Mark Strowbridge

Adina Edwards’ Behind the Red Curtain — one bed no one’s getting pregnant on

Cipher, the exhibition by Lisa Borin, Paul Bradley, Adina Edwards and Kristin Smith, the graduating class of the 2009 master of fine arts program at the University of Calgary, is dominated by several large installations.

Borin’s piece “Cradle Song,” with its brass and silver flatware hung from the ceiling, backlit and accompanied by a looped recording of “Hush Little Baby” is emotionally and visually compelling. Though, it’s a little creepy with the tinkle of the flatware and the shadows from the backlighting dancing on the white walls. Bradley’s “Mandala” cubes are playful and clever and Smith’s “Luminous Body,” featuring two projections illuminating five black curtains with two separate images of a moving dancer, is a visual delight, especially if the viewer stands amongst the curtains. The viewer’s eyes won’t be able to stop darting about trying to see the dancer’s image.

Perhaps the strongest installation is Adina Edwards’s “Behind the Red Curtain,” a large piece devoted to her experiences as a social worker on Calgary’s streets: beds and blankets made of condoms, with each repository tip erect. It’s a hauntingly-lit latex three-walled curtain, behind which lie discarded undergarments. Aside from the odd metal piece, everything is made of latex — gripping, inventive stuff punctuated with the faint, lingering odour of that distinctly scented protective material.

Outside of these large installations, the class provides paintings, photos and a film. Bradley’s paintings demonstrate a talent for abstraction and colour, especially the red, green and black lone figure, though most of his paintings go unlabelled — this is a selfish move, leaving the viewer’s desire for information frustrated.

Smith’s photos show an eye for movement, but are a let-down, as they lack a distinct style, and repetitively draw from her installation subject. The photos don’t show a diversity of interests or creativity.

Finally, Borin’s self-recorded video of her destroying and occasionally eating cake is miscast as the introductory work to the exhibition. It is too long and ends with little payoff for the viewer’s patience.

Cipher offers an impressive display of new work by new artists, but the show lacks an exhibition guide, catalogue and comprehensive labelling, leaving those who are taken by the works to go without a name to correspond with the striking images and created memories the works provoke.