CHRIS BOYNE | Lobster | SHELF
April 13 - May 16, 2025
Lobster is a collection of five heavily painted sculptures I made while in-residence at the Annandale Artist Residency in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada. Annandale is a fishing village with a small fleet of older lobster boats. Many of the parts on these older boats are improvised, made of wood and heavily painted whereas the same parts on newer boats are ‘off the shelf’ and made of stainless steel or plastic. I found the approaches the fisherman and builders took to fashion these improvised parts fascinating. The boats all had similar parts, but the form of the parts was often different from one boat to the next. On working boats, it can be assumed that the parts were all highly functional, but each was conceptualized so differently. I loved it. It made me think about today and what I see as a boring and subjective interest in ‘best’. Whoever built these parts came to design conclusions over time and through experience and preference. I made careful measurements of five of these improvised parts on lobster boats including Jacob’s Run, the Robin Gayle and North Star and made precise replicas of the parts to heavily paint in high gloss marine black. I painted the objects over and over to mimic the build-up the real parts had from years of circular maintenance.
Chris Boyne (b. 1984. Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a multidisciplinary artist who uses task-based approaches to explore ideas and create conceptual content. He is most interested in generative approaches and his studio practice involves photography, the fabrication and manipulation of objects, drawing and writing. He holds a BFA from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA from Concordia University, has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and currently lives and works in Montréal.
SHELF
CHRIS BOYNE
On View: April 28 - June 3, 2022
View Exhibition
“white nances, is a collection of nine thickly glazed porcelain container ships and bulk carriers—forms I have returned to over and over in my practice. The work is connected to a variety of experiences around ships and the maritime industry including crossing the Pacific Ocean aboard the container ship Hanjin Geneva, visiting the largest ship recycling facility in Canada, crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the roll-on roll-off container ship Atlantic Sky and traveling to the shipbreaking beaches of Alang, India. The work is also connected to growing up next to a working harbour (Halifax) where I saw ships navigating the approaches, passing under the harbour bridges, coming through the narrows and off-loading at Ceres or Halterm. I was always interested in the ships—the Maersks, ACLs, ZIMs, Hapags, CMA CGMs, Wilhelmsens—where they came from and where they were going, the flag countries/countries of ownership and the cargo they carried. I was also focused on the form of the ships themselves—the hull lines, trapezoidal funnel stacks, ever-narrowing super structures, colours, ‘liveries’, cryptic markings and deck fixtures—all of it fascinated me. With white nances, I explore the most basic forms from memory.
white nance follows a colourful naming convention within my practice: black nance, periwinkle blues, Diamond Blues, Hard Black Stinker and now white nance one through white nance nine.” - CB
Chris Boyne (b. 1984. Halifax, Nova Scotia) is an interdisciplinary artist who uses task-based approaches to explore ideas and create conceptual content connected to reminiscence, maritime systems and semiotics and the rhythms and traces of transportation and commerce. He is most interested in generative approaches and his studio practice involves the fabrication and manipulation of objects, photography, drawing and writing. He holds a BFA from Ryerson University and an MFA from Concordia University and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec. He currently lives and works in Montréal.