With a longstanding inquiry into repurposed and recontextualized interiors, objects and materials, The Fireplace site-specific installation looks at a host of occupants in the once residential space of the Burnaby Art Gallery, an Edwardian Arts and Craft style house built in 1911. Mediating between the world of objects and the absence of its former residents, Lycan’s works reference past furniture, decorations and styles that have passed through the house and its inhabitants.
Burnaby Art Gallery has operated in the historical house since 1967. The Fireplace was installed in five rooms, and a small cabinet. The installation contained twenty-three works. A full-colour artist’s book featured texts by Anne Low and Jennifer Cane.
Lycan is an artist who examines images to make sculptures and installations and along the way she blurs any distinction between these modes. Her approach is porous; she works with materials, objects, and images that have previously cycled through structures of use unrelated to art. She is a gleaner of atmospheres.
— Anne Low