FARM WORK
2 channel video presentation comprised of 40 vignettes (48min)
Surrey Art Gallery Arts Commission with support from New Media BC
2013
2 channel video presentation comprised of 40 vignettes (48min)
Surrey Art Gallery Arts Commission with support from New Media BC
2013
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The lack of visibility of farming practices and equally a lack of contemporary debate about the placement of farming in the arts, puts it in a category of disregard.
For this series, Sylvia spent nearly 6 months following farmers in Surrey, BC, Canada as they prepared, planted, tended, and harvested their crops through a Spring, Summer, and Autumn growing cycle. Her multiple camera views of farmers at work, their crops and animals in the landscape highlight contradictions in which her images create on one hand an aesthetic appreciation of the subjects at work and, on the other, illustrate the hard reality of farm labour. By filming farm tasks in real time, Sylvia appropriates concepts in art film to reveal a type of life and vitality not often exposed to public view. Her works open up and question the objectified and dated 19th Century paintings of farmers and farms illustrating them as places that deserve closer examination beyond those of Victorian romanticism. Farm work is related to two other artistic endeavours by Sylvia focusing on agriculture - these include Farm Tableaux: Surrey, BC and Mise en Scene: Farm Tableaux Finland. |
Farm work was projected to IMAX scale as part of the exhibition
"This one's for the Farmer" presented at Surrey Urban Screen, Chuck Baily Recreation Centre and the Surrey Art Gallery (September 23, 2013 - January 23, 2014) |
Working in Surrey, BC
Sylvia acknowledges as an artist working in the City of Surrey, she has photographed and worked on the unceded territories and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen First Nations, and she pays respect to the Elders, past and present, and to future generations.
Project reviews
2020
A critical discussion about the artist's development of Farm Work is included in the book, Shifting Perspectives, co-published by Surrey Art Gallery and Heritage House Publishers (Canada) see www.surrey.ca/arts-culture/surrey-art-gallery/gallery-publications/exhibition-catalogues/shifting-perspectives
2013
Grgar, Sonja. “The grass is not greener on the other side: Surrey exhibition highlights the importance of local agriculture”
in The Source | Vol 13 – No 30 | October 8 – October 22, 2013
http://thelasource.com/en/2013/10/07/the-grass-is-not-greener-on-the-other-side-surrey-exhibition-highlights-the-importance-of-local-agriculture/
Hunter, Dorothy. " This one's for the Farmer' e-catalogue, Surrey Art Gallery, BC, Canada. 2013
Laurence, Robin. Fall arts preview: Sylvia Grace Borda finds art in farms and sequins” in the Georgia Straight Newspaper, Vancouver, September 11 -18, 2013.
http://www.straight.com/arts/421776/fall-arts-preview-sylvia-grace-borda-finds-art-farms-and-sequins
Sylvia acknowledges as an artist working in the City of Surrey, she has photographed and worked on the unceded territories and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Qayqayt and Tsawwassen First Nations, and she pays respect to the Elders, past and present, and to future generations.
Project reviews
2020
A critical discussion about the artist's development of Farm Work is included in the book, Shifting Perspectives, co-published by Surrey Art Gallery and Heritage House Publishers (Canada) see www.surrey.ca/arts-culture/surrey-art-gallery/gallery-publications/exhibition-catalogues/shifting-perspectives
2013
Grgar, Sonja. “The grass is not greener on the other side: Surrey exhibition highlights the importance of local agriculture”
in The Source | Vol 13 – No 30 | October 8 – October 22, 2013
http://thelasource.com/en/2013/10/07/the-grass-is-not-greener-on-the-other-side-surrey-exhibition-highlights-the-importance-of-local-agriculture/
Hunter, Dorothy. " This one's for the Farmer' e-catalogue, Surrey Art Gallery, BC, Canada. 2013
Laurence, Robin. Fall arts preview: Sylvia Grace Borda finds art in farms and sequins” in the Georgia Straight Newspaper, Vancouver, September 11 -18, 2013.
http://www.straight.com/arts/421776/fall-arts-preview-sylvia-grace-borda-finds-art-farms-and-sequins