Elaine Cameron-Weir, Bookends
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB - Sep 18 – Nov 21
Curated by Tak Pham, Bookends celebrates the Alberta University of the Arts’ centennial with alumna Elaine Cameron-Weir, who is recognized internationally for her industrial and conceptually driven sculptures. Cameron-Weir was raised in Central Alberta before moving to New York, and her upbringing laid the foundation for her fascination with the intersections of nature, machinery and systems of human survival.
As Colby Chamberlain so eloquently pointed out in Artforum in December 2019, Cameron-Weir’s practice resists categorization or easy alignment with any single tradition or ideology. Her work is an intriguing synthesis of pop culture, doomsday aesthetics, Silicon Valley nomenclature and warfare signifiers that conflates religion, eroticism and scientific experimentation into exquisitely rendered reliquaries.
Wrote Chamberlain: “A BDSM dungeon for alchemist Bitcoin investors. A druid hideaway in the abandoned Palo Alto headquarters of the corporation Theranos. A crossover between Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones where Walter White cooks meth for White Walkers... This is the kind of prose that the art of Elaine Cameron-Weir inspires.”
She is known for handcrafted elements such as metalwork and leather tooling, which are combined with found objects, materials like glass and stone, and ephemeral elements such as flame, scent and neon light. The provocative works are often hoisted midair by a meticulously engineered framework of pulleys and cables that juxtapose weightlessness with constraint.
Bookends will expand on Cameron-Weir’s artistic inquiry into counterculture, popular iconography and apocalyptic aesthetics, and it will bring a major new body of work to Canadian audiences. The show marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Canada in more than a decade and presents a rare opportunity to host a significant homecoming exhibition for an internationally renowned artist. Her recent exhibitions of note include to ignite our skin, at SculptureCenter, Long Island City (2025); The Milk of Dreams, at the 59th Venice Biennale, and Dressing for Windows (Exploded View), a solo show at the SCAD Museum of Art (both 2022); and New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century, at BAMPFA (2021).
Opening reception Sep 17, 5–8pm
