Opening April 10th in the Alternator Members’ Gallery is The lost art of waiting by Louise Dee!
Louise Dee is a painter interested in the complexity and ambiguity of the human condition. Her work is grounded in personal experience, observation of others and inner reflection, alongside research into early psychoanalytic theory and an interest in Eastern and Stoic philosophy.
For this site-specific installation, she explored the experience of waiting. In a fast-paced, hyper-connected world where instant access to most things is available twenty-four hours a day, many people rarely encounter the pause between one experience and the next. With so many distractions at hand, it is easy to overlook any response in these moments of stillness.
The Stoics, however, regarded waiting as an art form—a proactive activity and a key component of emotional resilience and practical wisdom. Inspired by this perspective, Dee’s installation considers waiting as a verb, asking: if you find yourself in a lineup without your phone or a companion to talk to, how do you wait?
Louise Dee is an emerging contemporary Canadian artist with a background in human health sciences. Based in Vancouver, BC, her studio practice is centred on painting and drawing. In 2023, she completed an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School in the UK, where her studies focused on historical and philosophical ideas surrounding physical and psychological wellness.
In 2021, one of her paintings was shortlisted for the Kingston National Portrait Prize in Canada.