'Elaine Cameron-Weir: A WAY OF LIFE' – The Brooklyn Rail

12 April 2024

“We are each of us celebrating some funeral.” —Charles Baudelaire, “On the Heroism of Modern Life,” 1846.

I had anticipated austerity before walking into Elaine Cameron-Weir’s first solo at Lisson Gallery, NY, but only to detect a kind that is strangely tinged with an impersonal sentimentality. In a sense of estranged memoriam, the archival aesthetics displayed in A WAY OF LIFE feels evocative of a Christian Boltanski room. Specifically, I thought of his Storage (1988) or Autel Lycée Chases (1989). However, instead of constructing a psychological landscape conjuring a particular historical affect, Cameron-Weir seems to be more interested in the phenomenon and the pattern, rather than effects or aftermath.

Known for her uncanny work on the mirror image and “Snake” series, begun in 2016—a found conveyor belt plated with individually enameled scales–Cameron-Weir retains the scale morphology by adorning a new rendition of a 500-inch belt with used horseshoes. western procession of my oldest wounds (hit parade) wrecked high altar of buying tears (2024) takes up the center gallery. Each horseshoe on the belt is unique, in its wear, dust, and tear.

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