Slytod

Bonnie Bates is a reference librarian at the National Gallery of Canada.

The art of Diana Thorneycroft challenges the viewer and the readers of
Slytod. Her large photographs and installation works are arresting but
difficult to interpret. Are we voyeurs or active participants in her
work? Should we be repulsed or attracted to the scenes before us? Is the
artist making an antifeminist statement or speaking boldly to the women
of the new millennium? This dichotomy of message pushes the reader to
think beyond the boundaries of photo-installation art.

This catalogue documents a 1997 exhibition of Thorneycroft’s slytod
work at Gallery I.I.I. of the School of Art in Winnipeg. In style and
subject matter, her large-scale photographic work invites comparisons
with artists as diverse as Mark Prent, Arcimboldi, Frida Kahlo, and Man
Ray. But while Thorneycroft does explore the unconscious world, and
while some of the images appear ghostly, her style is also very direct.
This is what makes her work so difficult to analyze. What is really
going on in slytod?

It helps to know that slytod refers to a game of tag that the artist
played in her childhood. “Tod” means death in German, and
Thorneycroft indicates in her artist statement that “it is the notion
of playing tag with death that permeates this exhibition.” That
Thorneycroft teases a dark force is evident in her slytod work. While
this catalogue does do a good job of representing the works in the
exhibition, the reader does not have the same experience as the viewer
at the show. Patrons were provided with flashlights as they entered the
exhibition, a circumstance that would certainly have added drama to the
viewing of her works.

Supporting essays and a biography help to shed light on this complex
artist and her work.