Lex Barrie Episode #5 Right Lane

Being in the right lane was always on Lex's mind. Knowing she wanted to be an Astronomer as a child was part of the challenge in knowing where she wanted to be; the only problem was difficulty with Mathematics. This didn't phase Lex, it made the goal more appealing.  

They are a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design University's Criticism and Curatorial Practices, with a minor in Fine Art and Mixed Media. Focusing on finding the smallest joys in our everyday life, which reconnects our inner child to our current selves.

Lex's curatorial practices have ranged from numerous shows from TOAF, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto Society of Artists (TSA), the Archive of Ontario, and OCAD Emerging Drawing and Painting Students. They have had a lengthy career as a Critic with articles in Academic Journals, Artist Magazines following exhibitions and events, including Nuit Blanche, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the artist-run centre Propeller Gallery. Lex's writing circle around gender, sexuality, societal conformity, philosophical concepts, and individualization.

To connect with Lex: https://www.lexbarrie.ca/

Transcript

Carolyn Botelho 0:03

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Creatively Thinking Podcast. Join Carolyn Botello as she uncovers the inspirations behind some incredibly creative minds that are orbiting our local communities. So hi Lex Berry. How are you? Welcome to the Creatively Thinking Podcast. I am happy you are our guest today. You are a graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University's curatorial and criticism program. That's a that's a mouse ball.

Lex Barrie 0:45

Yeah, we used to say uh CRCP. That was uh our short version of it. But yeah, I'm I'm really happy to be here. Thank you so much for asking me to do this. I've never never done a podcast episode before. So that's good. That's good. This is new for me, but I'm not sure.

Carolyn Botelho 0:59

You were dabbling in fine art and mixed media, and your work orbits around gender, sexuality, societal conformity, individualization, mysticism, and philosophy. Whoa, those are uh so some impressive topics to cover.

Lex Barrie 1:21

I like to dabble in lots.

Carolyn Botelho 1:23

That'll keep you busy, that's for sure.

Lex Barrie 1:26

Oh, it does.

Carolyn Botelho 1:30

Working as a as a critic and a photographer has diversified your portfolio, including numerous shows at galleries such as the Artist Run Center Propeller Gallery, the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, the Ontario Society of Artists, and the Royal Ontario Museum. You have written articles for many artist journals and art magazines. So let's jump right into sort of the deep end of how you manage to connect these distinct and unique subjects. Is there a sort of deep understanding at play? Is it a circumstantial sort of connection, or is there another reason they work together so well?

Lex Barrie 2:16

So, like I say, I like to dabble in lots of different subjects. I consider myself self a like a forever student. I might be out of school now, but I'm constantly wanting to and always learning about different things. History and philosophy are huge for me. I'm definitely drawn towards exhibits that feature those kinds of subjects. I did study lots of them in like high school and a couple classes I took at OCAD in that. But yeah, I I always want to learn about things, and I like touching on subjects that sometimes people don't necessarily think of. Like I have I've curated several exhibits that I was just wanting a new topic, something that I hadn't seen before, and we just threw it out there, and it got this really positive feedback from it. And it's the same with the articles that I've written in that. I've touched on lots of different subjects and whatnot. And I've met lots of people doing it. And I think that's the big thing is it creates outreach when you're like so open to touching on those different things, is that there's somebody out there that's always like, oh, I'm interested in that too. Let's get together and let's talk about it. Like like you and I are doing right now.

Carolyn Botelho 3:32

Yeah. Yeah. It's great to create that connection and community out there. Cause I find people are just so busy with their lives and they're like, they're just so sort of single-minded with everything. It's like, wait a minute, what about everything else that keeps us excited about life? You know?

Lex Barrie 3:50

Exactly. Yeah.

Carolyn Botelho 3:53

As a photographer, finding your niche and searching out the perspective of your inner child, which is something I found you you actually sort of really like to do. Have you have you inadvertently ended up depicting sort of socio-political subjects? Although this sounds like a big question to start with.

Lex Barrie 4:15

In a way, I think I I I have, yeah. Like for myself personally, I've I've always been, I'm not gonna say outcast, but I'm I'm I'm different. And I knew that I was different from a very young age. And I think the other thing that made me different was that I was okay with being different. I was okay with the fact that I was different, but it it affected the way other people saw me. So I didn't have a lot of friends, I admit that, but I'm not I'm not upset about it.

Carolyn Botelho 4:47

Well, I think I think sorry for interrupting, but it's it when we're artists, we we just put that sort of perspective on ourselves. Like we think, oh, we're different. And so then we think everybody's seeing us different, and so it's how we think people are seeing us when it's very true. It's probably not entirely true, but maybe a little, but no, yeah, yeah.

