Quinn Smallboy: String Theory

In this exhibition, artist Quinn Smallboy uses string and rope to examine Indigenous cultural objects, identity, and worldview. For Smallboy, string functions an aesthetic object and marker of negative space that prompts us to experience our surroundings in novel ways. Yet string also holds a close relationship to memory; it is a symbol or metaphor that helps us piece together abstract points in space and time that thread together the past. Smallboy’s work is heavily indebted to drawing and draughting. He approaches his installations as three-dimensional drawings that amplify and punctuate empty space with rhythmic lines of colour. The attempt to connect points on the wall, floor, or ceiling is frequently plagued with accidents that find the string slumping, curling, or falling in unforeseen ways. As such, Smallboy’s installations take on a renewed life that is noticeably different from the original concept in his preliminary sketches, experiments, or maquettes. Ultimately, they represent an elaborate dance with the laws of gravity to create pure form, they are both process and performance.

Acknowledgements

Glenhyrst Art Gallery acknowledges that we are on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabeg, and Haudenosaunee Peoples. Brantford is situated on the Haldimand Tract, land promised to Six Nations, which includes six miles on each side of the Grand River.