The World Turned Upside Down sounds like an art show that might feature images of events that have shaken humanity to the core — you know, things like the global financial/debt crisis or military conflicts between neighbourhing nations — but the promise of disorientation delivered by the title is actually more philosophical. Composed of images that cycle between the realistic and fantastical, Lauchie Reid's oil paintings, currently on display at Narwhal Art Projects, nudge the viewer to question exactly what it is that he or she is seeing. With characters adorned in various costumes, many of which feature masks or some fusion of the animal and human, but little additional context provided, one has to imagine the world from which they derive.

It's this uncertainty — the context that Reid's portraits resist providing — that elevates his work from the merely kitschy to something more challenging. There's this desire to figure out the rules of this upside down world and the nature of the characters who populate it.

The World Turned Upside Down runs until November 7th at Narwhal Art Projects.

PHOTOS

Installation photos by Jesse Milns