Jen Aitken
Poda

May 29- June 14, 2014
Opens: Thursday, May 29th, 7-10pm

Aitken’s recent sculptures, part of an ongoing series titled Poda, are made primarily of cast concrete and polyurethane foam. They communicate material and process as principal content while obscuring and revealing constitutive information. Each piece consists of multiple stacked or fused interlocking components, and was created over time with an additive part-by-part construction method. Aitken designs her work within a three-dimensional framework restricted to forty-five- and ninety-degree angles and correlated radii. This generative system and the repeated shapes within it unify the different sculptures and suggest an architectural or linguistic structure. The related series of loose isometric drawings depict hypothetical forms that conform to the same grid system, and focus on creating an oscillation between volumetric form and flat shape. The sculptures and drawings both allude to various periods of modernist art and architecture, as well as familiar elements of the built environment. Aitken works to resist definitive references, however, and convey an unfamiliar specificity that demands slow and deliberate perception. Aitken recently completed her MFA at the University of Guelph, and is now based in Toronto.