Barbara Steinman

Canadian, b. 1950

Exile, 1990

Cibachrome on paper, 5/5

(a) Photograph: 40 x 50.2 cm; (b) Photograph: 134.7 x 110.5 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor

G-94-136 ab

Categories:

Photograph, Photography

This diptych is a comment on the complex struggle between nature and culture. The smaller component of this work references The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Michelangelo on the Sistine ceiling. The larger component displays a balletic crisscross of soft blue lines, whose source is submarine radar mapping with no centre or place name. For Steinman, the visual expression of the radar is similar to an abstract painting where line and form are embedded with elusive intention and meaning. Coupled with the title, Exile, this piece gives a physical and poetic form to the way cultural memory functions and explores how we perceive reality through and across layers of information and time.