Linda Carreiro, An Artistic Dissection

Allison Cooper, 2009

On October 7, 2009, an artist guest speaker was hosted at the Glen P. Sutherland Gallery of Art, organized by the Department of Visual and Aboriginal Art. Linda Carreiro, a former Brandonite, a recipient of grants from the Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and is the current associate professor of painting and anatomical drawing from the University of Calgary. Her artwork hasbeen exhibited in Canada and Internationally.

Carreiro’s lecture consisted of a presentation of her more recent artwork accompanied by a slide presentation of photographs of her innovative work. Increasingly working in drawing and printmaking in, her work explores the themes of the human body and language. The Italian 18th century wax models of flayed cadavers from the Museo La Specola in Florence have influenced her perception of the body as a layered container.

An earlier piece reinterprets a vintage wood filing cabinet, such as one that might have stored library catalogue cards instead contains drawings of body parts. Carreiro views books as a container, another form of the body, and the written word is investigated through translation and adaptation theory. Referencing the layered writing and multiple meanings found in historical palimpsests, she writes and draws with lemon juice on rice paper and then sears it with a flame to reveal her creations. Other work involves altering books, such as creating a miniature Spanish galleon excised from the pages of an edition of Don Quixote or transcribing into Braille onto a wall the title of Homer’s epic The Odyssey, created by punching 3mm thick dots through used paperback editions of the same title.

A mixture of students, faculty, and general public attended the evening lecture. This was the first of a series of guest lecturers to be hosted by the Visual and Aboriginal Arts Department this coming academic year.