Fireback and stencil paintings 1990s

In the 1990s, Ferguson began experimenting with both stencils and frottage. In the early stencil work, Ferguson juxtaposes local Nova Scotian symbols of work - fish, lobsters - by situating them in the same plane as elegant Victoriana symbols of wealth - amphoras surrounded by fruit, candlesticks, lace patterns. The interplay suggests multiple interpretations. In some, fish and lobster, both symbols of the East Coast, drift back and forth between the humble, if dangerous, work of fishing and the splendid colonial wealth that resulted from them while the Victoriana pieces seem to float outside of time, elegant and uninterested in the work that paid for them, assured of their innate cultural worth. In other paintings, the stencils seem to fight for dominance. A second series - the fireback paintings - are simpler. Here, Ferguson took a Victorian fireback - a decorative cast iron plate used behind fireplaces and cast iron stoves - and placed it underneath a canvas made from sailcloth and rubbed black paint over it, capturing not only the floral design but the sqaure frame. By multiplying the image, he rescues the work from the decorative, placing it inside the grid in a nod to automation, minimalism, and modernity. The effect is at once spare, elegant, and tough. This method of rubbing paint over an uneven object, known as frottage, would develop until a fuller practice for Ferguson in the future.