A professional artist today, Bordo has always loved art.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a child, I went to a school with a strong art program. I painted. I played saxophone. My parents always encouraged my interest in art,\u201d she said in an interview with the Independent<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n After a bachelor\u2019s in liberal arts and print media at Concordia University in Montreal (2014) and master of fine arts degree in visual art at the University of British Columbia (2020), Bordo teaches printmaking at UBC. But her artistic interests range much wider than printmaking. Her newly emerging passions include the creation of installations and woodworking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI started woodworking last spring,\u201d she said. \u201cIn this show, I use different woods: maple, cherry, walnut. I\u2019m fascinated by the process of turning wood into sculptures. In a way, woodworking is similar to printmaking. Both use technology but, unlike two-dimensional printmaking, woodworking offers three dimensions. In woodworking, I try to find the story of the material, try to immerse in material-based research to investigate the self as a created subject.\u201d<\/p>\n Bordo began woodworking when she started her ongoing installation project, The Denise File.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is almost a work of detective fiction, written through physical space,\u201d she explained. Using found postcards written to someone named Denise, Bordo \u201cwanted to reconstruct who the elusive Denise is, to figure out what the letters meant, to show her essence through objects, sculptures and drawings.\u201d<\/p>\n She built some wooden furniture for The Denise File \u2013 a screen and a chair \u2013 and wanted to do more, to explore all she could do with wood. Her current show, comprised mostly of several sculptures, has its roots in a Jewish magic class she took at her synagogue in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to understand Jewish history, its mysticism and its superstitions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Each figure on the gallery wall could have originated from the ancient writings of many nations.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be ancient Hebrew or Aramaic or even Greek,\u201d Bordo mused. \u201cAll the cultures in that region were interconnected. I see the entire show as a healing amulet, but I didn\u2019t want to assign my own meanings to the individual figures. I wanted them to be mysteries for my viewers to investigate. I wanted the viewers to be detectives and I didn\u2019t want to influence them with my personal vision, didn\u2019t want to limit their imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why she titled every \u201cConstellation\u201d figure with a number. \u201cThey could be stick figures \u2013 they are very simple \u2013 but I see them as constellations, stars connected to each other,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the show is called Morning Star. The world is a difficult place right now, and the morning star is a symbol of renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n Bordo\u2019s constellations are deceptive, looking a bit like wooden hieroglyphs, or perhaps molecular structures, each with its own character.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one with a leg sticking out of the wall \u2013 it wanted to be playful, maybe escape from the wall,\u201d she said. \u201cI was looking for harmony when I worked on them, but I didn\u2019t want to force them into locked shapes. I wanted to give them their own personalities. Besides, I try to respect the wood I work with. It is alive. There are many ways one could interpret a wooden sculpture.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to the constellations on the gallery walls, there is also a video called Potion<\/i>, which comprises four minutes of rotating green abstract patterns. Postcards with a single image from the video form another part of the installation. The text on the back of the postcards reveals the artist\u2019s motto for this show: \u201cIdeas are to objects as constellations are to stars.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There is also a small table with a slab of pink salt on it.<\/p>\n \u201cPlacing salt in your pockets and in the corners of rooms was a well-known Jewish superstition to ward off malevolent spirits,\u201d Bordo said. The table with the salt stands in the corner of the gallery, hopefully repulsing malice. We all need that in our troubled times, she explained.<\/p>\n The show opened Jan. 5 and will be on display until Feb. 7. To learn more, go to the artist\u2019s website, withoutimages.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/jan-12-cov.12.Rosamunde-Bordo_photo-courtesy.jpg\")
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