In the Project Space

Lizzy Moorhead, Sid Smillie, and Zabdi, in collaboration with May G N

“Well, collage is just so easy to do. It takes all the skill out of things, and boils art-making down to decisions, intent, and preferences. It takes out the fear of making mistakes, or wondering if your art is good enough. It’s also cheap; anyone can afford to do it, and best of all, it involves taking control of your environment and repurposing it for something unique to you. Collage is beautiful for that.”

– May G N, in conversation with someone she just met, probably

Created in concert with Esker Youth Engagement and students from Discovering Choices schools, May G N presents HEADSPACE, an exhibition that provides windows into the self. The heart of the installation is skinned with a nearly fractal set of collaborative collage works, viewed through a series of reflective silhouetted forms that depict the profiles of the collaborating youth artists. Each person-made-portal offers a vantage point into a world of clashing images, personal expressions, and unique aesthetic tastes. The resulting kaleidoscope-like interior space threatens to fall back in on itself with recursive imagery and text.

Over the exhibition’s duration, G N will continue to work with her collaborators, adding internal elements to the Project Space and fuelling further chaos and creation until the work is complete…whatever that may entail.

Lizzy, Sid and Zabdi are students at the Calgary Board of Education’s Discovering Choices schools, which offer an alternative high school learning environment that is flexible and self-directed, with a focus on student-centered learning frameworks.