Vikky Alexander: Model Suites
February 10 through March 10, 2007

Vikky Alexander: Model Suites
February 10 through March 10, 2007

TrépanierBaer is delighted to present Model Suites, an exhibition of photographic works by Vikky Alexander shown for the first time in Canada. “With this series, I continue my interest in the area where architecture and nature collide,” says Alexander. The show is part of Exposure 2007: The Calgary/Banff Month of Photography, which runs from February 1 through February 28, 2007.

In Model Suites, Alexander is particularly interested in exploring the modernist tendency for incorporating landscapes into buildings and the notion of domestic utopia. The show features four large, colour photographs (102 x 152.5 cm.) taken in a condominium display suite used by real estate developers and marketers to pre-sell condominiums that have not yet been built. Although located on the ground floor of the building, the panoramic backlit landscape images, visible through the window frames, give the viewer the impression that he or she is on an upper floor. Upon closer inspection, it is evident that the landscape views presented in the rooms do not match: the bedroom vista shows a nighttime view while the view from the dining room reveals a daytime scene. These unnatural landscapes are both spatially and temporally impossible.

Model Suites continues Alexander’s innovative exploration of the relationship between nature and architecture. Alexander’s previous photographic series such as West Edmonton Mall (1988), Disneyland (1992), and Las Vegas (1994) have focused on this theme; Model Suites takes the notion a step further, creating a discourse between the Beautiful and the Sublime.

Model Suites was featured in the exhibition Inter-Tidal: Vancouver Art and Artists at MUKHA, Antwerp, Belgium in December 2005. TrépanierBaer is pleased to present Model Suites for the first time in Canada.

Vikky Alexander was born in Victoria, British Columbia and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, graduating with her BFA in 1979. She currently lives and works in Vancouver while teaching in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Victoria. Alexander has exhibited her photographic and sculptural works extensively both nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions. She is represented in the collections of The National Gallery of Canada, The Vancouver Art Gallery, and Glenbow amongst others.