media + resources

Here you will find the press release, press photos (invitations), logos, posters and other supplementary information about the exhibition.

Still haven’t found what you’re looking for? Contact andrea@habicurious.com

The Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2018

With “If I Wake”, Photographer Andrea Cordonier Wants Viewers to Take a Good Long Look (and Smell and Feel) at What’s Going on Around Them

“Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive
and even spiritual satisfaction”
www.ifiwake.com

On Sunday, September 16^th, 2018, photographer Andrea Cordonier launches a new exhibition, If I Wake (LMNTL No. 2), at the Giardino Salon & Gallery in Carleton Place, ON, 30 minutes west of downtown Ottawa. The exhibition begins with the vernissage – the grand opening – from 1 – 4pm at 129 Bridge Street and continues through November 17th, 2018.

Cordonier invites guests to step inside to reflect on the value of going outside.

The solo show explores the critical role of nature in human creativity and well-being. Connection to nature is a quality of life issue often taken for granted, but it possesses benefits that are well-documented.

According to biologist, naturalist, theorist and author, E.O. Wilson, “nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”

Wilson popularized the idea of biophilia, what Greek philosopher Aristotle called “The Love of Life”. Wilson makes the case that “…to explore and affiliate with [all species of] life is a deep and complicated process in mental development… our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hope rises on its currents.”

While biophilia may be an unfamiliar term for many, its effects are universally felt and admired; it’s in the taste of a fresh-picked apple, bird calls at dawn, the shade of a tree, the touch of a pet, the hand of a friend, sun on bare shoulders, and the scent of laundry fresh from the line. Its traces are everywhere, all of the time.

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Cordonier is a client of Nick Giardino and a fan of small places, both for their histories and possibilities. She’s a graduate of the Advanced Housing Program at Algonquin College, Perth and writes about the relationship of people to their homes and communities at Habicurious.com.

Italian-born and London-trained, Giardino is a master stylist who draws clients from as far away as Toronto. His downtown Bridge Street salon and gallery is a destination location and the kind of architectural wonder sought after in the city, but now mostly possible in the heritage towns, like Carleton Place, that ring Ottawa’s urban limits. The salon is an impeccable balance of old and new, provoking awe, envy and the not-so-irrational desire to sell up and move here immediately. The space reflects Giardino’s knowledge, expertise and taste for la dolce vita.

Cordonier sees small towns like Carleton Place or villages like Burritt’s Rapids, where she lives, as more than dots on a map. At the nexus of architectural grace, affordability, flexibility and creativity, small – even micro – places can become cultural draws. Her choice of Giardino’s salon for the installation of If I Wake directly feeds a particular interest: to find ways of using commercial (and public spaces) more creatively in order to co-promote economic and cultural development and quality of life in small centres.

“I see it as a game of connect-the-dots,” Cordonier says. “Carleton Place is a vibrant, talented community. So much is possible for its heritage downtown.”

IF I WAKE
A photographic exhibition by Andrea Cordonier
www.ifiwake.com

Contact:
Andrea Cordonier: andrea@habicurious.com Tel: (613) 269-4585

Vernissage/Opening Celebration:
Sunday, September 16th
1:00 to 4:00pm

Exhibition Dates:
17 September – 17 November 2018

Exhibition Location:
Giardino Salon & Gallery
129 Bridge Street, Carleton Place, ON

Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00am – 6:00pm for self-guided tours
Private viewings: By prior arrangement

Giardino Salon + Gallery:
Nick Giardino (613) 492-6000 www.giardinolifestyle.com

Artist’s Statement:

I shoot to express, address and possess.

Each frame contains my curiosity, physicality and knowledge, each an idea or moment in time. Together, they form stories at the intersection of people, their homes and communities and omnipresent nature, constructed, and re-constructed, in the first and third person.

I work in colour and black and white, in documentary, editorial and abstract forms, in accord with each subject. I look, first, for beauty, but delight in ordered disorder, elements of surprise, and movement in repose. The narrative structure reveals itself through bold composition, careful juxtaposition, and select revelation, demanding a second and third look.

Artist’s Bio:

A Canon SLR and a high school darkroom clinched it for photographer Andrea Cordonier. She describes the urge to create as “a beautiful beast with a will of its own.”

Cordonier pursued photography as an avocation alongside consulting, community development projects and a return to school to study construction carpentry and green building.

She studied and observed and shot and edited her growing body of work, resulting in a substantial archive of images. She moved from film to digital and now back to film, graced with the gift of a 1957 Hasselblad. She began part-time studies at SPAO in Ottawa.

A year ago, Cordonier mounted her first solo exhibition, ELEMENTAL, with the purpose of moving toward the rank of professional artist.

IF I WAKE (LMNTL No. 2), her second exhibition, debuts on September 16, 2018 and explores the foundational role nature plays in our creativity, mental health and basic existence. Without it, she argues, we evolve away from our humanness.

Nearly a thousand editorial images accompany her writing at Habicurious.com. The content is a synthesis of architecture, building, design, art and culture, nature, history and the psycho-social considerations of how and where we live.

Cordonier was part of the team from the Workers History Museum that shot the networks of industrial buildings of the E.B. Eddy site (Ottawa River, between Ottawa, ON and Gatineau, QC) prior to its redevelopment. With a focus on detail, the project took 12 months to complete.

In 2018/2019, she looks forward to submitting to competitions, securing representation, showing in group and solo exhibitions, and identifying creative cross-media collaborations, especially those that combine photography with building/making, writing, social justice and/or community cultural development.

From Vancouver, Cordonier lives in Burritt’s Rapids, an historic village on the Rideau River in the City of Ottawa.

www.ifiwake.com
www.habicurious.com
www.andreacordonier.com
www.elemental.com

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