Spanning the ten large windows that make up Plug In ICA’s street front gallery, a halftone dot pattern reproduces the printed quality of graphic novel design. The uniform pattern is a surface from which five sets of cartoon eyes stare out. The blinking eyes are Wendy’s – “a young woman living in an urban centre, whose dreams of contemporary art stardom are perpetually derailed by the temptations of punk music, drugs, alcohol, parties, and boys.” As a central figure in Scott’s work, Wendy’s character has consistent and also shifty characteristics that allow for the navigation of multiple identities, spaces and encounters.

Looking out onto two major cultural institutions, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Wendy’s animated eyes create links between Plug In ICA’s interior public/private space and the street. Installed for the duration of our two Summer Institutes, at a scale of roughly 10’ x 10’, the eyes produce the architectural space of the building as a psychological interior from which one can look out from, or in to, in an ongoing navigation of interiority and exteriority.

Curated by Sarah Nesbitt

Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across writing, video, performance and sculpture. In 2011, while living in Montréal, he began the comic book series, Wendy, exploring the narrative of a fictional young woman living in an urban centre who aspires to global success and art stardom but whose dreams are perpetually derailed. Wendy has been featured in Modern Painters, Canadian Art, Mousse Magazine, and Art in America. Recent Exhibitions include the 2016 Montreal Biennale, Le Grand Balcon, Musée d’art contemporain; Big Toe, Giant Steps at Occidental Temporary, Paris; and Ambivalent Pleasures: Vancouver Special, Vancouver Art Gallery. He is leading the Wendy Book Club with Niki Little at Plug In ICA.