Weird things floating in the waters of city harbours are
hardly unusual, so, at first glance, photographs of Doug Guildford’s
nets and other sculptural pieces bobbing in the water against the
Toronto skyline might not look out of the ordinary. Guildford, a
Halifax-raised artist who’s made Toronto his home for 30 years, still
strongly feels the lure of the ocean. Since acquiring two properties in
Lunenburg County, he’s split his time between Nova Scotia and Ontario,
his studio practice heavily influenced by summers on the south shore.
He’s also lived in Vancouver and spent time house-sitting for artist
friends on Toronto’s Ward’s Island, so water is predominant in his
psyche.
Guildford’s background was in printmaking—still present in the
exhibit, but not the highlight—and it was nine years ago that he
began the body of sculptural work that dominates his show Between
the Tides at Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery. Initially
focusing on natural elements, plants and plankton-like life forms in
the water, he gradually became interested in the human-made items he
found along the coastline, what he refers to as “cultural debris.” His
sculptural works integrate found nets, buoys and floats, or use
materials like wire and thread to evoke these objects.
Delicate and ambiguous, his sculptures could be netting or aquatic
life forms. He crochets wire, extends found nets with wool or wire, or
knits structures to entangle buoys. “Skirt,” a net of pink wire still
attached umbilically to its reel, brings to mind knitted works by
artists like Germaine Koh. It’s common for female artists to use
traditionally feminine crafts like crocheting to make a statement about
gender roles, but less so for male artists.
Guildford acknowledges this importance of the idea of gender within
his work. He notes a divide between his more masculine pieces—ones
like “Net,” a large structure of steel wire and glass hung on the wall,
and other works with sturdier materials—compared to “Heirloom,” a new
work that’s simply a crocheted silk cloth, albeit one that suggests a
net or seaweed. As a gay man, Guildford is interested in the ambiguity
of gender he found in aquatic creatures: how some animals change their
gender throughout their life, and a generally “less dichotomous
territory of nature.”
The artist is also interested in engaging with the social history of
the area. Born in Shelburne County, since taking up summer residence at
his Lunenburg home, he says, “It’s been great to find a sense of
community—meeting people my age who never left the area.” Speaking
from his Toronto studio where, ironically, he’s worried a thaw will
cause flooding in his work space, he says, “It’s easy to romanticize
this, and I do,” but does it with a strong interest in the culture of
the area he left as a child. When the lobster market began collapsing
in the fall, he followed the dilemmas of local fishers closely, both
sympathetic to his friends and envious of their lifestyle.
Outside of the gallery, the sculptures have all taken their turns
being displayed in harbours and coastlines, but Guildford says he’s
mostly been “sneaking around with them,” photographing them more or
less privately. “I’ve been wanting to more brazenly go in that
territory [of public display],” he says. “I’m not going to the
government wharf—but I want to.” He calls this a “rough version of
the formal gallery.” One piece was displayed near the ferry docks at
Ward’s Island in Toronto and people got curious as he installed
it—crossing the divide between art and the public works
department.
Pictures of Guildford’s nets being washed by waves along shorelines
recall the earth art movement, particularly the water-based sculptures
of Robert Smithson or Andy Goldsworthy, or Ana Mendieta’s questioning
of gender through earthworks. But the placement of his work in Halifax
feels charged in another way: it hasn’t been long that our oft-failing
sewage treatment plant has been in operation. Local artists have
collected rocks, seaweed and tampon applicators in gallery spaces, and
one of the highlights of the show is browsing a collection of
Guildford’s sketchbooks and oceanic debris. Guildford’s recycling of
ocean garbage feels like a nod to ecology and call for an awareness of
what’s washing up on our shores.
Doug Guilford’s Between the Tides at
Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery until February 22. Catalogue
launch, Thursday, February 19, 8pm.
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2009.