Tanks, 2013

Cal Lane - Putnam Valley, New York, USA

Sculpture

Cal Lane’s sculptures juxtapose industrial materials with domestic elements. Their fabrication process involves the labour-intensive hand cutting of lace fabric patterns directly into recycled steel oil tanks and I-beams. Alternately strong and delicate, masculine and feminine, practical and frivolous, the sculptures deliberately confuse notions of function and ornament.

Lace has associations with both hiding and exposing — whether as a covering veil or revealing lingerie. It also has an association with purity when used in religious ceremonies, christenings, weddings and funerals. The dramatic contrast between lace and steel introduces a level of gravity and humour to the work. Like a wrestler in a tutu, the absurdity of these opposing extremes is meant to inspire a gut reaction rather than a rational response.

These contradictions suggest a process of opposition that creates a sense of balance as well as a clash between one's first impressions of the materials. The physical removal of material to reveal deliberately delicate patterns in the hard surfaces of large oil tanks and I-beams. The result is a desirable opposition, a transformation of recycled relics into heraldic emblems of a lost industrial age.

Born in 1968 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Cal Lane was raised in Saanichton, British Columbia. Following her welding certification, she successively completed a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in 2001, and a MFA from the State University of New York at Purchase (2005). Since 2001, Lane has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the Sydney Biennial, DeCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts and Musea Brugge in Belgium.

Learn More

callane.com

50

David Pecaut Square, 221 King Street West

This project is outdoors.