Lex Barrie 5:09

I I pretty much kept to myself a lot, especially. I think lots of us have the same narrative of being in high school, and like we have our own worlds that we kind of escape into, or we turn to social structures like having big groups of friends and being on social media and what like we all have that different narrative. I was the one that turned inward and I internalized a lot of different things. So I did struggle a lot with like anxiety and depression throughout high school. But when it came to my art practice, I never actually is funny because I never really meant to do art. It was never my plan. It was something that I did from a very young age. Like my mom loves telling me this story of when I was really little, and I don't remember this, but I got up well early one morning. I was probably like three or four. Okay, I was I was really young. Um, and I had already started drawing and painting and you know, showing signs of like I'm interested in being creative as a kid, and so I got out my paints and my parents were asleep. It was early enough that I was the only one awake, and I got out my paints and I'm painting, and I couldn't tell you what I was painting. I couldn't tell you because I don't remember, but I apparently decided that I needed my parents to see my painting abilities immediately. So I took my paint and my paintbrush and I went up to my parents' room. And my mom, who was asleep, um, I decided, oh, she needs to wake up and see my my abilities. So I began painting her white pillowcase that she had been sleeping on. And I don't remember her getting mad, and when she tells the story, she's not mad. But many years later, I I asked her, having found this pillowcase, which she kept. She kept this pillowcase that I painted. And years later, I'm like, okay, why is it, why is there green on this pillowcase? And she's like, Well, you did that. And I'm like, Oh my god. And my first reaction, of course, is to say, Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was saying, and she's like, No, it's okay, it's fine. It's okay. So I I definitely started doing artistic things when I was very young, but I never anticipated going into art. And I think it just helped bring out a side of me while I was dealing with the anxiety growing up, just being able to express color and form and having something that I could control because my anxiety was so uh it was in my head, but it felt so out of control. So I needed something that I could control. And picking up a paintbrush or a pencil or a pen or anything like that really helped me develop a sense of calm in my mind.

Carolyn Botelho 7:48

It helped you focus the energy that you were feeling, right?

Lex Barrie 7:52

Yeah. Well, and when you're little, and like I remember having anxiety when I was a little kid. It was just like I remember being so like, I have to be perfect, everything has to be like a certain way. And I was later diagnosed with OCD, and it it was kind of one of those moments where it was like, okay, things make sense now. I understand why I do this. And when I started understanding that more, that was when my practice kind of expanded beyond just this little corner where I'm all alone and I'm in my head and and whatnot. So never having intended to do art, I still applied for art school after high school because in my mind it was like I I want to do something and say that I did it. You know, like I I wanted to be able to say that I tried. I didn't want to look back 30 or 40 years down the road and go, why didn't I apply to art school and just try it? So I did. I applied to OCAD and I applied to another university. And I basically threw it out into the universe saying, okay, whichever one I get into is going to tell me where I need to go. Because it's I was still of the mindset, like, I'm not really sure that I should do art, but I'm willing to do it. I just, I kind of needed a sign, I needed some kind of confirmation. And I wound up getting accepted into both universities, which did not help. That's not gonna help you make a decision. It did not help me because I did want to do both, but then I got back into the mindset of like, okay, I don't want to look back and say I didn't try. So I went to okay. Um and I went into criticism and curatorial practice basically to get a foundation of the administrative side of doing art. And I think too part of me was like, okay, I I I want to sort of guarantee that I'll have some kind of job that I can get paid for.

Carolyn Botelho 9:43

Yeah.

Speaker 5 9:44

Which sounds awful.

Carolyn Botelho 9:45

And I no, that's really it, that's really good. You you want to be practical about it. It totally makes sense.

Lex Barrie 9:51

My my brain wants to be practical at the same time that it wants to be a dreamer. It's always this this conflicting energy. So I I did go into that and I I did learn a lot. I learned a lot about myself and about my art practice, and especially about my my writing. It was especially in my first couple years at OCAD that I started doing the criticism part of things. I'd always been a writer, like I've done poetry and short stories and whatnot. And I'd had teachers who told me, like, oh, like you can write, like you should write.

Carolyn Botelho 10:23

But I know that's lovely when when they give you all these encouraging words and things, but it's like, well, now you're not helping because now because now I've got all these things that I don't know what to do with.

