ELISSA CRISTALL GALLERY is delighted to present an exhibition by Vancouver artist and architect Grace Gordon-Collins.

Grace has long sought out the thematic threads that run through the inner lives of her female subjects and in the past has explored universal issues relative to gender, identity, violence against women and contemporary culture. Her current narrative THE DRESS expands on these themes and looks at the wedding industry, the ubiquity of social media and the minefield of online dating.

Today the wedding dress inhabits the world of popular culture, celebrity, fairy tales and financial excess. The Cinderella meme on steroids. She writes, “I regard the wedding dress as both an object and a moment in time, a signifier.” Her wedding dress photograms are ethereal and otherworldly and are interwoven with memory and history. They document the dresses of four generations of Grace’s family, creating a bridge between past and present. Among the photograms and digital work hang iPhone-size text messages between the bride to be and her best friend, the last message reading –

Sat. July 31, 2:00 PM
I just can’t go thru with this
Delivered

As a cultural icon the wedding dress can be both symbol and curse, a study in beauty and dreams, of excess and heartbreak. THE DRESS blurs the boundaries between the real and the unreal, and within each image lays an entire story.

Grace Gordon-Collins, RCA is known for her award winning multi-disciplinary design practice, encompassing architecture, design and fine art photography. Her approach to all disciplines is highly conceptual and interactive. “I have always been an observer and a story teller. My work, whether architectural or photographic has a multi-layered narrative quality.” Grace graduated from the University of Manitoba and went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she received her Masters Degree in Architecture. She later completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University majoring in Photography.

Read about PHOTOGRAMS