About the Exhibition

The Invention Moves in – exhibition essay by Tracy Wormsbecker 

“An invention starts as a curiosity, extra to what seems necessary. We may regard it at first from a mental distance of amusement or amazement, as something bizarre or exotic. Then, if successful, the invention moves in, bringing pandemonium. Like a rearrangement of our furniture, it treacherously alters familiar terrain. It disrupts habits, roughs up values, and generally remould us- drastically, like the automobile; subtly like the microchip – into different people in a different kind of world.” – Peter Schjeldahl, “The Instant Age,” in Legacy of Light, ed. Constance Sullivan. 

Although it was written to introduce a book celebrating the Polaroid instant photograph as “the climax of the invention cycle” and “one of photography’s most extraordinary advances,” this passage, which is perhaps more relevant in today’s digital terrain, echoes through Michelle Brownridge’s current exhibition. Since the advent of digital technology, the rate of technological advancement and its pervasive role in contemporary life seems to be accelerating dramatically. Amidst the quickening cycle of new replacing the old. The Invention Moves In invites us to take pause. Through her thoughtful selection of media and subject matter, Brownridge artfully underscores the outdated within a contemporary context and invites us to re-examine our understanding of the obsolete and its perceived value in the modern world. 

In her process, Brownridge uses both an iPhone and original Polaroid instant film to capture the images shown throughout this exhibit. While the result is similar, a more conspicuous comparison is achieved through contrasting modern and antiquated printing techniques by layering each digitally enlarged image and printed photograph with stone lithography. Although we may initially be drawn to the digitally printed photographic images, it is the lithographed patterns sourced from security envelopes, which cover each scene that lends a distinct and authentic aesthetic quality to each piece. Demonstrating the influential presence that modern digital technology has in print media, Brownridge compels us to engage with the traditional method and successfully illustrates that while it may be considered obsolete in comparison, it continues to share this presence. 

Her carefully chosen imagery likewise incites an alluring engagement with the obsolete. By depicting scenes and objects that are readily identified as outdated and technologically archaic by modern standards, Brownridge entices us with nostalgic sentiment for a previous time and place. But when can we confidently locate these images in time? It may be reasonable to assume that they were photographed several years, even decades ago, yet digital processes including iphone photography reveal that they actually exist in a current time and place. Brownridge aims to elicit this confusion and by doing so, suggest biased perceptions of contemporary life that are skewed towards the latest invention, which, as the opening quote states, “alters familiar terrain” into what we come to interpret as a “different kind of world.” The modern and outdated tend to be seen as mutually exclusive – the former belonging to the contemporary; the latter belonging to the past – and not residing in the same contemporary context. As Brownridge illustrates however, they do indeed coexist. 

As the old continues to give way to what is newer and often viewed as more exciting, the world and our perceptions of it are indeed rearranged and remoulded. What was once new quickly becomes outdated and subsequently seems to carry an inherent quality of loss. Disregarded as obsolete, the outdated may therefore not be considered relevant in a contemporary context. Through this exhibition, Brownridge reminds us that the outdated coexists with the contemporary and retains a certain siginific=gancer and appeal; as invention continues to move in, the obsolete and its influence persist. 

About the Artist

Michelle Brownridge studied print media at the University of Regina. She has participated in print exchanges across North America including Miami, Chicago, Buffalo and Seattle, and has exhibited in a number of group shows in Canada. Her work is also represented in permanent collections at the University of Regina,as well as the PrintZero Studios Collection in Seattle. This is her first exhibition in Calgary.