Diaz Contemporary is pleased to present a modicum of sensibility, Elspeth Pratt’s fourth exhibition at the gallery since 2006. Once again, Pratt’s sculptural work marries metaphors of structural precarity with an elegant sensibility and detailed attention to an economy of materials. Through creating sculptural works, and allusions to architectural constructs, Pratt invites her viewer to question the conditions and appearance of their every day life. As stated by Pratt: “I remain curious about why we build, and ask people to inhabit, certain artificial spaces where they have to adapt to prescriptive ways of behaving rather than striving for softer spaces where a reconciliation of artifice and the practice of the everyday can take place.” Through a persistent questioning and negotiation of the artist’s relationship to the objects they create, Pratt’s work is situated as conceptual pendulum oscillating between process and object.
The works that comprise a modicum of sensibility evolve out of Pratt’s most recent studio investigations into the ordered nature of “architectural references through unanticipated combination of materials and form.” Through a sensitivity, or perhaps sensibility, towards material and form, Pratt’s works operate as subtle structures for questioning the literal and metaphorical architectural blueprints that condition relationships between people and their environments.
Elspeth Pratt lives and works in Vancouver. In 2011 the Vancouver Art Gallery commissioned Second Date, a large-scale artwork as part of Offsite, their ongoing outdoor public art program. She has exhibited her work in Canada, USA, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Italy. Pratt’s work is in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Oakville Galleries, Glenbow Museum, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, RBC Art Collection, and in numerous private collections. Additionally, Emily Carr University Press recently published a monograph of Pratt's work, entitled Nonetheless. Pratt is an Associate Professor and Director of the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.
  
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