Don Maynard

Falling to Pieces, by Kingston-based artist Don Maynard, is an installation comprised of roughly 700 mirrors that vary in size and shape. Each mirror is attached to a block of wood that is cut at an off set angle to the wall which causes the mirrors to reflect light at many different angles. The pieces are dimly lit with a single bulb. The fractured reflections of the viewer emphasizes the transformations and changes of identity that we all experience as we go through life, and provides a meditative environment in which to ponder who we are and what that means.

The fractured perspectives that are created within this work relate technically to those used by Cubist representations where fractured perspective was employed with the goal to disorient the viewer and evoke disturbing dream-spaces. In regards to this installation Ben Darrah writes in “Art Spaces” that the work “…forces you to concentrate on what you see and allows you time to process the visual information as it becomes apparent to you rather than doing the sort of mental shorthand we do during our daily life…Luckily art affords us the opportunity to reassess our shorthand, as a way to ensure that we are not overlooking important information.”

Don Maynard has exhibited across Canada, and his work is in the collection of The Department of Foreign Affairs, University of Toronto and the Canada Council Art Bank. He was the subject of a half hour segment of “Adrienne Clarkson Presents” produced by the CBC in 1998. His work has appeared on the covers of several books, including Icon Driven, Arguments with Gravity and The Ecstasy of Skeptics.