I must be streaming

Artist Jorden Doody unveils her new installation I Must Be Streaming this week at the

Kelowna Art Gallery. In it, visitors are invited to enter a disorienting world of larger than life icons constructed from unexpected materials that aims to have them question their notions of ‘reality.’

Doody produces her creations by blending new media technologies with digital printing, and contemporary materials like faux fur and vinyl, while incorporating traditional modes of craft like quilting, felting, and painting. The result is an environment that blurs the boundaries between the real and the virtual, the tactile and the imaginary.

Wrapping the gallery’s walls is a hand-painted mural called Networth (2020) that features organic web-like blue lines that envelope the viewer in the room. Suspended within this are a number of objects that have been dramatically enlarged and re-imagined. Saturated (2020) is a giant personsized toilet roll that is made of quilted fabric with hand-painted symbols on each sheet. Heartfelt (2019) is a six-foot tall blood-red felted heart that is suspended from the ceiling by a thick gold chain. Fool’s Gold (2020) is a titan twelve-foot tall lightning bolt that is hard to ignore, mounted high on a wall in punchy green AstroTurf.

The combined visual impact of the installation is powerful and a little unsettling. The artist hopes that the work will challenge visitors to be critical of the worlds in which they live – that they might reflect on their own concepts of connectivity and consider the effects these have on their relationships and in their daily lives.

I Must Be Streaming runs until Nov. 1.

Jorden Doody is an interdisciplinary artist who examines the transitional spaces between tangible material and digital media.

She is based in Kelowna and is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.