ORANGE SANGUINE........................................................Genevieve Castree, April 2002

ORANGE SANGUINE
new dolls and drawings by
GENEVIEVE CASTREE

Opening April 5 2002
Curated by Colleen Heslin

The Crying Room is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of recent work by Genevieve Castree. ORANGE SANGUINE is a little wink to childhood, playfulness, small animals and the nonsense of being a mature and serious person. Castree fills the room with 32 drawings using brush, pen and ink and 8 action figures of characters (girls/boys/animals) and furious drawings from her glory days (when she was four years old). The illustrations and atmosphere of the space Castree creates bears a playful element, however, the stories carry a scent of sadness. Through these characters Castree illustrates small stories (translated from french and swedish), hinting towards, and questioning, what are we really doing?

“Hello, my name is GENEVIEVE CASTREE and i was born on April 9th 1981 somewhere around Quebec City. I was raised with my mother with whom i have moved at least a dozen times to finally settle in the Montreal area. I have been drawing little characters for as long as I can remember and was very aware I would turn this into a profession one day. I haven’t quite figured out how to make a living yet, but I have plenty of projects to keep me busy for a lifetime. Very strange things seem to occur to me as I make up stories about my life, they end up happening for real. I wish to improve this skill and use it on the rest of the world someday. I would really like to be a bear. In 1998 I moved to Victoria, British Columbia to pursue the dream of warmer weather.”

Castree is extremely prolific, with a strong history of exhibitions, published illustrations, small stories and small books internationally. She has exhibited her work in galleries
in Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, and twice invited to The International Festival of Bande Dessinee. Her stories and illustrations have been published in Canada and ex-Yugoslavia (a Slovenian magazine called Stripburger). With upcoming publications in magazines in Sweden (Pequod, and Galago[a comic mag] ), and France (Jade). Castree also anticipates upcoming books (with many others under her belt) in Germany (Reprodukt [publisher]), and a silkscreened book in Switzerland (Drozophile).