Lorraine Field
About the Artist
Lorraine Field has a BFA and an MA in Art Ed from NSCAD. She has been a grant recipient of the Canada Council, the Nova Scotia Art Council, the Banff Centre, and the Barbara Spohr Award for Contemporary Photography. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and is in the following collections: the Art Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Halifax Harbour Commission, and Government House, Halifax.
Artist Statement
I am interested in how the photographic process is resolved into imagery that can explore issues as varied as feminism, global tourism, migration, oil production, and environmental concerns through landscape, movement, and temporality. Along with this conceptual framework that informs my choice of imagery, I am interested in what Roland Barthes calls the affect of the image. This is ultimately a non-verbal condition of photography he explores “not as a question (a theme) but as a wound: I see, I feel, hence, I observe, and I think.” (Barthes 1980: 21) In my work I strive to realize the marriage of a considered conceptual ground with an image that through its affect compels the viewer to see, feel, observe, and think.
At the edge of Infinity
These images were made in the Syrian Desert before the uprising and civil war that began in 2011. They are from a place and time that I cannot access now, except through memory. They were not made for a specific project, but are a random collection of images accumulated moment by moment in the course of visiting this country and meeting the people that live there.
I began visiting Syria in 2004 to photograph various projects and it was through my constant guide, Ghassan Al Salah who interpreted the language, customs, and landscape, that I came to an understanding of desert life. The vastness of the desert always compelled me to return. The Syrian Desert in central Homs, near the Oasis of Tadmor, has a strange quality that I did not find in other deserts of the Middle East. As you stand facing east that the ground slants down and away from you and it seems if you let yourself fall you would roll for several hundred kilometers until you arrived at Baghdad. This desert is the visual representation of infinity and the sensation of falling seems to heighten this visual perception.
I cannot claim these images are accurate in a documentary sense, but they approach the sensibility of the memory I retain of that place and the people who are shaped by that desert landscape.
C.V.
Education
Master of Arts in Art Education, 2004
Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1997- Photography, Ceramics, Digital Imaging, Minor in Art History -
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Grants and Awards
CFAT Scholar fall 2011
Finalist, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia - Masterworks Arts Award, 2007
Canada Council Creation Grant, 2004
Nova Scotia Arts Council, Presentation Grant, 2003
Nova Scotia Arts Council, Creation Grant, 2003
Nova Scotia Arts Council, Presentation Grant, 2001
Canada Council Creation Grant, 2001
Nova Scotia Arts Council, Professional Development Grant, 2000
Financial Assistance Grant Banff Centre for the Arts Residency, 2000
Barbara Spohr Award at the Banff Centre for Photography, 2000
Nova Scotia Arts Council, Creation Grant, 1998
Solo Exhibitions
Body/Field: Temporal Inscriptions - PAVIA Gallery, Herring Cove, Canada, 2014
Casa Dell Arte, Istanbul, Turkey
Vanishing Point - Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax, Canada, 2009
Call and Response - LePont Gallery, Aleppo, Syria, 2009
Body/Field: Temporal Inscriptions - Leica Istanbul Photography Center, 2008
Illuminated Petragraphs: Prairie Series - CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival, Gallery 44: Vitrines, 2007
Illuminated Petragraphs - Fotograf Evi/ Canadian Embassy in Turkiye, Istanbul, Turkey, 2006
Present/Past - 2nd International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Shumen, Bulgaria, 2006
Illuminated Petragraphs - Nikon Fototrek Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2005
Some Canadian Landscapes/ Made in China - Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey, 2004
