Unfamiliar Order
ARTIST
Florence Solis is a Filipino-Canadian artist practicing in Hamilton, Canada. She received her B.Des in Environmental Design from OCAD University in 2012. Her multi-disciplinary background is reflected through the process and aesthetic of her work. As a self-taught artist and professional designer, her work intersects between traditional portraiture and digital design to create dynamic contemporary compositions.
Florence’s current body of work is a reflection of her constant search for identity through a deconstructive creative process. As a self-taught painter, she draws many influences from her design background by creating illustrative digital collages as a base for her work. After creating the digital sketches, she then translates the composition into acrylic paintings creating another layer of depth and humanistic approach to the piece. The stage of manual painting allows for her to start on the piece all over again as the different medium challenges her to view the work in another light. As she mixes colours to get the right hue, match colours together and hear the scratching stroke of the brush on canvas, it feels like giving life to the subject which was once just fragments of images on a screen or paper. The process of digital to analog also speaks of the paradox not only within the elements of her work but also the contemporary ways art is produced and consumed today.
LOCATION
Théâtre Cercle Molière
340 Provencher Blvd
(North-facing)
Winnipeg, MB
Treaty 1
ABOUT / ARTIST STATEMENT
"Unfamiliar Order" is a reflection of my own constant search for identity through a deconstructive creative process. The act of taking apart images to develop a composition is an intuitive process where I create fictitious subjects, mostly of women. These fragmented subjects are an impression of our multi-dimensional selves that go beyond what is captured in a traditional portrait. The physical figures are also combined with colour, forms, and texture that forces the viewer to continuously move through the painting. I aim to represent people not as static figures because in truth, we are comprised of complexities contributed by our background, experiences, and even societal views.
From my own experience as a woman, immigrant and person of colour, identities don't come easy. As a woman, I was taught to be delicate and apologetic as not to disrupt even as I want to be loud. As a then immigrant from the Philippines, I was to hide my accent to deeply plant my place in my new country and prove my ability to be "Canadian". As a person of colour, I am not to tan so much as to discreetly hide my Filipino heritage. These were and sometimes, still are the challenges that I face everyday, even as I consciously free myself from my own discrimination. This piece aims to impact those who go through the same challenges internally, from ourselves or externally, from society. We may never be a perfect picture but we could still be whole as we embrace the many parts that make us unique.
PARTNERS & SUPPORT
Wall-to-Wall Mural & Culture Festival, Synonym Art Consultation, Graffiti Art Programming, Signex Manufacturing Inc.