Lex Barrie 10:34

No, it's true. It's true. But uh yeah, so I I turned to writing and I turned to to doing off and on my painting and and drawing and that. And then photography came. I I want to say it was my second year at OCAD. I had a class where a teacher had asked us to just start randomly taking pictures of our everyday. And I thought it was an interesting concept because there's lots of things in our everyday lives that we we do or we go through or we see that we don't necessarily put any any power to. So I did. I started taking pictures of like my morning tea or like my tarot cards or like clothes, like to get texture and colors, and in a sense, it became a lot like my painting where I was like wanting to manipulate and and figure things out in one image, but then also being really free. So when I talk about like my inner child coming out in my pieces, that's what it is for me. It's that sense of I need to be a little more free. And I want to show you what I'm seeing, and it's not all the chaos in my mind. It can be a clear moment in time that shows you who I am without all of the anxiety and the the chaos in my mind. But for a very, you know, long-winded answer to your question. Yes, I do think that my work does touch a little bit on that socio-political ideology, just talking about myself, I think, in a way, like how I react to the world itself, how all of us can react to the world, how it affects our lives. It's it's a simpler answer, but that's kind of just how I look at it.

Carolyn Botelho 12:25

Well, yeah, and I I was thinking that with your photography, you want to capture the wonder.

Lex Barrie 12:32

Yes, yeah.

Carolyn Botelho 12:34

Right.

Lex Barrie 12:35

Just that like the simple pleasures of everyday life is is big for what I do right now.

Carolyn Botelho 12:41

And I think that's something a lot of us forget because we're just so busy, busy, busy.

Lex Barrie 12:45

Yeah, I yeah, it's true.

Carolyn Botelho 12:49

While researching your work, you have many sketches with animals, characters, and food in them. Is this part of your process for your critique work, your photography practice, or are they linear works for other projects?

Lex Barrie 13:06

So the sketches in the light, I put a lot of my my stuff for my sketchbooks on my website recently, which was actually kind of a big step for me. Despite me talking about painting and and drawing, it's still very much something I keep to myself. When I was younger and I did art classes like elementary school, kind of young, I always felt that everybody else around me could draw or paint better than I could. And because of that, I didn't really show it off very much. So a lot of the stuff that I was drawing, I would just, you know, tuck away into a desk or whatever. And then I wouldn't look at them again. But then when I decided, okay, we're gonna put the website up this year, it was like, no, I I want to show another side of who I am. So doing all of those kind of cartoony characters in that, that's kind of my playful side coming out. So making inanimate objects come to life and all that is like that's how you would see things as a kid, like a lamp and the light coming out of it is like, oh, it's its nose, and the nose is the lamp, and you're seeing it, it's shining really bright, or you're seeing a pillow get up and walk around and do a dance on the bed, and like like all of those simple images is what goes through my head all the time, but I I'm constantly like pulling back because I don't I don't necessarily throw myself out there very much. I yeah, it it's they're both personal and just goofy at the same time because they're they're a part of that that little child inside of me that just wants to play and wants to forget about the anxiety of things need to look good and they need to be good.

Carolyn Botelho 14:53

Well, it sounds like your adult is just trying to throw like just take over, and it's like, no, let that inner child, you know, have control sometimes.

Lex Barrie 15:02

It's true.

Carolyn Botelho 15:03

Yeah, it's like adulting is just overrated anyway, right?

Lex Barrie 15:07

So it really is. Yeah, we we just should stop.

Carolyn Botelho 15:10

At least have a time period for it, like from 4 to 6 p.m. or something, and that's it. How have you handled dealing with unconventional subject matter in the public sphere? Has it led to any uncomfortable situations? How have you diffused them? And what has been the positive perspective that you have used to remain true to your practice?

Lex Barrie 15:36

uh One of the exhibits that I curated, I curated at Propeller Art Gallery. I had a wonderful opportunity to do so. I did a show called Back to the Grimoire, and it was all for occult-based pieces. And when I was given the opportunity to put a show together and to come up with a theme, I kind of spent a few weeks sort of running around in my head, like, okay, what have we not seen before? What have I not really seen a lot of in the Toronto art scene? And I looked inward a little bit too to see, like, okay, what would really give me that passion to throw a show together? And having a spiritual practice of my own, it it just seemed to all kind of make sense. It's like, let's throw together an occult-based show. And I called the show Back To The Grimoires, because a grimoire basically is it, it's a, it's a book that you would create and bound. And traditionally for like a Wiccan practice, you would write in spells and things that would help you from the natural world, basically. And then also your life. Your life was within this grimoire. It was a part of you as much as you were a part of it. Um, and you write it over your lifetime, and the idea was that your grimoire would be passed down to the next generation, or another person that you felt would take care of and then also learn from your book and your life. So calling the show Back To The Grimoire was sort of a return to ourselves and a return out of the Christian ideals and also out of the, you're, you're sort of. I was, I was looking for people that wanted something different, that were showing something different, sorry, in their art practice. So occult is often, it's often described as like having this dark imagery and like this this uh negative, you're thinking of like the devil and all of these, and that's it's not what it is. It just is it's something different, it's something outside of the majority. Exactly, yeah. Than the norm, yeah.

