1993 / Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC / Installation
The central component of Wana-na-wang-ong is comprised of two curved suspended panels, each suggesting the horizontal configuration of a landscape painting. As a primary formal feature, the interwoven spruce roots also provide the supportive framework, or skeleton, for the lichen and peat moss. Suspended from the ceiling, and not touching the floor, the panels float in a space of ambiguity that questions the limitations of such binary oppositions as permanence/ impermanence; life/death; survival/resistance; positive/negative; inside/outside; art/craft. This “magical state of suspension” celebrates Belmore’s freedom from the strict confines of these notions, and metaphorically alludes to the dynamic energies of oppositional forces implied in the tensions and balances of life.
Lee-Ann Martin, The Language of Place, Contemporary Art Gallery, 1993
Photo credit: Robert Keziere / Contemporary Art Gallery
