The Oxygen Art Centre is bringing the acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Natalie Purschwitz to Nelson this weekend. Vancouver based Purschwitz arrived in Nelson on May 28 to install a show of new work that she is calling Proposed UFOs.
Purschwitz says the works act as an entry point to a fictional landscape, simultaneously surreal and familiar. The outfits and prints in the show will encourage the viewer to envision a proposal for an unlikely event. Purschwitz says that her inspiration for the title came from conceptual artist Julius Koller (1939–2007), who used the UFO acronym in various ways to describe the relationship between man and the cosmos, or the unknown.
Early on in the project, Purschwitz imagined bringing flamboyant, decorative clothing onto the mountaintops of BC, questioning the alienness of one to the other or challenging the beauty of nature as it is juxtaposed against culture.
Purschwitz is a multitalented artist who exhibits her artwork internationally, designs costumes for a wide range of productions and maintains a small clothing line called Hunt & Gather. She has studied at the University of Calgary (BA, Archaeology) the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Art and Science in New York, and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (BFA, Media Arts). In 2012 she was a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts International Residency award in Paris, France. Purschwitz grew up in the small East Kootenay town of Radium Hot Springs.
Proposed UFOs takes place at the Oxygen Art Centre. The exhibition runs from May 31 through to June 21. The artist will be present for the opening of the exhibition tomorrow night from 7 to 9 p.m. and will give a talk and presentation of her work Saturday at 4 p.m.
Oxygen Art Centre gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of British Columbia, Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, Columbia Basin Trust and the Hume Hotel.
For more info visit oxygenartcentre.org.