SHERRI CHABA "The Silence of Chaos," March 4 to May 15, 2011, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton

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"The Silence of Chaos"

Sherri Chaba, "The Silence of Chaos," installation view (details), 2010.

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Sherri Chaba, "The Silence of Chaos," installation view (details), 2010.

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"The Silence of Chaos"

Sherri Chaba, "The Silence of Chaos," installation view (details), 2010.

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SHERRI CHABA

The Silence of Chaos, March 4 to May 15, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton

BY: Ross Bradley

The idea of previewing an installation exhibition is somewhat daunting, as the nature of installation work is that it evolves as it’s created in the gallery space. Talking with Sherri Chaba about her upcoming exhibition, although there is a very well-defined concept in place, whether it will translate as envisioned is far from sure. As Chaba sees the work, the space will be enveloped in a cocoon of thin black wires stretched from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Perhaps it would be better described as the audience being wrapped in the dense web of wire which, given the visitor’s emotional state at the time, may feel warm and protective or claustrophobic and threatening.

The wires will share the gallery space with a series of more sculptural works that have been created from found objects, mostly industrial detritus, things that take on new meanings as they’re combined or juxtaposed with other unrelated or contrasting pieces. One of the first such objects is a ”pig”, or metal ball used to clear debris from pipelines, combined with an old scrub brush overseen by a watchful crow. It’s created an elegant abstract sculptural form that does not involve such a direct narrative.

One of the key elements of an installation work is the visitors’ experience of the work. Unlike other more object-based exhibitions, it’s important that the audience not remain passive. In The Silence of Chaos as in other recent works by Chaba, the audience is expected to become part of the work through the shadows cast by the wire web as they move through the space. Their participation will only be experienced by other visitors sharing the space with them. The artist’s challenge will be to ensure the lighting, which will need to be set before the wire cocoon is built, creates the desired effect in the finished installation.

For the past few years, Chaba’s work has been driven by her concern for the effects of our industrial-based society on the environment. This was triggered by a pipeline that was pushed through a family property, and the landscape it destroyed. More recently, her work has also explored a post-apocalyptic world — she read Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road. These visions of a world lost to a destructive industrial-based society are certainly not new in contemporary art, but in Chaba’s work the concept takes on a personal context through the materials she chooses, most of which come from her parents’ decades of collecting.

This will be a very busy year for Chaba. Although the Art Gallery of Alberta will host perhaps the highest-profile exhibition, she has three other installations planned for Alberta public galleries in the coming months. Prior to The Silence of Chaos, her work will be seen at Harcourt House Art Centre in Edmonton from January 6 to 12, and she’ll follow up the AGA exhibition with a show at the Red Deer and District Museum from July 17 to September 25. Her final exhibition (so far) runs at the Multicultural Heritage Centre in Stony Plain from August 26 to September 21. Albertans and visitors to the province over the next nine months should take advantage of this rare opportunity to share this thought-provoking work.