Deborah Margo

Made in Cuba and Canada
(2008)

Gouache, coloured pencil, ink, markers, seeds and plant matter, pastel paper, glassine paper, collaged magazine paper, thread and scotch tape.

"The title of the book and the author's name are not written on the spine or the cover of the book. Nevertheless, the title can be inferred by the pieces of text on the box's various exterior surfaces. To be explicit, the book is a cigar box made in Cuba with it's final destination and transformation occurring in Canada.

"The seven object/books are text-less. Instead their contained leaves and seeds are signs of past and future growing seasons. Each one contains something different that can be identified by the sample found in the small glassine envelope attached to the “cigar” form by thread. In alphabetical order – but not representative of their placement in the box – there are: Basil leaves, Gideon’s Trumpet seeds, Hollyhox seeds, Marigold seeds, Mint leaves, Myrtle leaves and Scarlet Runner Bean seeds.

"In remembering what the box originally contained, I made my own “cigars” based on some of the plants I tended this past summer as a professional gardener working in the Ottawa region."

Deborah Margo was born in Montreal in 1961 and currently lives in Ottawa. She received an undergraduate Fine Arts degree from Concordia University in Montreal (1984), and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia (1990). Her work combines different disciplines including sculpture, painting, drawing, photography and ephemeral installations persistently questioning the contextual identities of public and private spaces. In addition, she has experience as a curator, writer and, since 1999, has been teaching painting and sculpture at the University of Ottawa.