From Russia With Love

From Russia with Love
Drawing/Installation
By Tara Bursey

October 1-31, 2006.
Fly Gallery
1172 Queen St. West
Toronto

From Russia with Love bookwork/multiple can be purchased at Babel Books and Music (123 Ossington Avenue, Toronto) for length of exhibition only.

From Russia with Love is an installation featuring 72 portraits of Russian “mail order brides” drawn from photographs on internet sites. The installation is an extension of the artist’s previous work exploring serial portraiture- yearbook photos, WWII military portraits- and the idea of portraits of this nature serving as “human catalogues.” Using the laborious act of drawing each woman’s likeness by hand, the piece attempts to subvert the idea of these women being catalogued, while alluding to their commodification through their presentation within a storefront installation and bookwork “catalogue” multiple.

Tara Bursey is a recent graduate of the Toronto School of Art’s diploma program, and a former student at Ontario College of Art and Design. An artist whose practice encompasses sculpture and installation as well as drawing, printmaking and craft, Tara’s work is characterized by its ethereal quality, and an often obsessive use of repetition, pattern and delicate sculptural materials such as eggshells, garlic skin, found garments and paper. During her studies at the Toronto School of Art, Tara was the recipient of TSA’s Barbara Barrett Scholarship (2004) and Matthew David Stein Scholarship (2005). In the past two years, she has exhibited extensively throughout the city in such diverse venues as Open Studio, MOCCA, Eastern Front Gallery, Fly Gallery, and Propeller Centre for the Arts. Tara’s most recent projects include an artist’s talk entitled “Zines: A Short History of the Underground Publication” and a solo exhibition, White Wash, which employed both found, fabricated and altered institutional garments as a means of addressing the constructive/destructive nature of systems. In addition to her work as a fine artist, Tara also operates actively within Toronto’s independent music and small-press communities as a
DJ, illustrator, designer and writer. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.