Crystal Palace, 2011

Vikky Alexander - Vancouver, Canada

Photography Installation

Describing the development of this work, the artist has remarked: “In December 2010 I visited Kew Gardens in London, UK, with a particular interest in the Palm House, which has been called the most important surviving Victorian iron and glass structure in the world. It was intended to house and exhibit plants of economic importance. My original interest was in the transparency of the utopian glass building. However, through the process of photographing, I realized that my focus was actually the plants and their reclamation of the architecture, which I saw as a metaphor for the relationship between Britain and the Colonies at the end of the 19th century. These new photographs relate directly to the West Edmonton Mall series I made in 1992 where the tropical plants, birds and fish are juxtaposed and contained within the utopian consumerist structure of the North American mall.”

The glass and iron structure of the Toronto Eaton Centre atrium echoes the framework of the Palm House in the photographs. Placing the images in the mural-sized spots reserved for advertising brings a sudden reversal of function to the mall, suggesting its imminent reclamation by aggressively verdant nature.

Vikky Alexander lives in Vancouver and works in Victoria, where she teaches at the University of Victoria. She has had solo exhibitions at TrépanierBaer Gallery, Calgary; Art Gallery of Windsor; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver. She has participated in group exhibitions such as The Experience of Landscape, Whitney Museum of American Art; Toward a History of the Found Object, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; and InterTidal, Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Toronto Eaton Centre
220 Yonge Street

This project is indoors.