Solo exhibition at Centre[3], Hamilton
Emerging Artist-In-Residence Program
February 23 – April 5, 2024
Opening Reception: March 8, 7-10pm
Regular Gallery hours: W-F 10-5, Sat. 11-4

 Exhibition Statement 

Welcome to the architect’s office. Through the lens of architectural drawing, Steel Plate, Slag Block examines the role, responsibility, and ethics of architects and architecture. It explores the design of four ‘correctional facilities,’ “Ontario Reformatory” in Millbrook, “Addition to the Metropolitan Toronto Jail,” “Building for Incorrigible Girls” in Galt, and “Building For Ontario Training School” (for boys) in Guelph. They were designed by Barnett and Rieder Architects in Southern Ontario between 1954 and 1956. None of these buildings remain today, though their impact lingers. 

Drawing from Reid’s experience in the field, they focussed on the business of architecture, design process, and the office as the birthplace of these ‘correctional facilities.’ Working with the original blueprints, they teased out critical details and design choices present in the drawings. These details were contextualized through reading accounts and conducting archival research. They experienced great tension between the sterility of the blueprints and the historical accounts of these places. 

The works were created using various techniques, including computer-aided embroidery, screen printing, and cyanotype prints, to explore reproduction, repetition and architectural process. Through the works and the installation, Reid is interested in the aspects of design practice that disappeared in the final blueprint set and, ultimately – from the landscape itself. 

Detail photographs by Arturo Jimenez

Special thanks to Centre[3] for Artistic and Social Practice