The Nature of Ornament highlights parallels between aesthetic patterns that exist naturally in the wild with humanity’s timeless inclinations towards adornment. Patterns are everywhere, and humans are pattern-seeking creatures. As mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861 – 1947) wrote, “Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.” The patterns, textures, and designs that adorn our garments, home interiors, and architectural structures reveal an innate mimicry of the natural world.

 

We can look at segmented leaf vein patterns in William Laing’s silkscreen titled Blue Print (2000), and compare them to the decorative tile shapes painted in Maggie E.M. Dunbar’s Gentrification/Arena #2 (1988). We can observe the vibrantly speckled fish in Illingworth Kerr’s drawing St. L (1972), and appreciate clear similarities with the colourful and geometrically patterned garments in Tom Hamilton’s figure painting, Untitled (1984). Floral repeat patterns inspired by natural repetition show up on vases and wallpapers as seen in William Laing’s mixed media work, Near and Far (1990), as well as on Mrs. Matsuno’s floral button-up shirt in John. Fukushima’s 1977 photographic portrait of her – affectingly set against a natural landscape painting with a foreground of repetitious leafy branches reaching inward toward Matsuno. The parallels between nature’s patterns and our own forms of ornamentation are ubiquitous, both in art and in daily life.

 

This exhibition features artworks from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) collection as well as from artists’ personal collections. The Nature of Ornament was curated by Ashley Slemming and includes eleven artists: Denys Cook, Maggie E.M. Dunbar, John Fukushima, Tom Hamilton, Illingworth Kerr, Irene Klar, William Laing, RFM McInnis, Gary Olson, Coral Poser, and McKenna Prather.