A newly-opened solo showcase of small-scale works by Vancouver-based artist Andrea Hooge builds on her long connection with The Kube gallery in a big way.
Hooge’s whimsical art cards have been one of the gallery’s most popular sale item for years, said Kube owners Jill Pilon and Jody Youngren. She also participated in a group show at the facility amid the restrictive turmoil of the COVID years.
Hooge opened Tiny Rooms during a public reception at the gallery on Sept. 6. Her three-dimensional miniatures are formed from compound layers of scratchboards. On each board, a ceramic surface coated in black India ink is painstakingly engraved, gradually revealing through excruciatingly fine lines the shapes of affable anthropomorphic creatures and their snug domestic habitats.
“When you paint,” said Hooge, “you have to learn to walk away when it’s finished. And I don’t know how to do that because I’m really detail-oriented. But the great thing about scratchboard is that it’s done when I’m finished scratching. For me, the problem is remembering to leave enough black space because I just want to scratch the whole thing.”
Each shadowbox measures about 10 centimeters in both width and height. Inside its walls, a furry protagonist — perhaps a fox, bear or beaver — is pictured wearing human clothing, apparently caught in a moment of introspective rumination. The architectural details of each artwork grew in complexity as she developed the series, explained Hooge. The earliest boxes are square portals; later models featured peaked and intricately-shingled roofs.
Hooge, who obtained a degree in psychology (while minoring in visual arts) from the University of the Fraser Valley, sees each piece as part of a larger and existential whole. “They’re compartmentalized,” she explained. “It’s like when you’re scrolling through social media or when you’re going through your day. There are so many pieces of information coming at you and you don’t really have the time to process it — yet you’re processing it all at the same time.”
The expression of the amiable room inhabitants stem from Hooge’s fascination with children’s books and stories. When earlier in her career she expressed herself using darker imagery, observers focused on stylistic conventions instead of the content. The tiny rooms compel viewers to inspect the substance of the miniature scenes at close range.
Even the mise-en-scène in each tableau carries significance. Hooge’s protagonists are avid art collectors and readers, with certain themes echoed across rooms — and even appearing in the full-size pastoral oil painting displayed in the gallery’s window. (Hooge paints in oils on wood in addition to her scratchboard art.) A church edifice (a reference to Hooge’s Mennonite heritage) and a flight of doves from the painting reappear in pint-sized scratchboard frames.
“I like to put Easter eggs in my work,” said Hooge. “I’m not giving you a lot of information on what each character is thinking about, but maybe the clues might be in the pictures on the wall or maybe they’re referencing a previous set of work that I’ve done.”
Hooge designs each shadowbox element in isolation, and ultimately mixes and matches to pair compatible components. “It’s less predictable,” she added, “and it’s less controlled, more chaotic. And I like that.”
Andrea Hooge’s Tiny Rooms remains on display at The Kube gallery until Sept. 30.