Carolyn Botelho 18:01

They don't people don't like hearing a cult because it just it puts their backs up. So I was just trying to put mysticism. I thought that's a little softer, you know, because people just yeah, they get they get all weird about it. It's like we're not showing you that it's pushing it on you, it's just this is something like you said, different.

Lex Barrie 18:20

It's just you know, that I wanted to show that this exists, and then also bring together people who maybe thought, oh, this doesn't exist outside of my art practice. And I'll be honest, I didn't expect the amount of people that we had that were interested in the show because I threw it out as an open call so people were able to submit a whole bunch of different artworks. I think it was up to three from each individual. And we got hundreds, hundreds of people applied for this show, and it was, it was almost overwhelming, but also so cool. And it's just like, oh my God, I I could not believe the amount of people that were so interested in being a part of this show. And through the show, I was able to meet several people that had the same ideas as me. And I, I, it, it was just so fascinating to see something that you internalized and, and felt like, oh, this is just something that I do suddenly be represented on walls in a well-known artist friend center. And yeah, the all of the artists that participated would come up to me and say, like, like this is great. Like, I'm so happy that we did this. Lots of friendships. I watched lots of friendships sort of blossom and bloom out of the show. And I think that was another thing is like it wasn't even just we're bringing the artworks together, we're bringing the people together. And it, I think that's a great thing about being a Curator, is that you're it yeah, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of communication between multiple parties, it's a lot of paperwork, it's a lot of you know, this and that.

Carolyn Botelho 19:56

Yeah.

Lex Barrie 19:56

At the end of the day, when you can watch the show open and you can watch people look around at the artworks and think, huh, I didn't actually imagine those pieces being side by side, and they are. It's so fascinating. It's like that that is why you curate.

Carolyn Botelho 20:26

Yeah, it does sound amazing. I mean, it does sound like also a lot of organization that has to happen being a curator.

Lex Barrie 20:34

Yeah. I I mean, like I say, I really enjoy it. And it took me a while because I've I've I tend towards more being a a shy person in the sense that like I'm not, I won't necessarily open up immediately to everybody. But having gone through the curatorial practice program, it was like I met so many different people, and I had to kind of reach out to people and be like, hey, I want to put a show together. And I did a few of them at the OCAD campus as well. There was one we did for Poetry Month, there was some we did for environmental issues, like it was we touched on a range of subjects. I think that's the other thing I love about curating is that you can bring a subject together and artists from different walks of life, different mediums all showing off the same kind of topic.

Speaker 1 21:27

Yeah, and it brings together just so many different types of people. It's like it's like a sort of fabric of just the whole community just coming together and they don't know each other, right? But this is what the curator does is just you weave everybody together. Yeah.

Speaker 4 21:44

The one that you don't really because I I never I'll be honest, I never really thought of the curator whenever I went to go see shows before I became a curator. It's like you never really consider the curator, but they're the ones in the background just sort of holding everything together and and just praying that it all works.

Speaker 3 22:01

And now I understand the feeling.

Speaker 1 22:05

Yeah. Have you considered documenting your journey in writing or publishing your work sort of in a book format? This would be similar to witchcraft grimoires that you curated, which we just talked about.

Speaker 4 22:20

Um, I have attempted to write like a poetry collection. Poetry was one of the first written formats that I I dabbled in. I started doing it in late elementary school and then up through high school. I did a a couple of poetry slams in that where I would perform the pieces that I I had written. I did there was one I did in French that was I was really happy about, and then there was another one I did that was English, and we did it as sort of a tournament with the high schools in my area. My school came in ninth out of all of them, so that was that was cool. Um and it was it was strange getting up and performing a piece that was very like very personal. And it talked about mental illness and the effects that it has and it's had on families and relationships that I've had, but it was also very liberating, and I think that's another reason why I write because lots of times we're we're given this media to consume, and I find that writing about it helps me break it down so that I can digest it better is the best way to describe it. But yeah, so I have considered writing about different parts of my practice, and I have written about many different subjects in terms of exhibits I've been to and whatnot. But uh yeah, it's it's an off and on process, I'll call it that.

Speaker 1 24:00

Yeah, yeah, I guess you've already sort of done articles and stuff already with uh being a curator, right? Like with the artist journals and stuff. But I guess I was meaning more like sort of yeah, like poetry or stuff like that, which I think is yeah, it's very personal. Like I I I've done poetry too, but I'm like, I don't I'm not gonna share that with anybody. I don't know, maybe, but I still think it's very personal.

