Image: Ingrid Mayrhofer, Main at Kenilworth, digital collage, 2021. Courtesy of the artist.
In this solo exhibition of recent works, Hamilton-based artist Ingrid Mayrhofer explores the image of a changing city. Video collages and digital photomontages document the altered streetscape during the process of demolition along King Street East in preparation for the City’s planned Light Rail Transit (LRT).
After photographing many different stages of change – from active businesses and housing, to boarded up buildings and construction fencing, and newly revealed historical details – the artist created absurdist reality composites by incorporating the candy-coloured and tagged hoarding.
Her earlier series of collagraphs offer aerial views of the industrial sector and interpretations of the steelmaking process together with façades of workers’ homes. The inclusion of cyanotypes from the AGH collection that document steel making and the TH&B railway construction, situates Mayrhofer’s camera angle as she rambles along the tensions of progress.
