – response to place, impetus of spirit, and interconnection.

3 Forms by Debora Alanna

Together the forms were abstracted associations, precise appreciation of differences and similarities of the dynamic within existence.

Each work isolated a particular expression of conceptual engagement.

3 Forms by Debora Alanna - detail

3 Forms was placed in the centre of the gallery highlighted by a single spot light.

A welded aluminum altar was created associate the individual pieces into a continuum.

The idea of altar brought import to the sculpture trio and developed a state of connectivity and spirited momentum.

3 Forms - Concept

Lightworks by Debora Alanna

Grounding of vision, such as that referred to by Edwin Abbot in his

novella, Flatland, written in 1884:

“But now, drawing back to the edge of the table, gradually lower your

eye ..., and you will find the penny becoming

more and more oval to your view, and at last

when you have placed your eye exactly on the

edge of the table... The penny will then have

ceased to appear oval at all, and will have

become, so far as you can see, a straight line.”

1989 – Gallery Too, Vancouver, BCCold rolled steel, poly balls, incandescent light

fixtures, rubber underlay

Lightworks by Debora Alanna – detail

Lightworks - detail

The straight line referred to by Abbot succinctly describes the visual illusion that visual perception alludes to.

The abstraction of an eye, of vision is the primary idea in Lightworks.

The eye is grounded, and the form repeated to reiterate the importance of the perception of seeing. The eyes are interrupted by the bisection of the curved formation over the ‘eyeball’.

This distortion to sightedness is a response to the vision of the artist being questioned; assertion of that particular, and maybe peculiar vision is articulated with rhetorical persuasion.

If the eye is the window to the soul, then these windows are open to new insights, different perceptions - closely guarded ones.

Challenge of the Mountains - detail Seven tetrahedron shapes of the

aluminum expanded mesh on the black

grout curve allowed a visual and physical

barrier.

The aluminum lathe shavings afforded a

deterrent to walk through the tightly

configured grouping.

The ability to see through the shapes

allowed a connectivity, a

congruence of form and by association,

consideration of what a obstruction is

because the barrier was permeable.

Challenge of the Mountains by Debora Alanna

Challenge of the Mountains was exhibited

in the group show organised by

Urbanarium. The theme of work by all artists

participating was ‘Lost Vancouver’.

The premise of this work was that the mountains

(abstracted) created a psychological barrier.

The installation

described a segregating thought process, formed

physical disconnection, showing the feeling of

loss (especially from Eastern Canada).

1987, Vancouver, BC - Urbanarium – ‘Lost Vancouver’ Welded expanded mesh aluminum, black grout,

aluminum lathe shavings

Challenge of the Mountains – Relocated After the Urbanarium show, this work was presented in various venues, including Triumph at the University of British Columbia, and on Trafalgar Street, in Vancouver, British Columbia, seen here.

Light as Material by Debora Alanna

Burnaby Art Gallery – 1991 installation in mixed media

(cement, styrene, glass, neon, florescent lights, string lights, incandescent lights, poly balls, grout)

Light as Material - detail

Light as Material by Debora Alanna –detail

Each work in / segment of this installation was based on a poem called ‘Hundred Headless Woman’ by Max Ernst.

The incorporation of light into each work moved illumination from outside the work to integrate it within the sculpture.

Thank you for viewing this presentation of:

Early work by Debora Alanna – 1984 – 1991