Tammy Ratcliff: far from the tree                                                         

October 14 to December 19, 2004  
 

In the exhibition far from the tree, Guelph artist Tammy Ratcliff created seven multi-panelled prints each composed of twelve, twelve-inch squares and arranged in four-by-three grid formations.  Some look strikingly like weathered window panes and others like aged and imperfect wallpaper.  In the accompanying series of nine, twelve-inch square prints, Ratcliff extracted details from the large works to examine the poignancy of a single gesture or minute detail.  The works in this exhibition were a combination of single and multiple-plate monotypes, etchings and reliefs with chine collé, a technique used in intaglio printing whereby a thin sheet of paper is glued to a heavier sheet and printed simultaneously. 

Ratcliff’s prints transformed the gallery into an environment that was comforting and familiar, yet its faux-windowed walls belied storied landscapes that were secretive and obscure.  The objects that ornament these landscapes were culled from the artist’s memory and experience – a rash of roses, a string of broken beads, bunches of round berries – that she collected and organized into compelling narratives.  Ratcliff’s work is fragmentary; she is most interested in the objects that make up the whole, rather than the whole itself.  far from the tree was a journey toward an end that is never really revealed, but the path was rich and inviting.

Tammy Ratcliff gave an Artist Talk on Tuesday, November 2 at noon.  Ratcliff produced the works for the exhibition far from the tree with the cooperation of Professor Jean Maddison and the Printmaking Department at the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph.  The exhibition and accompanying brochure with an essay by Exhibition Coordinator Dawn Owen were supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Image: Hanging Garden (2004)
Purchased with funds raised by the Art Centre Volunteers and with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 2003, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre Collection

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