Sonja Ahlers

The Artist: Sonja Ahlers

The Lowdown: In Book of Small, a three-woman Victoria exhibition, Vancouver artist Ahlers looks to create an immersive installation based in her cross-disciplinary research into Beatrix Potter and Emily Carr. The diverse show also includes multimedia work by Ginger Brooks Takahashi (Brooklyn) and an ephemeral intervention/installation by Sarah Cain (Oakland).

Coordinates: Book of Small opens next Friday (May 6) and runs until June 5 at the Open Space Arts Society (510 Fort Street, Victoria). The exhibit will be accompanied by a publication of the same name. An artist talk takes place at noon next Saturday (May 7).

Process oriented: Ahlers's interests revolve around the connections between art, craft, and architecture, as mediated by the personal histories of selected women artists. Influenced by both pop culture-she loves the band Heart-and art history, the artist deftly skirts this dichotomy through her love for the biographical. Borrowed images, quotations, and diaristic rants are intertwined throughout Ahlers's recent 2-D book work, Fatal Distraction (2004), in a way that complicates assumptions about subjectivity. Besides a proliferation of silk-screened images, Sharpie drawings, and sewn patterns, found fabrics will play an essential role in this expansive, and somewhat obsessive, installation.

What it all Means: "The thing that fascinates me about Emily Carr is how her name is forever tossed around in this city. No one really pays attention to who she really was," says Ahlers in an interview at a local basketball court. "I respect her work, but I'm more interested in her influence, her writing, and her work ethic."

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