Kyla Chevrier
Fall 2011

“I imagine that rules and practical division don’t exist; that boundaries may or may not be momentary. I treat the room as an object.”

The work of Kyla Chevrier is both dramatic and nuanced. Her word is constantly seeking to distill the myriad of histories and means of relation between the body and the spaces we inhabit. Her site-sensitive architectural installations challenge audiences by distorting the typical formations and conventions of constructed spaces, alienating the ‘space’ from its utility as a ‘room’ and exposing the learned ideologies and subjective histories that serve as foundations for our relationships to architectural spaces.

The awkward, abrupt and jarring forms that emerge from Chevrier’s work are often contrasted against a lyrical use of colour, evoking emotion and suggesting a subjectivity that is often over-looked in our navigation of architectural spaces. The viewer is left disorientated and in the accompanying discomfort, must treat each moment in the space as an active moment of decision, seeking out meaning and coming to terms with their own body; one that is inherently implicated in our idea of space.

Kyla Chevrier was born in the Ottawa region and has received a BFA from Concordia University and an MFA from Yale University. She now resides in New York and Ottawa.