KRISTIINA LAHDE
ULTRA-PARALLEL
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery, 2015
Photo documentation by Toni Hafkenscheid
Through a process of geometric re-organization in which measurement and pattern play a significant role, Toronto artist Kristiina Lahde alters ordinary things and materials, revealing their overlooked aesthetic and conceptual potential. Lifted from the everyday, her objects transcend familiarity as their internal logic shifts, expands, becomes inverted or otherwise transformed.
Lahde’s new work builds on her recent experiments with the systematic reconfiguration of measuring tools through the use of precise calculations and geometric designs. The series of sculptural installations in ULTRA-PARALLEL navigate between two and three dimensions, engaging with the architecture of the site to investigate tension, gravity, parallel lines and perspectives. Manipulated, rearranged and mystified surveyor and measuring tapes, rulers, yardsticks, cutting mats, velum and chalk reels reclaim attention.
Working with primary geometric forms – square, circle, triangle, cube, sphere, pyramid – Lahde reimagines elementary shapes and tools that mediate empirical explorations and our understanding of the physical world. By highlighting the process of their making and subjecting them to unusual situations, Lahde’s works reveal both the structure and the collapse of their functionality. Succumbing to gravity or accepting reinvention, her playfully compromised objects form relationships with the architectural space and take on new lives as art objects proposing contemplation.
Working with primary geometric forms – square, circle, triangle, cube, sphere, pyramid – Lahde reimagines elementary shapes and tools that mediate empirical explorations and our understanding of the physical world. By highlighting the process of their making and subjecting them to unusual situations, Lahde’s works reveal both the structure and the collapse of their functionality. Succumbing to gravity or accepting reinvention, her playfully compromised objects form relationships with the architectural space and take on new lives as art objects proposing contemplation.
Artist Info
Kristiina Lahde is from Toronto and received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in 1999. She was a long list nominee for the Sobey Art Award in 2013, and has been featured on the covers of C Magazine (Spring 2013) and ARC POETRY MAGAZINE (Winter 2014). Lahde is the recipient of numerous grants, recently a TAC and an OAC Mid-Career grant. Her work is in the collection of the Canada Council Art Bank and has been exhibited at The Power Plant, Toronto, La Biennale de Montréal, and La Taller, Bilbao, Spain, with an upcoming exhibition at OBORO in Montréal. Lahde is represented by MKG127, Toronto.
