Laura Piasta at Towards

Artist: Laura Piasta

Exhibition title: Chime Shift

Venue: Towards, Toronto, Canada

Date: May 30 – June 23, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Towards, Toronto

What does it mean to know a thing? Is it enough to understand its material qualities and physical form? Or is it something more fleeting and elusive – an appreciation of an intangible quality, one that is much more difficult to pin-down?

What does it mean to preserve a thing? To suspend it in time and place? To try and pause (if only momentarily) the continuous and relentless process of transformation?

What does it mean to replicate a thing? To create a copy, a facsimile. To cast it in bronze, or render it in plaster?

What does it mean to isolate a form? To remove it from its current context and situate it within a new space?

In Chime Shift, her first solo exhibition in Toronto, Laura Piasta continues to grapple with such questions. Comprised primarily of sculptural work that has been developed over the past two years, the exhibition weaves together Piasta’s long-standing interest in sound with her more materially driven sculptural practice.

Upon entering the gallery space, viewers are first confronted with Good Vibrations (Two), a set of cast bronze speakers developed during a residency in Copenhagen.

To its left appears Curtain for Chime Shift, a ceiling high sculptural piece that acts as a sort of index or Rosetta stone for the exhibition – hinting at influences, inspirations, and historical objects spanning from the bronze age right up until the near future.

As you move further throughout the space, you begin to notice an unfolding of layers. Steel sculptural forms are stacked upon one another, occupying both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional space at once. A transparent shirt is adorned with a snake like material and plaster cast nipples – both concealing and revealing simultaneously.

Piasta’s interests are similarly layered and complex. Elements of time, transformation, motherhood, and technology all coalesce and interweave throughout the exhibition. Through these fragments, Piasta creates a protracted space where meaning and narrative are continually being re-made.

Laura Piasta (b. 1981, Burnaby, Canada) is a Vancouver-based artist whose practice explores the agency of objects through a conceptually driven exploration of materials. Piasta received her MFA in 2012 from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in Sweden and her BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2006. Her work has been exhibited at a number of institutions and galleries in Europe and Canada including Auto Centre (Berlin, Germany); Bildmuseet (Umeå, Sweden); Romeo, (New York, US); Malmö Show Roo (Malmö, Sweden); The Charles H. Scott Gallery (Vancouver, Canada); The Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, Canada); and Or Gallery (Vancouver, Canada).

Laura Piasta, Chime Shift, 2019, exhibition view, Towards, Toronto

Laura Piasta, Curtain for Chime Shift, 2019, Digital print on Synthetic Chiffon, 86 x 40 in (218 x 101.5 cm)

Laura Piasta, Good Vibrations (Two), 2016, Patinated Bronze, Each speaker is 12 in (30 cm) diameter

Laura Piasta, Chime Shift, 2019, exhibition view, Towards, Toronto

Laura Piasta, Support Figure for a Nipple, 2019, Steel, Bronze Cast of Artists’ Nipple while Pregnant, Magnet, 49 x 18 x 28 in (124.5 x 46 x 71 cm); Support Figure for Ears, 2019, Steel, Copper Chain, Bronze Cast of Artists’ and Artists Husbands Ears, 42 x 23 x 12 in (107 x 58.5 x 30 cm)

Laura Piasta, Support Figure for Speaker, 2019, Steel, Hydro-stone plaster Speaker, Magnet, 46 x 34 x 28 (116 x 86 x x 71 cm); Support Figure for a Nipple, 2019, Steel, Bronze Cast of Artists’ Nipple while Pregnant, Magnet, 49 x 18 x 28 in (124.5 x 46 x 71 cm); Support Figure for Ears, 2019, Steel, Copper Chain, Bronze Cast of Artists’ and Artists Husbands Ears, 42 x 23 x 12 in (107 x 58.5 x 30 cm)

Laura Piasta, Support Figure for Speaker, 2019, Steel, Hydro-stone plaster Speaker, Magnet, 46 x 34 x 28 (116 x 86 x x 71 cm)

Laura Piasta, Support Figure for a Nipple, 2019, Steel, Bronze Cast of Artists’ Nipple while Pregnant, Magnet, 49 x 18 x 28 in (124.5 x 46 x 71 cm)

Laura Piasta, Support Figure for Ears, 2019, Steel, Copper Chain, Bronze Cast of Artists’ and Artists Husbands Ears, 42 x 23 x 12 in (107 x 58.5 x 30 cm)