Do Try This At Home

The works of young artists from Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg are examined for indications of their makers’ positioning in two distinct economies: the money economy of subsistence-level day jobs, and the field of artistic production. In the latter economy, the medium of exchange is “symbolic capital” compounded of artistic reputation, peer recognition and avant-gardist gestures. The artists typically produce at home and mainly for confirmed exhibitions. In this exhibition, most works have been assembled from scraps, discards and inexpensive household supplies by means of repetitive procedures such as knitting, filling, stuffing, stapling, and so on.