Where You Began Is Where You Find Your Ending

Over the course of the last 5 years (wow I'm not sure if I feel old or young based on this statement), I've evolved immensely but have also taken a look back at what has influenced and motivated me since the very beginning. Materials will change and subjects will shift, but there are certain ideas and outlooks that manage to bubble to the surface. I feel the title of our show (t-minus X days!) is fitting since you can always wipe the chalkboard clean, but there's always those ghostly marks that remain.

My biggest influence is one I was first introduced to in high school: Edward Burtynsky. Bonus points on being Canadian, Burtynsky has a very similar outlook and response to the subject matter of landscapes and human intervention. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at a conference a few years back and he is just as sensational of a speaker as he is an incredible photographer. Fun fact: his first solo show was actually at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery!

(Source - Edward Burtynsky)

(Source - Edward Burtynsky)

"Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction." - Edward Burtynsky (Source)

My second major influence would have to be Mark Lombardi. For those who remember our third year art history course (though he may have been mentioned in second year), Lombardi is a neoconceptual artist who creates these mind-map like drawings that document financial and political fraud. While most of the class was probably going "ugh Sol LeWitt and what the hell was Kosuth thinking," I was sitting there writing the most notes I probably had ever taken in an art history course. The beautiful web-like drawings that host a dark, haunting investigation is something I seek to figure out in my own work.

(Source: Pierogi Gallery)

There are certainly many other artists I admire and look back at occasionally, but I can safely say these are the two that have continued to permeate throughout my time at Waterloo. If I had to give one piece of advice to those who are going to be the next cohort of graduating students, it'd be to take a look back on what has influenced and motivated you time after time. Good chance that's what your body of work will be about (then again, it's never too late to change your mind).

Shiori Mine
www.shiorimine.com