2019 Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition at the Idea Exchange

Opening reception: Friday April 26, 7:00 pm

Thesis exhibition by Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidate Jordyn Stewart, from the graduate program in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo, is at the Cambridge Galleries, Idea Exchange. MFA Thesis gives the campus and community-at-large an opportunity to see the end result of two years of intensive research and studio production by emerging visual artists.

Jordyn Stewart
Cul-de-sac island

A cul-de-sac is a dead end street whose end is surrounded by houses. Confined within a curb, and a ubiquitous indicator of urban sprawl, they are continuously manicured by the municipality and left with little indication of its use to the public. Sometimes, you'll find a landscape island in the centre of a cul-de-sac. While these islands may be seen as underutilized spaces, when activated by a child's imagination they have the potential to become much more, even a paradise. Cul-de-sac Island explores nature, place, and identity through the juxtaposition of the artificial and the real. In grappling with the understanding of nature, as a child to adulthood, Jordyn Stewart's most recent installation is informed by personal history, memory, and contemporary notions of 'nationhood.' Through performative action, play, amateur ethnography, and failure, the work serves as an ongoing investigation into the artist's personal sense of place and the place she calls home.