I am an interdisciplinary artist from Epekwitk/Prince Edward Island. My arts practice focuses on domestic artifacts and lived experience. I make work with collections of documents, objects, and images housed in the home to trace habits, people, activities, and evolving memory. My performance practice explores the work required to maintain households and the identities embodied in repetitive, domestic labour.

My methodology seeks to constantly witness – and document – evolving understandings about the meaning and significance of labour, physical objects and memorabilia. Research, ongoing seemingly-futile documentation, and archival processes are important aspects of my work.

I am interested in what is revealed and what is concealed when artists and viewers/participants make choices. My practice is rooted in epistemology and phenomenology, and the nature and limits of both perception and representation. My practice explores these knowledge issues through disseminated forms – installations, performances, and participatory viewer experiences – designed to raise questions about what is knowable through subjective encounters with both art and everyday objects.

Bio

Donnalee Downe (b. 1964) is an interdisciplinary artist from Epekwitk/Prince Edward Island. Her work centres on the creation, research, and presentation of document and object collections amassed over decades. These archives trace a wide range of habits, people, activities, and processes. Donnalee’s practice seeks to constantly witness and document the significance of personal artifacts and memorabilia. These themes are also present in her performance practice, which explores the identities embodied in repetitive, domestic labour. Her frequently humorous installations, performances, and participatory experiences explore what is knowable and memorable through subjective encounters with both art and everyday objects.

Donnalee began making work in her early forties and completed her MFA at the Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2012. Her thesis research explored virtual and material archives and the nature and limits of perception and representation within each form. Supporting local arts communities is an integral part of Donnalee’s practice. She is the founder and project coordinator of the Peake Street Collective, an organization providing exhibition and mentorship opportunities to approximately 170 artists. Her curatorial experience includes serving as archival-artist-in-residence for Art in the Open at Ten Years: an incomplete archive at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

Her work is included in collections at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and the Prince Edward Island Art Bank. She is currently working on a five-year-long project culminating in a complete index of remembered fabrics (1964-present).