Some Canadian Landscapes/ Made in China - The Photo Passage, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada, 2003
Some Canadian Landscapes/ Made in China - Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Canada, 2002
My Maiden Name is Body - Web based project: www.maiden-name-Body.com, Installations in Halifax, Canada and Istanbul, Turkey, 2003
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
Gallery Artists - PAVIA Gallery, Herring Cove, Canada, 2014
Contrary Voices, Changeable Realities - Kare Galley, Istanbul Turkey, 2011
Womens Art Festival - Allepo, Syria, 2010
Where is My Privacy? - Casa Dell Arte, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
Toronto Arts and Fashion Week - |FAT|, 2009
Photopolis: Searching for Paradise - Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, Canada, 2008
Çanakkale International Biennial of Contemporary Art - Çanakkale, Turkey, 2008
Atlantica Colectivas: Fotonoviembre - Tenerife , Spain, 2007
White Night Festival of the Arts - Canakkale, Turkey, 2007
Festival of Photography - Contemporary Arts Museum, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2007
Carvansari - Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2006
Golyazi Project - Golyazi, Turkey, 2006
Exhibit A -
- St Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax, Canada, 2004
- Memorial University Art Gallery - St John’s, Canada, 2005
- Prefixphoto Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2005
The International Photography Days - University of the Near East, North Cyprus, 2005
The 8th International Photography Gathering - Aleppo, Syria, 2004
Artistes Canadiens de Nouvelle-Ecosse - Conseil General du Puy-de-Dome, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2003
Works in Collections
Leica Istanbul Photography Center (2008)
Fotograf Evi, Istanbul, Turkey (2006)
Nikon Fototrek Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey (2005)
Nova Scotia Art Bank Collection, Canada (2000, 2003)
Government House, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (2003)
Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (2002)
Greater Halifax Partnership, Halifax, Canada (1997)
Exhibitions Curated
Women Artists of the Art Bank Collection: A Twenty-five Year Contribution to the Visual Arts.
Nov. 27, 2001 - April. 27, 2002; Government House, Halifax, Canada.
Publications
Syrian Desert - Literary Supplement, Prefix Photo Sixteen, Winter 2008
Selected Reviews and Articles
Hartland-Rowe, Sara. “Lorraine Field: Vanishing Point”. Cmagazine 104, Winter 2009.
Gibson Garvey, Susan. “Canadian Art International: Lorraine Field: Photography Center, Istanbul”. Canadian Art, Winter 2008.
Refik Akyuz, ed. “Aydinlatilmis Petragraflar, Lorrain Field”. genis aci 40, March – April 2005. Istanbul, Turkey.
Refik Akyuz, ed. Interview “cin yapimi/kanada manzaralari”. genis aci 39, January – February 2005. Istanbul, Turkey.
MacLean, Scott, ed. “Portfolio: Illuminated Petragraphs, Lorraine Field”. Prefix Photo Ten, November 2004. Toronto, Canada.
MacLean, Scott, ed. “Portfolio: Some Canadian Landscapes/Made in China, Lorraine Field”. Prefix Photo Eight, Spring 2004. Toronto, Canada.
Majka, Christopher. “From here to there and back again: Artist Chronicles Famous Canadian Tourism Spots”. Visual Arts News, Autumn, 2002 Halifax, Canada
Nemetz, Andrea. “Female points of view”. The Sunday Herald, March 10, 2002.Halifax, Canada.
Roberts, Rebecca. “Alumnus Lorraine Field”. 5163, Winter, 2002. Halifax, Canada.
Roberts, Rebecca. “Some Canadian Landscapes/Made in China, Lorraine Field”. Arts Atlantic, vol. 19 No. 4, fall 2002. Halifax, Canada.
Smulders, Marilyn. “Women Artists of the Art Bank: A Twenty-five Year Contribution to the Visual Arts”. Visual Arts News, Winter, 2002. Halifax, Canada
Teaching Experience
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax Canada
Lecturer, Photography (Foundation)
Winter 2009- present
Constructed Forms (Foundation)
Winter 2009
IB Visual Arts Examiner, Middle East Region
November 2004 -- 2008
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada
Introduction to Photography, Basic Black and White Photography, Colour Photography
September 2002 – June 2003
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada
Art theory and practice for Middle School Students
September 2001 – June 2002