Photography and Collage
Denise’s work in photography and collage is centred on the 'found' image—ranging from inherited family archives to mass-produced printed matter. Her practice explores a tension between direct material intervention and the inherent failures of the medium itself. While projects such as the NYC series Sight Seeing and her ongoing collage work involve physical manipulation, A Catalogue of Errors presents unmanipulated prints of inherited negatives, where shutter malfunctions create accidental compositions that acknowledge the raw materiality of analogue film.
The Ukrainian War Collages represent a significant recent body of work, created for the ‘Someone Prays for You’ project to support civil defenders in Ukraine. These pieces often juxtapose domestic scenes with the realities of conflict, bridging the private and political spheres—a theme that echoes through her earlier archival investigations.
Denise's photo and collage work has been widely exhibited at institutions including the Shevchenko Museum (Toronto), the Canadian Ukrainian Museum (Saskatoon), Mercer Union (Toronto), and Floating Gallery (Winnipeg). Her commissioned photography for John Wynne's installations has been shown at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, The National Art Gallery of Namibia, and the Botswana National Museum.