Speaker 4 24:24

I I like I don't know, I don't mind going into the personal, I think, because I know that somewhere someone will connect to it. And even if I never meet them or I never have any connection to them whatsoever, other than through this piece, it's like as long as it affected them somehow, then that that is enough for me. I have like I I remember I was applying to a grant for school once, and the woman that I was speaking to about the grant, she had I had submitted this poetry piece as an example of like something that I can do as a project. And she had read the piece and whatnot, and I remember her telling me that it related so much to her and she connected so well to it that she cried. And I was like, Oh my god, it was I felt I felt sad because you know, I just made somebody cry, but at the same time, I I felt happy because I was happy that clearly she needed to release something, and that yeah, exactly. A release that's good moment was what she needed, so that was like okay, I've done what I needed to do, moving on.

Speaker 2 25:38

Yeah, so yeah, she needed that that little release, right?

Speaker 1 25:42

So that's while studying your work, there was a reference to a piece called Going Home, a Hanji collage that transcends boundaries. Has this piece had an impact on you beyond your creative practice? Do the symbols represent aspects of your own journey?

Speaker 4 26:05

So this piece, I I've I encountered this artist, He Jung Chin, several times. One was actually in Back to the Grimoire. She was the art one of the artists in the show. And then I also was I had the opportunity to interview her later for another show that she did at Propeller called Paper Stories. And it was her doing the Hanji paper as well as two other washi paper artists. The three of them had put together this beautiful show and this beautiful collection of washi artworks. And her piece from Back to the Grimoire Going Home, it it was a beautiful, it was black and white. I can still picture it. It was a black and white piece. It was in it was a circular sort of canvas that she had put it on. And a lot of her practice relates to her coming to Canada from Korea. And I remember when I interviewed her, she talked about how her one of her friends who had moved to the States many years ago, but her friend when she lived in Canada, the two of them would get together. And uh, when her friend moved, the friend gave her all of her hanji paper collection. And that was when Xijong really started going for this medium and using it to talk about different cultures, but then also talking about transitioning between cultures because going from Korea to Canada, it was, and then also raising her family and going through school here and and whatnot, it was a huge transition throughout her life. And the medium was able to help her sort of break down all those layers and talk about the different cultural narratives. But she appreciated the idea of an occult exhibit because it sort of transcended the boundaries between those two different cultures. And I appreciated that so much, having both interviewed her and gotten to see your work. Because, like, like I've been saying, it's being able to curate and put together shows and then write about it, it's bringing together so many different ideas and breaking it down, but then also melding it together. It's like it it in itself is an artwork, curating and and writing. You're you're bringing things back together, and you are, you're transcending different boundaries, you're bringing together subjects that wouldn't necessarily be brought together unless you were in that moment.

Speaker 1 28:41

And you saw how they connected or how they related. Yeah. You have referred to folklore and storytelling from Italy, Japan, histories from these narratives contextualized as pagan, occult, or sexual individualization, and how have they influenced your work?

