Delicate and disturbing

Shary Boyle brings her twisted aesthetic
to porcelain doll craft, spotlighted in her
new book Otherworld Uprising

by STACEY DEWOLFE

Toronto-based artist Shary Boyle is visiting the Drawn & Quarterly store for an intimate and informal gathering this coming Wednesday. Part artist’s talk, part book signing for her recent publication, Otherworld Uprising (Conundrum Press), the evening offers what has come to be a fairly rare opportunity to meet the artist and hear her speak about her work.

Boyle, whose star has been rising in the international art scene for the last decade, is somewhat of an elusive character, travelling far and wide—from places exotic (Tampere, Finland) to those of a more mysterious nature (Winnipeg)—with many smaller destinations in between.

STAINED CLASS: Boyle’s “Little Brown Rat”

Known originally for her thematically dense and often disturbing illustrations, such as those compiled in her 2004 book, Witness My Shame, and the live drawing collaborations she has done with Peaches, Feist, and more recently Christine Fellows, as well as Dark Hand and Lamplight, her own ongoing project with Doug Paisely, in recent years Boyle has also embraced sculpture.

Her first exploration with sculptural forms was a series of delicate, sexually explicit and evocative miniatures made from Sculpey, an oven-baked clay familiar to grade school art teachers. But since 2003, she has been experimenting with porcelain, a medium she finds “quite magical,” noting that “its arcanum in Europe was discovered by an alchemist!”

Preferring organic materials to synthetic, because they “transmit intention and feel better,” Boyle was drawn to porcelain for its “combination of strength, translucence and fragility [which] seems to parallel the content of my ideas and characters.” But there is also something in the medium’s socio-cultural history that she found appealing. “Exploring political, personal and feminist content within a material traditionally associated with class and refined taste is a contradiction that appeals to me,” says Boyle. “There is humour, as well as defiance.”

But learning the tools of the porcelain trade was no easy feat. “It’s a pain in the ass,” she laughs. “It’s ironic that very sensitive people seem to be drawn to it, as it’s a nerve-shredding process from start to finish.” Beginning her apprenticeship in a suburban basement workshop in the Seattle home of 86-year-old Vivian Hausle, Boyle found herself seeking out other “senior porcelain hobbyists to work with” when she subsequently moved to Winnipeg.

“Generally, these craft circles are made up of fairly conservative retired women, who enjoy the companionship and creativity of porcelain-doll-making, using commercial moulds. I entered these groups as an artist and participant, making friends and introducing my own unconventional ideas and methods,” she recalls. “The relationships were always mutually respectful, funny and inspired. A very interesting intra-generational intervention.”

Now Boyle has set up her own studio, and is working independently with original moulds, completing a commission for the Art Gallery of Ontario’s reopening this November. When asked about Otherworld Uprising, Boyle had this to say: “My work is intimate, often small, and can be dense with meaning. It is private but intended to include. I am just really happy to have the chance to put it all together in a full colour, nicely printed book that someone might read at the library or take home to look at.”

AT DRAWN & QUARTERLY
(211 BERNARD W.), WEDNESDAY,
OCT. 15, 7:30 P.M., FREE