“Painting is like the hardest thing to work with when it comes to narratives because it’s not like a photo. You are manipulating the image so a lot is lost but also, a lot is gained because you spend so much on it.” -Amanda Boulos
Amanda Boulos couldn’t have been more right with this statement. The Toronto-based artist was able to capture what many couldn’t on camera in Split Split Mound. Boulos explained that she used the concept of GIFs in some of her pieces. Instead of recording movements and having the video play continuously, she decided to paint the same scene twice on canvas, showing us two frames. To represent the movement that you would normally see in GIFs, the artist painted the objects in different places on the second frame. So when looking at the canvas and moving your eyes from one frame to another, you have the impression that the subject did move. The concept allowed you the interact with the work.
What’s also interesting in the exhibit is how Boulos uses different aspects of the human body in her pieces, whether they’re physical, psychological or showing us the different events the human body may experience. For example, the subject of “birth” can be observed in the painting Pull & Insert. Boulos explained that she wanted to portray the rebirth of an artist.
The paintings are abstract but you can’t help but sense the artist’s message through her work when walking through the studio and observing the pieces one by one.
The exhibition Split Spit Mound can be seen at Studio Sixty Six in Ottawa until March 6, 2016.
By Daphne Attis