Lot
4
Histoire d’un paysage (Variation IV)
Vase with underglaze transfer on porcelain, 2015
61 x 61 cm
Estimate
$2 750
Repetitive silkscreening creates detailed copies of images, tenderly painted like watercolours. Layers are built up backward and then transferred to wet clay, to be folded and forced into shape. Through bending, ripping, breaking, folding and cutting, the clay takes an outer industrial form while retaining a human touch. The shape of the porcelain vase is an attempt to heighten the importance of the imagery through worth, a push–pull between low and high culture and among labour, value, and class.
Biographical note
Trevor Baird creates ceramic works from a cache of personal drawings and pictures by imprinting images and patterns flat on plaster. His work relies heavily on the histories of function, decoration, labour, and temporality. He worked initially with comics and image-based narratives, but the shutting of and finality of a book or flat image caused him to look for a way to decontextualize and open an image while continuing to hold or create narrative possibilities.
Baird was born in Vancouver; he currently lives and works in Montréal. He holds a BFA with a major in ceramics from Concordia University. He has shown in Canada and Mexico City through the gallery Projet Pangée and recently took part in a group exhibition at The Hole in the United States. In August 2018, he held his first institutional exhibition at the Ledge Gallery of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, Michigan. His work has been featured in print in The Editorial Magazine (Montréal), FREAKER UNLTD I-III (Vancouver), and other publications, and can be found in many private collections in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.