This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition, Carol Sawyer: *Ophelia* at the Contemporary Art Gallery, December 14, 1996, – February 1, 1997. The publication contains a text by Donna Zapf.

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Ophelia

Carol Sawyer

Carol Sawyer is a Vancouver-based artist who has been exhibiting since 1986. Her work from the early 1990s explored how the shapes and forms of objects assume a gendered reading. During the past three years she has developed a series of installations that employ opera as a point of departure for an investigation of nineteenth-century representations of women, and how aspects of these representations persist in the present. Sawyer's own training in music and voice has contributed to her interest in this particular field.

The installation *Ophelia* is a theatrical environment dominated by images of female dementia as represented in opera. The images are composed of film transparencies depicting operatic singers in the role of mad characters  — either sleepwalkers, murderers or sufferers of delusions. In the centre of the gallery an oscilloscope and tape deck with headphones are placed on a table. The oscilloscope, a scientific measuring device, displays the fluctuations of an electric current caused by an aural collage of singing, speaking and other sounds. A continuous soundtrack, built around an excerpt of Ophelia's mad cadenza from Thomas' opera *Hamlet*, also plays from speakers placed in the gallery.

Sawyer's exploration of nineteenth century opera unveils a subtext that madness or hysteria are characteristics perceived as particularly female, an attitude that continues to exist today. The exaggerated form of opera presents this condition as a possible scenario for women to vent frustration, anger or grief within a social system of constriction and control. Sawyer's approach is suggestive rather than didactic. She uses the sensual and pleasurable appeal of the operatic medium as an entry point for a re-examination of female stereotypes that have negatively affected real women.

Carol Sawyer's work has been exhibited at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Or Gallery, Vancouver; Gallery 44, Toronto; G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle; and New Gallery, Calgary.



A detail of an artwork installed in a dimly-lit gallery space. A small slide installed in front of the light projects the enlarged image onto a gallery wall. The projected is a black and white image of a person in a dress. 

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A series of four images are installed on a wall of a dimly-lit gallery. It is an enlarged  black and white photographs of women in white robes. A stage light is placed in front of each image of a woman.

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CarolSawyerEdited1.jpeg

An installation image of a dimly-lit gallery. A pair of stage lights are installed closely to each other near the middle of a wall. Several black and white images of women in dress are projected on the walls.

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CarolSawyerEdited2.jpeg

An installation image of a corner of a gallery space. A curtain is installed on a back wall. A small chandelier is hanging from the ceiling. A small box-like shaped object is installed on a pedestal. 

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CarolSawyerEdited4.jpeg

An installation image of a dimly-lit gallery space. A pair of stage lights are installed closely to each other near the wall. An image of a person in a dress is projected next to that pair of the lights. 

Carol Sawyer

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