Libby Hague exhibits at SNAP

My Story of Sublimation March 4 - April 8, 2023, Snap (Society of Northern Alberta Print- Artists) Edmonton, Alberta Undressing, woodcut sequence, 86 x 22 x 2.5 in.,
Above: Detail of Simple Gifts, as it was installed at Open Studio, Toronto and now, newly adapted to Snap.
Above: detail from Stranger, augmented reality animation Over time my father who was a physicist and an engineer, could no longer find his way home. Despite his forgetfulness (Alzheimer's) he always delighted in the idea of sublimation. "Do you know what sublimation is?" he would ask. Tell me again, I would answer. "Sublimation is when ice is transformed directly into a gas without melting". It seems to skip this intermediate step and just disappears. This work is about the mystery of changing states, of disappearing from one form and assuming another. It speculates, stretching the imagination, as it tries to picture the other side of life. Sublimation combines two bodies of work. The first, Simple Gifts, is a woodcut installation that began as a response to migration crises and broadened into a story of people in desperate circumstances seeking a better life by helping each other and themselves. It's three sections are modelled on Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, a descent into brutality, an escape story and a resting place. The resting place is also a vision of heaven, that is, the hope of reuniting with family and friends. The second, Bring me the Sunset in a Cup, derives from the fundamental weirdness of augmented reality experiments. In time bending experiments, small vignettes are part of feedback loops from woodcut to AR to watercolour and back. It glimpses worlds/ people/ states that are invisible for one reason or another; in particular, it looks at the moment of transformation from one state to another. After all, I am my father's daughter. In addition, outside the gallery there will be an aumented reality animation accessible on phones and devices through a QR code. This work called Stranger, imagines that after 1005 days of isolation, two unusual individuals venture out to a dance to meet new people. New people, it turns out, are different than they recalled; still, there is curiosity, and mutual attraction. Thank you to The Artificial Museum and the The System Collective, Vienna, and the supportive Snap team including Caitlin Bodewitz and Ashna Jacob, and Chelsey Campbell for her 360 photo .
The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

My Story of Sublimation
March 4 - April 8, 2023, Snap (Society of Northern Alberta Print- Artists) Edmonton, Alberta Undressing: A sequence of events from left to right: A woman undressing; a twisted sculpture partially conceals a twisted figure; 2 red waves; a florescent yellow rectangle of paper; a speed skater / rescuer rushes in; a third red wave

Undressing, woodcut sequence, 86 x 22 x 2.5 in.,

Hell / Purgatory from Simple gifts: Many small figures in a woodcut installation transposed into a contemporary scene of aggression, disaster and migration.

Above: Detail of Simple Gifts, as it was installed at Open Studio, Toronto and now, newly adapted to Snap.

brightly coloured strange individuals dancing

Above: detail from Stranger, augmented reality animation

Over time my father who was a physicist and an engineer, could no longer find his way home. Despite his forgetfulness (Alzheimer's) he always delighted in the idea of sublimation. "Do you know what sublimation is?" he would ask. Tell me again, I would answer. "Sublimation is when ice is transformed directly into a gas without melting". It seems to skip this intermediate step and just disappears.

This work is about the mystery of changing states, of disappearing from one form and assuming another. It speculates, stretching the imagination, as it tries to picture the other side of life.

Sublimation combines two bodies of work. The first, Simple Gifts, is a woodcut installation that began as a response to migration crises and broadened into a story of people in desperate circumstances seeking a better life by helping each other and themselves. It's three sections are modelled on Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, a descent into brutality, an escape story and a resting place. The resting place is also a vision of heaven, that is, the hope of reuniting with family and friends.

The second, Bring me the Sunset in a Cup, derives from the fundamental weirdness of augmented reality experiments. In time bending experiments, small vignettes are part of feedback loops from woodcut to AR to watercolour and back. It glimpses worlds/ people/ states that are invisible for one reason or another; in particular, it looks at the moment of transformation from one state to another. After all, I am my father's daughter.

In addition, outside the gallery there will be an aumented reality animation accessible on phones and devices through a QR code. This work called Stranger, imagines that after 1005 days of isolation, two unusual individuals venture out to a dance to meet new people. New people, it turns out, are different than they recalled; still, there is curiosity, and mutual attraction.

Thank you to The Artificial Museum and the The System Collective, Vienna, and the supportive Snap team including Caitlin Bodewitz and Ashna Jacob, and Chelsey Campbell for her 360 photo .

The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. canada council for the arts logo