TOURNAMENT CAPITAL CENTRE

Mar 11

Cameron Kerr

Freud’s Ceiling, 2012

910 McGill Rd, Kamloops

Commissioned by the City of Vancouver to celebrate the City’s 125th anniversary, Freud’s Ceiling is part of a body of work that emerged from Vancouver-based artist Cameron Kerr’s research into diverse fields of inquiry, including art history, modernist architecture, iconography in the built and cultural environment, as well as biology and psychology.

Freud’s Ceiling is similar to Cameron Kerr’s earlier work, in which he produced sculptural objects based on hexagonal concrete city planters. The carved forms and markings in these works evoke familiar urban shapes and reference the rods and cones that form the human eye retina. Kerr’s geometric sculptures suggest a relationship between our body and the built environment and allude to perceptual processes, where the sculpture embodies the very mechanisms of viewing the object being perceived and understood by the eye.

Freud’s Ceiling is based on a pattern found on the ceiling of an addition that was built on Sigmund Freud’s house in London, UK, where artist Cameron Kerr visited. The design references a naturally occurring pattern that forms in the visual cortex of the brain when one is half asleep. As part of his exploration, Kerr was also interested in research developed by neurological scientist Jack Cowan at the University of Chicago. Cowan discovered the mathematical formula that occurs in the visual cortex which produces hexagonal patterns.

Kerr developed his marble carving skills at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, Italy and studied with William Tucker and Anthony Gormley in the UK. He went on to study at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC, where he worked with acclaimed artist Liz Magor. Working in marble, Kerr developed an approach that merges traditional, figurative and conceptual strategies.

This work is part of the Kamloops Art Gallery’s collection and is installed permanently at the entrance to the Tournament Capital Centre as part of a public art partnership with the City of Kamloops. Kerr has a longstanding relationship with the Kamloops Art Gallery. He created the commemorative wildfire sculpture that is permanently installed outside the TNRD building, which houses the TNRD library and Kamloops Art Gallery, and his work was included in the exhibition An Era of Discontent: Art as Occupation at the Gallery in 2012. The acquisition of Freud’s Ceiling reflects the Gallery’s mandate to collect work by living Canadian artists who have previously shown in Kamloops Art Gallery exhibitions. Installing the work at this busy location used daily by Kamloops residents and visitors allows the Gallery to share its collection with the broader community and enhance public space with art.