Speaker 4 29:06

Talking about history, and I really enjoy talking about the occult, but I think like having all these different cultures and stories come together, it's it's something that really fuels me, especially in in my writing practice. Like some of the articles that I have have written about, like some of the exhibits. I can give you an example. So there was one that I did from the AGO. It was from the show or the the exhibit. It ran from like mid-2023 to I want to say early 2024. And I was able to catch this exhibit closer to the end of it. And it was Sarindar Dollywall's When I Grow Up, I Want to Be the Namer of Paint Colors. The entire exhibit had multiple installations, but there was one installation that I wrote about specifically, and it was called Hey Hey Paula. And it talked about Sarindar's culture, both looking at it from being here in North America to her Sikh culture in India, where she was from, and talked about different marriage values in that. So the installation, basically, you walked in and you were met with an entire two-section wall in a corner that had over 500 red printed images, photographs of women. All the women had their hair done nice. They had these big pearl necklaces, and it was just a huge mesh of them. And the idea was the further away that you got from seeing these pictures, they started to blur and distort. But in the center of the installation on a plinth, or it was a plinth or a table, one of the two, there was a rotary phone, and it was also red. And the the color red in in is a symbol for marriage in sea culture. But so if you picked up the rotary phone and you listened to it, it would play the song Hey Paula from Paul and Paula, the duo from the the 60s. And when you listened to it, there was a like a distortion of the the song. Like you could hear way better quality version of this song if you streamed it on like Spotify or something. But it was distorted to sort of give you this idea of old tradition. So in North America, there's this idea of like a romance and two people getting together. And it the whole installation sort of showed more the heteronormative ideal with the women and their pearls and their, you know, whatever. But the pearls were meant to represent the innocence of the women and you know, moving into the the idea of marriage and and whatnot. The grid format of all of the images were meant to give you like a patriarchal structure where it's like everything is going to be this way. In Sikh culture, it's a lot of uh arranged marriage that's that's big in their culture. So she really took these two different cultures and mushed them together into one installation, and you could see the different aspects of it throughout. And having that story being told from two different perspectives, like one perspective, but two different ideals, was so fascinating. And I remember spending so much time looking in into this exhibit, and my teacher at the time, I'd only written this article as a class project. Um, we were supposed to find some kind of audio installation to write about, but my teacher, who was an organizer for an art journal, he had said, like, this is a great article, like I would really like to publish it in this journal. And I was so happy. It was my first time getting published in a journal. And yeah, I wound up working with him a couple more times for other pieces in the same journal, talking about audio exhibits. But even when we're not like I think sound exhibits have especially affected how I look and how I write. Because I've done a few different articles on sound exhibits, and I I've said to people before, like, audio art is like so fascinating. People are like, What's what is audio art? Like, how do you make art from from a sound? And it's like you you have no idea how like expansive this this this topic is. But I really got into looking into deaf artists who were part of the sound art community. And then I wrote several articles about this because it was just so interesting how they were able to again take their perspective and like take uh the perspective of someone who's deaf and then someone who can hear, and then show you what it's actually like to interpret sound. And these two narratives together were so fascinating. Again, there was one artist that I wrote about specifically, Alison O'Daniel. She is from Los Angeles, and she has done a film that was called The Tube Thieves that she put together sort of as a um uh to start the conversation of how we describe sound in like captions in that. Because lots of times when we turn on a caption, as someone that can hear, for me, you look at a caption, it's like lots of times they're fairly accurate to what the person is saying. But when you think about what it would be like if you could not hear, if sound was not something that you could hear, what actually are the captions doing to help you understand? So there was one scene in her film that she she showed where this person who was deaf was go went upstairs in a house and she opened up a closet and she started rummaging through clothes and she was feeling the clothes, and you could see that the texture of the clothes were were different. Like some of them looked soft, some of them looked fluffy, they looked or flat or like you could see it, but the captions on them she she made it so that it described it well for her to understand, and it just it got me thinking how much of our our like the visual language that tries to help people who can't hear actually understand a sound is is so off.

Speaker 3 35:50

But we don't think about it's people who can hear.

Speaker 4 35:54

No, we don't. We take it for granted. Yeah, we take it for granted. Having her tell that story as someone who is deaf. And she's done other projects too. There was one she did, I think it was like 2021, something like right after the pandemic. She did this collaboration with a monastery in Germany. They wanted to put together a carpet for the monastery. And she suggested doing this project where they took deaf individuals from Germany and they were to wander around the monastery and interpret visually on a piece of paper how they think sound would react to the walls. So, like they would try and shout and then imagine what shouting actually looks like when it bounces off the walls as a reverberation, or wandering around and bumping into furniture, like whatever. Like they would just make random sounds in here and then visually try to interpret it. And the carpet was this beautiful, ended up being this beautiful array of like arrows and dots and like a bunch of different visual interpretations of what to deaf individuals felt sound should look like. And it was so cool. Like, yeah, yeah, it makes you wonder what what it would look like. Yeah. So yeah, when we're talking about looking at different cultures and then different perspectives and different narratives, it fascinates me when someone can take their narrative and then flip it and tell, like, show you a different version of another narrative. It's like we have all of these connections and all of these this energy flowing in between all of us, and being able to pick it out and go, oh, this connects with this. And then you're bringing together one subject, but two different stories. It's just like I know it sounds simple, but it's so fascinating to me.

Speaker 37:56

And we'll be right back.

Speaker 1 38:05

No, but that totally makes sense because, like you said about the Sikh woman that that did that exhibit, that totally just makes sense what she did about contrasting her culture against sort of the backdrop of traditional sort of North American sort of what do you what is it?

Speaker 4 38:27

Yeah, so heteronormative kind of mentality kind of thing. Yeah, like a man and a woman and they're going to get married. And but there's the more the idea of romance in North American culture compared to culture, which traditionally is uh an arranged marriage. So it was interesting seeing those two perspectives kind of play out together.

Speaker 1 38:48

Yeah, comparing them sort of side by side, it's like, yeah, it would have been interesting to see how they how they kind of they reflect each other but differently, you know?

Speaker 38:59

Yeah, well.

Speaker 1 39:02

Working in the curatorial and critical practice field artistically, how were you originally drawn to photography as a career choice? It's kind of a bit of a backtrack, but were you inspired by representation reality or how you can manipulate it with the camera?

