Coming together for the first time in my tenure without a prompt, the following issue nonetheless feels as though it is circling something specific, even if that something is difficult to name.
Emilie Neudorf
Emilie Neudorf is an emerging artist from Saskatoon SK, treaty 6 territory. She holds a BA double major in Sociology and Fine art (2019) and a BFA (2021) from the University of Saskatchewan. Her work has been shown at Nuit Blanche Saskatoon 2019, Nuit Blanche Eve USask 2019 & 2020, Saskatoon Fringe Festival, PAVED Arts (Saskatoon, SK), and The Gallery/Art Placement (Saskatoon, SK). Working in drawing, painting, and photography, Emilie explores the histories and shifting functions of social spaces – presenting questions about what public and private architecture reveals about the people and cultures who create and use them.
In his novel of the same name, science fiction author William Gibson once described pattern recognition as a “gift and a trap,” which is a generous way of saying we search for meaning even when it may or may not exist.
Several of the works in this issue consider how the domestic is shaped not only by private life but also by global currents, family histories, and consumer goods, nudging at the conditions that shape how we live, where we live, and with whom we choose to share our lives.
Traces act as evidence of repression, dispersion, unlikely affinities, secret histories, kinship, and artistic lineages.
The articles and projects in this issue stem from commissioned responses to the theme of “taste,” framed in part by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s text Distinction, which examines the relationship between taste and class.
Collaging elements from BlackFlash’s online and print archives, Emilie Neudorf considers relationships between the digital and physical.
