Q and A with Cassie Paine

Cassie Paine is a sculpture/installation artist and printmaker whose work reflects on the authoritative role of tools and infrastructure within our society.  Based in Windsor, Ontario and Montreal, her work unveils the economic precarity of post-industrial cities; investigating urban planning strategies, systems in place to control automotive and pedestrian traffic, and distinctions between public and private places.

As part of her exhibition at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery, Cassie Paine gave a few talks, one of which took place on April 19 with the second-year Visual Arts students. Cassie spoke about her practice and process, and Pedestrian Values – which was on view until May 4. After her presentation, students had the opportunity to ask a few questions.

Q: As a whole, is the exhibition meant to critique capitalism or enforce its presence?

C.P: It’s definitely a critique. The reference to Monopoly, partnered with construction materials highlights capitals control over our spatial environments. The title of the traffic barrel, Magie, pays homage to Elizabeth Magie, inventor of The Landlord’s Game, an anti-capitalist board game designed to teach individuals about income inequality from 1904.

Q: Based on your childhood, what is it that made you think so critically about Capitalism? What was the moment that things clicked for you?

C.P: Growing up in the border city of Windsor, Ontario, there were ongoing conversations surrounding the economic precarity of post-industrial cities. In my youth, I started to recognize the impacts of the 2008 recession, and ongoing efforts that were made to try to “revitalize” the city.

Q: I appreciate the use of found objects in your works, when did you start to notice the implications they had?

C.P: Windsor is a city centered around the automobile. It wasn’t until I moved to Toronto and left my hometown that I started to question the built environment. I started to notice the different authority that is held in infrastructure of public space, specifically signage.

Q: In this exhibition, why is there a cone placed behind the privacy mesh?

C.P: I’m interested in working with the transparency of the mesh. Privacy mesh is designed to hide construction sites, it marks a clear border between public and private spaces. I’ve always been tempted to peer through the mesh to see what’s going on behind the scenes. The cone is mainly there to spark curiosity and prompt the viewer to walk around the mesh and see the rest of the exhibition through a new lens.

Q: Have you ever been to a different place in the world where urban planning is different or nonexistent and been inspired or surprised?

C.P: I’ve always lived in cities (Windsor, Toronto, and Montréal). Seeing the active changes to the urban environments I was living in, has inspired me to reflect on urban planning strategies and city systems. Last summer I went on a road trip to Gaspesie. It was an amazing, and somewhat strange experience to see areas with only dirt roads, close to no signage and little urban infrastructure.

The relationship between nature and industry is often presented as pitted against one another, but I think they are more interwoven than we often realize. This is something I am interested to keep researching and exploring in my work.

Q: I am curious about your technique, especially for what looks like engraving on the No Parking sign and the printed motifs on the orange cones – how did you create these?

C.P: The parking sign is carved with relief printing tools, specifically a speedball carver and x-acto knife. Given the sign is quite old, this made the material quite fragile, but also easier to carve into.

For the cone, I applied a vinyl material, that was planned digitally, cut, and applied onto the cone. I often try to work with materials that are present in the original object, or production methods that reflect the object’s authority.

Q: Which of the works were you most compelled to make? Which was the most fun?

C.P: That is a difficult question to answer. I really enjoy working with metal, I find it empowering. I love bronze casting because of the collaboration and teamwork required throughout the process. Perhaps, I was most compelled to make the excavator piece because it spoke to a lot of the key ideas I had in mind at the time.

Q: Do you do your own bronze casting?

C.P: Yes, at Concordia, and Atelier la Coulée. Atelier la Coulée is a cooperative space that supports metal arts, welding, and bronze casting. If you have experience, you can work autonomously with technicians on site. If you don’t have experience, they offer many classes and workshops.

Q: Are there any artists whose work inspires your own?

C.P: Broken City Labs is a huge inspiration for my practice. They were a collective based in Windsor, whose work often engaged the community, and sought for civic change. Joshua Schwebel, Anne Lewis, Shaunna Jansen and the Points de Vue collective also come to mind!

Q: Do you focus on a narrative around which the works articulate, or do you produce work that comes from a nucleus of one idea?

C.P: Often my work is site-responsive and responding to specific changes in my surrounding urban environments. In addition to this, my process often begins with collecting objects that I’m fascinated by. I often keep the objects for a while and think about them before I do anything with them.

In terms of the monopoly reference, I was playing Monopoly at a dinner party with some studio peers one night and the game got somewhat competitive. Near the end of the game, many of us started to feel guilty and tried to share our monopoly money with one another. This triggered a reflection about the nature of the game, which connected to other ideas I had at the time and inspired me to research the history of the game. So, sometimes it’s just about being at the right dinner party at the right time!

-Transcription by Katya Kieran and Gwen Baddeley