Elspeth Pratt
Corin Sworn

June 4 - July 3, 2009
Opening Reception Thursday June 4 6-9pm

Blanket is pleased to present a two person exhibition of work by Elspeth
Pratt and Corin Sworn.

Elspeth Pratt’s new work engages with the role for ornamentation in the
constitution of architecture. Ornament problematizes the duality of form
and function and allows us the possibility of thinking about their
relationship in new ways. The spaces that she considers are spaces of
authority ranging from the obvious spaces for incarceration to the more
subtle instances power and control reside in furniture or spatial
delineations implied within a space. Elspeth Pratt has had solo exhibitions
at the Charles H Scott Gallery (Vancouver), Contemporary Art Gallery
(Vancouver), Artspeak (Vancouver), YYZ (Toronto) and the Southern Alberta
Art Gallery (Lethbridge). Pratt has exhibited in group exhibitions in
Canada, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Italy, including Weak Thought at the
Vancouver Art Gallery, Architettura: Astriazione in Rome, and Contingent:
Eva Hesse, Elspeth Pratt and Martha Townsend at the Dunlop Art Gallery.
Elspeth Pratt lives and works in Vancouver, BC.

Corin Sworn, often combining precise references and oblique allusions,
offers a world where ideas and symbols shift meaning of popular perceptions
of social structures. Uncovering some of the ways in which design functions
as language, Sworn brings into question contestations involved in readings
of the past, drawing attention to the embedded nature of cultural constructs.
Having received a BA in psychology and art history from the University of
British Columbia, Sworn continued her academic path at Central Saint
Martins College of Art and Design (London, UK), Emily Carr University of Art
and Design (Vancouver, BC) and Glasgow School of Art, where she recently
received her MFA. Sworn has exhibited at galleries including the Morris
and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Or Gallery, Artspeak, and Access Artist-Run
Centre, Vancouver, BC; VTO Gallery, Cover Up, and Gasworks (curated by
Goshka Makuga), London, UK; Wolfsburg, Germany; and ZieherSmith in New York,
NY. Sworn has been selected to participate in East International at Norwich
Gallery (Norwich, UK) this coming summer. Sworn lives and works in Glasgow.