Carly Greene
Wed. September 3rd 2025 - Sat. September 27th 2025 Monday 11am-1pm
Saturday 11am-4pm
TRAPPINGS was inspired by some popcorn I picked up off the floor of the Empress Hotel bar a
couple of years ago.
Offered as a complimentary table snack alongside pricey glasses of wine or signature cocktails, the
light, oddly shaped kernels—seasoned with spices and activated charcoal—inevitably slip through
fingers and fall to the floor, ignored by patrons, swept up by staff.
The popcorn brought to mind two things: my first job sweeping floors at my hometown movie
theatre, and asàrotos òikos floor mosaics. Translated as “unswept room,” these trompe-l’oeil motifs
of scraps and feast debris appeared in the dining spaces of wealthy Greek and Roman villas. They
symbolized abundance, wealth, and the decadence of empire—while preserving what is,
essentially, a mess. Seeing the debris scattered on the floor of the Empress—an institution steeped
in colonial history and upper-class exclusivity, the connection seemed ripe.
This installation centres on two primary materials: popcorn and rosé wine. Both are consumed
more for pleasure rather than sustenance, and both can be read as either high or low brow
depending on the context—boutique or bulk, bottled or boxed, at the Empress Hotel or the
Wetaskiwin Cinema.
TRAPPINGS indulges in our attraction to shiny things as a way to reckon with the inherent
messiness that underlies materiality. In making this work, I thought about boundaries of class,
aspiration, and the inequities baked into systems of making and consuming; about mouths, mush,
and what we can stomach; unswept floors, waste, and what gets dropped in the distances between
production and consumption.
--
Carly Greene is a visual artist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples currently called Victoria, B.C. and now based with gratitude on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples currently called Victoria, B.C.
Working across sculpture and installation Greene embraces humour and logical leaps as entry points
to explore the complexities of materials with a particular interest in where materiality rubs up against
systems of value and power.
Greene received her BFA from the University of Alberta (2012) and MFA from the University of
Victoria (2022) where she is now the Wood & Metal Shop Technician and a Sculpture Instructor in the
Department of Visual Arts.
couple of years ago.
Offered as a complimentary table snack alongside pricey glasses of wine or signature cocktails, the
light, oddly shaped kernels—seasoned with spices and activated charcoal—inevitably slip through
fingers and fall to the floor, ignored by patrons, swept up by staff.
The popcorn brought to mind two things: my first job sweeping floors at my hometown movie
theatre, and asàrotos òikos floor mosaics. Translated as “unswept room,” these trompe-l’oeil motifs
of scraps and feast debris appeared in the dining spaces of wealthy Greek and Roman villas. They
symbolized abundance, wealth, and the decadence of empire—while preserving what is,
essentially, a mess. Seeing the debris scattered on the floor of the Empress—an institution steeped
in colonial history and upper-class exclusivity, the connection seemed ripe.
This installation centres on two primary materials: popcorn and rosé wine. Both are consumed
more for pleasure rather than sustenance, and both can be read as either high or low brow
depending on the context—boutique or bulk, bottled or boxed, at the Empress Hotel or the
Wetaskiwin Cinema.
TRAPPINGS indulges in our attraction to shiny things as a way to reckon with the inherent
messiness that underlies materiality. In making this work, I thought about boundaries of class,
aspiration, and the inequities baked into systems of making and consuming; about mouths, mush,
and what we can stomach; unswept floors, waste, and what gets dropped in the distances between
production and consumption.
--
Carly Greene is a visual artist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples currently called Victoria, B.C. and now based with gratitude on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen peoples currently called Victoria, B.C.
Working across sculpture and installation Greene embraces humour and logical leaps as entry points
to explore the complexities of materials with a particular interest in where materiality rubs up against
systems of value and power.
Greene received her BFA from the University of Alberta (2012) and MFA from the University of
Victoria (2022) where she is now the Wood & Metal Shop Technician and a Sculpture Instructor in the
Department of Visual Arts.