Unseen Landscapes
October 4 to 20, 2024
Artist Statement
Hamilton’s ongoing inquiry and interest in the landscapes explores the constant movement that we don’t often see. The lamp-posts, mailboxes and street signs that share space with trees, lawns and bushes seem to have an uneasy relationship. Sometimes these places can be uninviting rather than ideal. They exude banality yet have a foreboding quality of a film-noir, where the focus on the everyday can expose other dimensions that familiarity can sometimes mask. Hamilton explores the neighborhoods of Victoria through a series of drawings in charcoal, chalk and pastel creating a visual relationship that merges the seemingly ordinary with the complex and profound. As the cityscape constantly changes, a portrait of these places emerge. Places that are both ordinary and complex but also familiar and unknown.
My neighborhood in Victoria, B.C. is my source. I find that constant interaction with these familiar landscapes allows me a deeper connection as I get to know their individual nuances and character, such as the way a goal post on a field looks against the sky. While I focus on certain elements such as the composition and individual features, I do not include the people who inhabit these places. Instead, I am more concerned with the act of constantly passing through these areas without this information. I mostly work in black and white and I enhance the contrast of light and shadow. The place takes on a film-like quality. It is a place that is uninviting rather than ideal. It exudes the banal yet foreboding quality of a film-noir, where the focus on the everyday can expose other dimensions that familiarity can sometimes mask.
I use photos and memory for reference and then work with the image to explore the subject further. I ask what this seemingly non-narrative scene can reveal about the people who occupy or pass through these spaces. By changing the scale of objects or the perspective from which the subject is viewed, I am seeking to create a visual relationship that merges the seemingly ordinary with the complex and profound
Opening night:
Friday, October 4, 2024, 7 to 9 p.m.
Artist Talk:
Sunday, October 13 at 2 p.m.
Gallery hours:
Continues every weekend from Saturday, October 5 until Sunday, October 20 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
About the Artist
Suzanne C. Hamilton is a contemporary artist residing in Victoria BC. She was a member of the Boxcar Artists Collective and received her diploma in fine arts from the Vancouver Island School of Art in 2021. In addition to drawing she also paints, photographs, and creates installations. While her work is rooted in the representational Suzanne is primarily concerned with its potential as a visual language to convey and discuss abstract ideas. Architecture, space, landscape and their interrelated narratives are ongoing inspirations that continue to inform her current artistic practice. Her work has been shown in galleries in the Greater Victoria area and is in several private collections across Canada.
You can find more information about Suzanne and her art on Instagram and on her website.
Xchanges gratefully acknowledges the support of the Province of British Columbia and the Capital Regional District for our gallery programs.
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