Discarded artifacts, debris from a collapsed building, tools, household items or peeling layers of wallpaper and paint have the power to both reference life and to transport the viewer to another time. Initially an attraction to the precarious beauty of marred, everyday objects led St. John’s artist, Margaret Ryall to create Remnants, a body of work that explores themes of permanence and fragility in our lives.

The source material for this work comes from four family homes, one in St. John’s and the remaining in various communities in Bonavista Bay that are in the process of being renovated. The fifth structure, no longer in existence, was once a temporary home for the artist’s grandparents who were forced to leave Argentia in the 1940’s. The selected buildings are representative of the changes in communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the effects of the passage of time on objects and the natural world.