Clare Samuel
Paracosms

June 5 - July 5, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday June 5, 6 - 8 PM


IMAGE: Ellie, from the series Paracosms, 2006

“Each generation is born into the shadow of the previous one, but far from helpless victims of circumstance, young people wield the possibility for change; children’s minds are boundless and constantly inventing. Researchers in child psychology have identified ‘paracosm’ as a particularly intense example of this. Not simply escapism, this ability points to an imaginative power to see the world anew, to renegotiate our relationship to the earth. This series questions how we choose to represent children in photography. While posed in a traditionally subordinate pose, I hope that imagination and a different perspective has imbued them with strength. From their apparently weak position they nonetheless stand before us, questioning and defying our cynical gravity. These images were created during a residency in the Republic of Ireland in 2006.”

Clare Samuel BIO
Clare Samuel is a Northern Irish artist living in Canada. She completed her BFA with honours in Photography at Ryerson University, and is now studying for her MFA in Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in Canada, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, and participated in residencies in Germany, Ireland and Canada. Her work deals with themes of borders, between people or places, and the concept of belonging.


EXHIBITION BROCHURE