Systems of Power | Artist Elaine Cameron-Weir | Louisiana Channel

“Art can infiltrate. It can change people's minds.”

We have visited up-and-coming artist Elaine Cameron-Weir in New York, who has an immense love for transforming materials.

“My love of observation brought about this love of material. I am fascinated with the real world more than the depiction of it. And then the in-between that sculpture can be. It exists materially in front of us.”

Elaine Cameron-Weir’s work is informed by the array of systems and structures humans have created to deal with the unknown – scientific inquiry, religion, modes of governance, or creative practices. Her sculptures incorporate part-objects repurposed from their scientific, medical, military, or faith-giving functions into reliquaries or representations of larger systems of belief and power.

"Why am I drawn to materials and objects from industries like the military, medicine, or religion? The short answer is that there are systems of power. They are systems that humans use to create meaning, and art is one of those systems of power.”

“I think about the function of art a lot. Like what it does, what's the purpose, and it has a purpose. I believe that you can model something beyond what you have in front of you.”

Her installations combine found fragments with definitively handmade elements, using techniques as varied as vitreous enameling, glass casting, metalworking, and leather tooling. Together, these arrangements are often suspended from the ceiling, seemingly levitating from the ground, yet are simultaneously held in tension by gravity and an architectural framework of pulleys and cables. Materials can also be ephemeral, incorporating heat, light, and scent, suggesting transformations of solid matter into dust or diffusion into the atmosphere.

Cameron-Weir’s sculptures often form uncanny mirror images through symmetrical details that emphasize the dualistic nature of any narrative or narrator. Although her practice resists straightforward characterization or iconographic interpretation, Cameron-Weir’s works offer the possibility of passage through a portal or beyond a threshold, further facilitating the transition from one state to the next.

“I want to show or offer my thinking for someone else's consideration. Not to adopt, but just a message has been sent.”

Elaine Cameron-Weir was born in 1985 in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. She lives and works in New York. Past solo exhibitions at institutions include Dressing for Windows (Exploded View), SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA (2022); STAR CLUB REDEMPTION BOOTH, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, USA (2021); exhibit from a dripping personal collection, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany (2018); Outlooks, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, USA (2018) and viscera has questions about itself, New Museum, New York, USA (2017). Her work has featured in major group exhibitions including The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani at the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022); New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century, BAMPFA, Berkeley, USA (2021); Present Tense, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA (2019), as well as the Belgrade Biennale, Serbia (2021); the Montreal Biennial, Canada (2017) and the Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture, Germany (2016).

Elaine Cameron-Weir was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in March 2024. The recording took place in her studio in Brooklyn, New York, and in her show A WAY OF LIFE at Lisson Gallery, New York.

Camera: Sean Hanley
Edited by: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet and C.L. Davids Fond og Samling.

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