Rhoda Rosenfeld

Rhoda Rosenfeld is a Vancouver-based visual artist and poet. As a visual artist she has worked with photography and painting, at times combining the two. The exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery features a series of paintings Rosenfeld has been producing since 1988.

The *Dark Works*, to be exhibited at the Contemporary Art Gallery from October 31, were derived from a set of photographs taken by Rosenfeld in 1970. Before the film was developed, it was damaged by moisture and, as a result, the intended landscape images were obscured by ghostly biomorphic shapes. The landscapes in the paintings are also obscured, this time by a turbulent layer of brush marks that force a slow visual assimilation of the image. This veiling of the image is metaphoric of Rosenfeld's feeling about our relationship with a landscape that is increasingly mediated by technology through ecological erosion and the mass media. Rhoda Rosenfeld works slowly, producing an average of two paintings a year. The paintings are large, 5 feet by 8 feet, and are installed unstretched. The materials she employs include clay, oil paint, oil stick and colour pencil.

Essay: “Rhoda Rosenfeld: Dark Works 1988-1992,” Keith Wallace

An artwork on a white wall. The work is a painting on fabric pinned to the wall, containing rusty, earthy tones. Extruding from the painting is a large wood branch, possible with tree roots attached.

thumbnail_04-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

04-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

Three large works in the corner of a gallery space. The works are dark paintings on unstretched canvas resembling light leaks on film. One work in the corner also had a large branch attached to it.

thumbnail_01-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

01-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

The corner of a gallery space, with one work on each wall. The works are large, dark paintings, with white, blue and yellow blended into them. They are on unstretched canvas, pinned to the walls. 

thumbnail_02-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

02-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

Two large paintings on a white wall. The works resemble damaged film negatives, and are presented on unstretched canvas, pinned directly to the wall. They are dark with soft, light, details. 

thumbnail_03-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

03-RhodaRhosenfeld-1992.jpeg

Dark Works 1988 –1992

*Arbora Versa* was an exhibition about nature, language and perception. The *arbres* referred to in the title are not simply calendar conifers or deciduous shade providers. No, the tree of *Arbora Versa* takes a pseudo-Latin variant of the word for tree to represent nature in its entirety. Versa, on the other hand, may be taken in the context of this exhibition to refer to any of the following: the other side of the tree or the unknown; the left hand page of the tree or the page on which, in traditional publishing, there is never a picture; the language of the tree or the tree as a model for the idea of a network; being against the tree or anti-nature; or the idea of being well-versed or familiar with the tree. Also, by implying an inversion of the image of the tree, it also refers to the brachial trees of set theory and linguistic analysis. Another way of saying this would be to refer to the tree of the title as a tree that is not only quite versatile in terms of its metaphoric abilities, but as one that is also capable of a certain reversibility, allowing it to oscillate between competing meanings without having to overwork itself. It is an extremely generalized and universal tree, as it represents ideas about our relation to the natural world as much as it does any particular organic object.

In the exhibition each of the five artists — Sylvie Bouchard, Lorraine Gilbert, Rodney Graham, Jerry Pethick, and Rhoda Rosenfeld — was represented by one work. The five works were as stylistically different from each other as they were similar in their relation to the subject of nature. They were chosen as examples of the idea of the work of art as an enclosure for nature and each was taken as an instance of nature contained, just as an organism could be thought of in such terms.

-Bill Jeffries, excerpted from “Introduction,” in Arbora Versa, 1991


Essay: “Introduction,” Bill Jeffries

thumbnail_00-HEADER-AboraVersa-1990.jpg

00-HEADER-AboraVersa-1990.jpg

A room in a gallery shows 3 artworks. One is a thin stack of firewood and glass cylinders. One is an abstract yellow, grey and black painting, The other is a large, deteriorated photo of a landscape.

thumbnail_01-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

01-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

A gallery with 3 visible artworks. One is an illuminated display of green and black shapes on the wall, one is a stack of firewood and glass cylinders, and one is a gray, black, and yellow painting.

thumbnail_02-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

02-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

The corner of a gallery with 2 large black and white photos on the wall. The photo on the left shows a faint landscape on damaged film. The photo on the right shows a person standing in the woods.

thumbnail_03-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

03-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

Artworks in a gallery. There is a photo of a person in the woods, a photo of an upside down tree, green and black shapes on a wall with a fluorescent light, and a stack of firewood and glass capsules. 

thumbnail_04-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

04-ArboraVersa-1990.jpeg

A closeup image of a large artwork. The work is made of large glass cylinders of different sizes and firewood. In the background, three large black and white photos can be seen on the walls.

Rhoda Rosenfeld

Exhibitions