interiority, otherwhere

Chloe Gallagher-Smylie

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Chloe's Gallagher-Smylie's collection "interiority, otherwhere" celebrates the intimate moments which create meaning in daily life. Here, community and comfort are demonstrated to be the foundation of the home, reflecting the lived experience of those who occupy the space.

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Yolk began as an electric conversation around a picnic table in Saint Henri Square.

Our scruffy pioneer and present prose editor had previously approached each of us with an idea, a vision: We would establish our own literary magazine in Montreal. And so it was, or so it would be. After that original encounter, eight individuals devoted to the word resolved that they would gather bi-weekly, on Sundays, and bring something new into this busy, manic world—something that might slow its spin down somewhat and cause its patronage to say: “You know what, it ain’t so bad, is it, Susan?”

We are undergraduate, graduate, and graduated students of writing. Some of us learn our craft formally from accomplished authors in seminar courses, and some of us learn by looking out the window of the world and onto the streets that sing below. Some of us learn from screaming squirrels, old curtains, departed grandfathers, and bowel movements. We learn from old lovers, long winters, imperfect mothers, and from the deep internet where a musical genius remains entombed.

Yolk is cold floors on Sabbath mornings, home-brewed ginger beer in the endless afternoon, and downpours of French-pressed coffee in assorted artisanal mugs. Our first official gathering was scheduled for a duration of two hours; most of us remained for six, departing only to attend to the summons of our own beckoning realities. Together, with time suspended, we talked endlessly of contributing something to disrupt Montreal’s literary ecosystem. Something unparalleled, something true.

But what? There was nothing to discuss. There was everything to discuss.

We volunteer our time, hounding some elusive beast composed of combustible words and works. We are hopeful, truly hopeful, that we can give something new, a new way, a new light, and that if we cannot, we might at least uphold the traditions of our predecessors, cast star-wide nets to capture their echoes. We are a thousand decisions. We are a sanctuary for the orphaned word, the solitary writer, the cereal-eating artist who yearns for company, for the comfort of a like mind; we sit together with them at foggy dawn, it rains a baptism, with our arms and hands intertwined, we form an umbrella—underneath, they scribble madly, the perfect picture.

Yolk in no way presumes to be superior to its contemporaries, but its contemporaries should not presume yolk to be anything other than loud—quite, quite loud. We are yippidy jazzed to address the oh-so-technicolorful magnificence of the human experience, but we are prepared also to address the ugliness, to stare at its wet, hairy snout and into its square depth and to roar in return at the things that yearn to devour our skin, beset our ethos, and dig graves in our own backyards.

There’s so much to say, there’s so much we don’t know, but together, with you, we can placate that ignorance, render it peaceful, tolerable, and perhaps even, fucking beautiful.

And Susan says, “Amen.”
“A sacred ritual” oil on canvas, 2019, 24x36
“Self Portrait Projected” oil on canvas, 2020, 24x36
"home-bound” oil on canvas, 2021, 36x48
"Live Study of a Man” oil on canvas, 2019, 18x24
“Tracy at Home with Crops” oil on canvas, 2021, 24x48
“Late Morning or Maybe Early Afternoon” oil on canvas, 2021, 18x24

Artist Statement

My practice is dedicated to craftsmanship, whether it is the creation of utilitarian objects or more conceptual pieces. I attribute great value to rituals, observation, and labour and these qualities are present in my production process. I am equally devoted to a craft practice of knitting and sewing, which I have been doing since childhood and more recently woodworking, as well as a fine art practice of oil painting, graphite drawing, and sculpture. My two dimensional works consist largely of still lifes, portraits, and mise-en-scene. Ideas of mundanity, tenderness, and identity permeate the scenes. I love to create stories and identities for objects and consider still lifes as portraits of objects or of those who associate with them. Ever since I was young, I had a sense of object worship and a value for an aesthetic interior space as well as its reflective quality of the person occupying it. Honouring small moments of the mundane is something that provides me with joy and adds an element of purpose to my daily experience. I take inspiration regarding this practice from seventeenth century Dutch genre painters like Frans Snyders as well as contemporary painters exploring ideas of intimacy and banality like Jenna Gribbon and Ambera Wellmann. Moments of daily life wherein one’s interior space reflects their mental interiority are what currently inspires me the most.

Chloe Gallagher-Smylie is a Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist and craftsperson, who will be graduating from Concordia University in the Art History & Studio Arts program in Spring 2021. In her practice, Chloe’s exploration of different media is as important as the subject matter itself. She is most largely noted as a figurative oil painter and bronze caster, but also creates works with video art, fibres, ceramics, and tattooing. Her focus lies in the appreciation and concretization of small moments and ephemera. You can find more of Chloe's work at chloemajenta.com.

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Additional reading

Beyond Control

Age of the Machine

Artist StatementMy practice is dedicated to craftsmanship, whether it is the creation of utilitarian objects or more conceptual pieces. I attribute great value to rituals, observation, and labour and these qualities are present in my production process. I am equally devoted to a craft practice of knitting and sewing, which I have been doing since childhood and more recently woodworking, as well as a fine art practice of oil painting, graphite drawing, and sculpture. My two dimensional works consist largely of still lifes, portraits, and mise-en-sc ne. Ideas of mundanity, tenderness, and identity permeate the scenes. I love to create stories and identities for objects and consider still lifes as portraits of objects or of those who associate with them. Ever since I was young, I had a sense of object worship and a value for an aesthetic interior space as well as its reflective quality of the person occupying it. Honouring small moments of the mundane is something that provides me with joy and adds an element of purpose to my daily experience. I take inspiration regarding this practice from seventeenth century Dutch genre painters like Frans Snyders as well as contemporary painters exploring ideas of intimacy and banality like Jenna Gribbon and Ambera Wellmann. Moments of daily life wherein one’s interior space reflects their mental interiority are what currently inspires me the most.‍