Speaker 4 39:20

I had my first exhibit for my artwork back in January of this year. I had exhibited individual pieces and group shows in that for photography. But this was the first time that I put together like a bigger version of an installation for my work amongst three other artists. And people came up and asked me, like, what camera do you use? Like that's it was really cool. And I kept telling them, like, it's my phone camera.

Speaker 3 39:47

And I think that confused people.

Speaker 4 39:52

They I think people anticipated in a way me saying, like, oh, I use this and this camera and this and this lens and this and this, you know. And it's not that I'm not interested in in using them, it's just that like I say, when my practice began for photography, it was take pictures of your everyday. So what I had every day on me was my phone. And it simplified the process of like, oh, okay, I see something. I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a picture. And during that, that class where I had to do that project, there was no like, oh, you need to use a big camera, you need to do this. It was just, no, just do what you need to do and take pictures of you every day. So I had I had one piece in that show in January that was of the moon. And when I said to people, like, I took this on my phone camera, it was like, okay, what phone do you have?

Speaker 3 40:45

It's like, no, my phone's not new.

Speaker 4 40:47

It's it's like a S21, like it's an old, it's an older, older quotation marks model. And I just said to them, like, okay, I I took an old telescope that I had and I set it up so that when I looked through the eye of the telescope, I could see the moon. But rather than putting my eye to to it, I put my phone camera and I just started taking pictures of it. And I manipulated only slightly, like just to bring out a bit more of the the crevices in the moon and the the the shadow, and that was it. It was there, and it got a lot of attention, this piece, and I was I was really happy about it.

Speaker 3 41:32

But yeah, so most of what I use is is my yeah, that's really good.

Speaker 4 41:37

And um I have of and on been inspired to just take pictures of whatever I'm seeing ever since I took that class at OCAD. And my friend and I, we actually uh we we sort of bounce ideas off of each other. He's also a a photographer. And I'll send him a picture and say to him, like, okay, do you prefer this in color or black and white? And he's like black and white, or the opposite, like it was whatever. I bounce stuff off of him because I he is the same kind of eye. And he takes beautiful photographs. So it's it's that just having that, that able to play and be like, okay, what do we think about this? And I I show my parents and my grandmother and whatnot, and lots of the pictures that I've taken have been either at my house or at her house or out in the world or like at work. It's just me trying to find the little bits of joy that are throughout my life, and it's been a really cool process.

Speaker 1 42:41

Your work shows a clear appreciation for family and relationships. Have you considered introducing this into your practice? Sort of either representationally or in an abstract.

Speaker 4 42:58

In a way, I think I do show my family in my pieces. I had so for my show in January, my installation, I had three walls. And my first wall, which was the one of the larger of the three, I had it represent all the pictures that were for me. So I had one image that was camera that had color orbs coming out of it, and that was meant to represent my perspective, like looking through a camera, looking through my phone, whatever it is, seeing what I see and showing you what I see. There was my moon picture, which represented my spirituality. There was a reflection piece that represented my mental health journey. I had a graveyard site from Ireland that was meant to represent sort of a darker side of me, like a more of the occult kind of ideals. So that that wall was was me. The wall next to it was. Was a seasonal shift in our lives. So I started off in the spring, moved into the summer, moving into the fall, into winter, and then the third wall at the far end of the gallery was spring again. And my mother, who's a landscaper and a gardener, and an herbologist and astrologer, she is really connected to plants and to flowers and herbs and the like. And when I was giving my artist talk, I explained that, like, yes, this wall was me. This wall was the transition of life, but the the flowers that represent the continuation of spring at the far end are my mother. And my mom, who was in the audience at the time, she didn't realize that I was going to say this. And it it was just one of those, it was an emotional moment for me because it was like I could see that she was shocked looking at her in the audience. It is a growth through life. And it was just that was just how I always saw it. It was like, no, the garden is my mother. The same way as like I associate music with my father. My father was in a band for many years. He taught me how to play guitar. Like I associate that with my dad. And I've taken pictures of his guitar and whatnot, and done pieces and whatnot like that. I represent music in my my paintings and whatnot. So there are different aspects that I bring out that uh is like, no, this is that, and this is me and whatnot. So yeah, I I do feel that I do that already.

Speaker 1 45:50

Yeah, more subtle.

Speaker 4 45:51

More subtle.

Speaker 1 45:53

That's all right. Yeah, because it's you know what it means, and that's all that matters, right? In a way.

Speaker 5 46:01

That's that's how I look at it.

Speaker 1 46:05

I was wondering about your name, Lex. Was this your birth name or was it chosen by you? There are several meanings and representations historically from the first king of Sparta, the god of soil, to the development of rules and the legal system in an ancient Rome.

Speaker 3 46:23

So that's I like that that was a question that was I was like, hey, that's interesting. Because I didn't know any of that.

