2007
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In contrast [Blaine Campbell's work] bring[s] the viewer into
the space of a relationship rather
than the space of the photograph.
Campbell's work, An Abstraction
(2007), arrests the viewer, reminding
her of something she has seen
before. The photograph is composed with colours that
one expects only from a painted landscape, perhaps
by Lawren Harris or A.Y. Jackson. It thus presents the
Canadian landscape, so near and dear to the heart of
Canadian identity, history and certainly art history, as
both familiar and most unheimlich.
— Vanessa Sorenson, catalogue essay for The Most Violent Thing
An Abstraction depicts a mountain near Jasper Park, Alberta. Imprinted on its side is an amorphous pattern created by forest fire and subsequent heat-kill of the surrounding trees; the pattern is somewhat abstract, reminiscent of some of the work of the Group of Seven.
An Abstraction was included in the exhibition The Most Violent Thing at Republic Gallery, 15 October – 13 December, 2008.
