Artist Statement
Continuing her work with transitional spaces, Toronto-based photographer Maureen O’Connor embarks on a new series exploring the idea of "Threshold". Introducing animals as representational figures or archetypes, she explores divergent narratives in our experience of time and memory. O'Connor illustrates her interpretation of Threshold as a boundary at which a certain reaction/phenomenon must occur and be manifested. Her large scale landscapes are dramatic, transitory narratives commenting on beauty and fragility where a new dialogue can emerge.
Maureen is a life-long animal lover and the photographs from the Threshold series are produced with the cooperation of local sanctuaries and zoos. The animals are photographed on location in the abandoned dwellings with the greatest care and respect for these wonderful creatures. These images are photographed traditionally with film. By photographing Canadian animals in abandoned and crumbling domestic architecture, Maureen O’Connor raises questions about how nature and the built environment intersect.
She sees these spaces as transformative, evoking memory and showing the beauty and fragility of the animals and the architecture. While the juxtaposition may appear odd, her images convey a sense of calm, and have a fairy tale like quality. We are invited to cross the threshold and imagine new narratives where the natural world and the domestic world meet, and consider how this informs our identity in a country defined by both its wild landscape and its orderly cities.
Biography
Maureen O’Connor is a fine art photographer living in Toronto and is a graduate of Ontario College of Art & Design. Currently a temporary installation of a few images from the Threshold series is on view at the Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 3. Maureen has most presently won 2015 Best Photography Award at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. In 2014 Maureen was awarded a Visual Arts Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Maureen O’Connor’s work is on exhibition at the AGO with AGO art rental + sales gallery. Maureen’s photographs are in numerous private collections, she sells her work privately and through galleries.
With gratitude to the Canada Council for the Arts for their support.