Speaker 4 46:33

But no, Alexa's not my my birth, like, well, it's close enough to my birth name. My birth name is Alexis, but I've I haven't had people call me Alexis in in years. It's it's actually odd when somebody says that to like I I won't, like I will acknowledge if you're if close enough family member can't call me Alexis, it's like okay, I know you're talking to me. But if I'm out in the world and somebody just starts saying like Alexis out, I'm like, who? Who's that? Even my my great grandmother, who was um, I'll say more conservative, she she even called me Lex. I think it was just an easier name. Like I always said to people like, oh just call me Lex. You know, like it's just it was just that. I I don't really have many people anymore in my life that use my my legal name. Lex is easier.

Speaker 1 47:27

There you go.

Speaker 4 47:27

Yeah, just like a nickname. I mean, I didn't shurn a little bit when I got to OCAP because it just felt like okay, we're we're coming into ourselves, like, and and people were already calling me Lex. So it was like, let's just say, like, let's just go with it. Like, I I prefer it when people call me Lex anyway. So yeah, just a short version of my name, really. But I did like the history. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 47:49

We got I did cut some extra things with your name that you can.

Speaker 5 47:54

Yes, a little history lesson.

Speaker 1 47:56

Yeah, you can pull out of your bag when you want to impress people. There you go.

Speaker 5 47:59

There you go.

Speaker 1 48:03

The right lane of photograph, which this podcast is named after, is a staple for you that reminds you that your viewpoint is unique. Where was this photograph taken? Can you elaborate on the context and time period this piece occupied in your creative practice?

Speaker 4 48:21

So this piece is a is a staple for me because lots of times, even now when I'm practicing art and I'm I'm trying different things, different mediums, or even when I'm taking photographs, lots of times I get the sense of like imposter syndrome, I guess. Like you're you're I'm not an artist, you know. I get that all the time, and I'm I'm sure other people do too. But I think it's just something that I have off and on, and I I like to think that art keeps choosing me in life, even though I keep going, like the practical side of me comes out, and it's like, okay, let's try this, and what and then art just goes, nope, we're going this way, and it's like, okay. So that's what this piece kind of is for me. It's that I called it the upside. That was what I titled this piece when it was shown in um propeller last summer for a group show. So it was taken here in Pickering, where I'm from. It was right after a big storm we had, and I was coming off the bus, coming home from work, and I walked across the street, and I'm walking down my usual route, which is where the photograph is taken down that route. And I looked up, and the bright lane spine had flipped upside down, and I just stood there staring at it for the longest time, and I I couldn't help but laugh. It was just one of those, like, this is great, this is hilarious. So I took a picture of it and I showed it to my parents and whatnot. And it's just like, oh, this is hilarious. And when I looked back at it later, it was just one of those, like dawning moments that we kind of have where you go, oh, it's sort of like the universe telling me that what I feel like is gonna be my right lane. It's always gonna have its challenges, it's always gonna have its its difficulties, but we're gonna make it our own. You know, I think that's the joy of of following an art and career path is that it's going to be your own. Nobody else can adjust it, they can't change it for you. It's something that you've got to do, and you can produce it yourself. And the the right lane being flipped upside down, it still makes me laugh when I look at it because it's just it's like a silent joke. It's like, okay, I know I'm on the right path. So it's not telling me that I'm on the wrong path, it's telling me I'm on the right path, but it's me, it's that goofy child that I am trying to bring out of my art practice all the time that wanted to be out for years and just was scared to do so. You know, it's like universe telling you you're on the right path, but make it your own.

Speaker 1 51:08

That's kind of like a serendipitous moment.

Speaker 4 51:10

Yes.

Speaker 1 51:12

For you, right? Yeah. We've actually reached the end of our questions for your podcast. If you have anything to add, now is the time.

Speaker 3 51:24

I don't think so. I really enjoyed this experience, though. Like, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 51:30

Yeah. Yeah, it's been great. Thanks for doing this with me. I love I love talking about art with artists.

Speaker 4 51:37

I love it too.

Speaker 1 51:40

Yeah, it's sort of a nice way to go behind the curtain.

Speaker 4 51:43

Exactly. Yeah, you always want to look behind the curtain.

Speaker 1 51:46

Yes, exactly. Okay, great chatting with you. And maybe we can chat again in the future and see where your creativity takes you.

Speaker 4 51:58

Sounds great. Thank you so much, Carolyn.

Speaker 1 52:00

You're welcome. Okay, bye.

Speaker 4 52:03

Bye.

Speaker 1 52:05

Join me next time as I go down another rabbit hole with another creative professional on their insights, their inspirations, and their ingenuity.