Bailey Govier

HOME ECONOMICS

Gibson House Museum

Fever Dream, 2012

Living and working in North York has afforded me the opportunity to draw inspiration from a constantly changing, incredibly diverse but entirely homely landscape. Only in North York can one turn a corner in the splendid peace of suburbia and find themselves suddenly in a bustling metropolis, only to turn another and enter into a silent wooded haven. Nestled away behind the upward sprawl of ever growing condo developments, Gibson House Museum perfectly represents the multiplicity of North York. Turning from the hustle and bustle of Yonge Street one finds themselves in the peace and tranquility of the house of an early Toronto surveyor. I hope to portray this sense of duality in my work, as a viewer negotiates a new space on the familiar landscape of a flat canvas.

Work in progress for Home Economics, 2013

In the various configurations of both installation and painting, this new body of work places the viewer in an ever-changing state of observation oscillating between an occupiable space and the flat canvas. I construct these elastic images by combining colours derived from contemporary interior design trends with a single, pared down image of a perspectival space. While the work is generally intuitively appealing, it also easily elicits opposite responses from resentment or those of bliss. My work is intentionally divisive in this regard. The viewer can remain engaged with the flat surface of the canvas or choose to decipher the image’s depth. Ideally, the work hovers and oscillates between these contrasting modes of reception.

Bailey's installations are on view both inside the Gibson House Museum, and outside. Visit the work inside the Museum during regular Museum hours; the work outside on the hoarding directly in front of the Museum is viewable any time between July 2 and August 26, 2013.

Gibson House Museum interior, Bailey Govier, 2013

Gibson House Museum
5172 Yonge Street, Toronto

Thanks to the City of Toronto's Gibson House Museum for hosting and supporting these installations.








ABOUT BAILEY GOVIER

Self-portrait by Bailey Govier

Bailey Govier specializes in abstract painting. With close attention to space and colour, her flat, bold paintings challenge the viewer to perceive shifts in atmospheric light and volume. Her work is both site informed and contributes to architectural discourse via her contemporary painting approach. Govier currently resides in North York where she continues her studio practice. Reconsidering the space of North York as a topographical plan into a transformed aesthetic, Govier will highlight a site-specific location by informing its current architecture with new forms – both self contained paintings situated in the arena of revitalized abstraction and in the form of in-situ wall works transcribing her paintings directly in the space of receivership.