Elizabeth Chitty


Elizabeth Chitty is an interdisciplinary artist known for performances, installations and constructed photographs as well as her writing.

Biography

Elizabeth Chitty was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. Chitty has lived primarily in the Niagara Peninsula, except the period of time early in her career when she lived and worked in Vancouver and Toronto.

Career

Elizabeth Chitty has created performance and video installation projects since the mid 1970s. Her performance work over the course of her career has been defined in four phases: the first from 1975 to 1982, the second from 1983 to 1990, the third from 1992 to 1997, and the fourth being in the present; and was influenced by the context of what was occurring during these time periods. In the 1970s and the 1980s her single-channel videos were widely exhibited, including venues such as the 11e Biennale de Paris in 1980 and the 1988 opening at the National Gallery of Canada.

Style, technique, and reception

Chitty's passion for reconciliation between First Nations' and the settlers, has been reflected in her art practice since the 1990s.
In 2016 Chitty stated the following in reference to her art practice for the 11th 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art in Toronto, "I explore what it means to be in a body, a place, with others. Interrelations of temporal-kinasthetic-visual-aural-textual interests flow through my body of work." Chitty creates further definition in her work through ideas, emotions and sensations.

Significant works

In November 2017 The Grass is Still Green won the 'Exhibit of the Year' at the Ontario Association of Art Galleries annual awards gala. Her Video : Canadian Video was exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan in the spring of 1980.

Collections

In 1984 T.V.Love was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada. Demo Model, Telling Tales, Desire Control and Dogmachine video collection were deposited by Art Metropole, Toronto to the National Gallery of Canada in 1997.