AT THE END OF THE DAY

CAITLIN NOVELLO

At the End of the Day – Caitlin Novello
Algoma University BFA Thesis Exhibition
March 26 – 29th, 2020
Opening reception: Online

Upon entering the gallery there is a smaller entrance-room that opens into the main larger space. The entrance way displays the title of the exhibition;, At the End of the Day on the wall. In this room, the smallest wall holds my first painting of a sunset. This painting is significant  to me because he and I watched the sunset together in St. Catharines, at Sunset Beach. This painting confirmed my decision to revolve my thesis around time, loss, and memory. Mounted to the walls are three paintings on panel boards, inspired by the colours of sunsets I have watched over the past year. These panels are carved with words that have been etched in my mind. They function as the last messages and questions left behind from a soul I once knew. These panels are installed, stacked upon each other, one above eye level, one eye level, and the last one below eye level. Their configuration on the wall denotes a series of thoughts that feel almost out of reach, and a conversation that seems larger than life. The entrance will also contain a large glossy photograph of a sunset with words I wrote in my journal during a time I never imagined I would have to endure. This space will be rather conventional compared to the main gallery, for viewers to be eased into my experience of what felt like a lifetime of enduring many intense emotions.

Within the space of the larger room, the windows are blacked-out. Inside this area, I have installed magenta coloured lights. The lights will be scattered and hidden through the ceiling of the main room. The coloured light radiates off the white walls, immersing the viewer in hues of pink with undertones of purple.  The light projects a feeling of fantasy that wraps the viewer like the warm glow of a bright sunset. 

In the main room, while the viewer is engulfed in a field of magenta light, they will also be met with a wall-size projection of a time-lapse of sunsets. I recorded these sunsets at a place that feels like home to me, after spending much of my time there; Bellevue Park. These clips are minimally edited. They represent how in life we are unable to have control over most things that take place. We are humans waiting and hoping for the best to happen, yet often expecting the worse. Sunsets let us know the day is ending and our paths for tomorrow are unknown; they may be filled with missteps, lessons to learn, and suffering. I chose to keep the time-lapse simple and mostly unedited to exaggerate the fact that we cannot change the cyclical nature of life or the way the day goes. We are only able to change the way we respond to what happens to us and around us. This video installation will be covering the entire wall forcing the viewers to feel quite small compared to the scene, almost as if they were practically there themselves. Within this video installation there are sound recordings of the peace and serenity of outside noise; sounds of wind swirling, water splashing, people talking in the distance, and the calling of birds; a combination of what being still might sound like.

To the right of the time-lapse wall, the viewer will see a passage written in my own handwriting; scrawled from the top of the wall to the bottom. These words express the feelings I sat with for months while trying to understand exactly what I felt and thought, during and after time spent with someone I once knew; the feeling of ever-familiar sunsets, the feeling of white-noise in the background while having a head littered with thoughts, and questioning the meaning of time. The scale of this written passage, covering an entire large focal wall, is intended to make the viewer feel small in comparison to the words, as if the words on the wall were confronting you.

Lastly, the smallest wall in the main gallery space will hold a sugar lift print I made reading, I wish home didn’t feel like you. This print was made during the time I had my strongest feelings of confusion and sadness due to the absence of an important person. This print was chosen because it allowed me to be raw with my emotions while learning the cycle of process.