At the newly renovated Gardiner Museum, a ravishing installation explodes with kaleidoscopic effect

In this immersive installation, running until April on the third floor of the newly renovated Gardiner Museum, that volcanic beast takes on a character of its own. It’s a symbol of chaos, change, flux. It’s also a metaphor, representing the stories of the artist’s Batak ancestors, whose lives were upended by the arrival of Dutch colonists in the early 17th century. 

Sormin, who incorporates a variety of multimedia elements into her work, including found items, renders this mountain in fiery reds and oranges, juxtaposed with darker, earthier browns and greys. The volcano’s caldera is a raised wooden platform that viewers can walk on. Webbed walls of mangled debris, scraps of metal and twisted pipes surround it, colliding and exploding at acute angles. 

It’s a scene of chaos. But in this chaos, there’s also beauty. Look closer and you’ll find hidden objects embedded in Sormin’s work. In one corner: a ragged, faded lion costume. In another nook: a fine ceramic figurine of a white tiger, suspended in mid air and with its limbs fully extended, as if pouncing toward its prey. And scattered throughout: several pustahas, or divination books from Batak culture, folded like an accordion. 

“Uncertain Ground” is like a surrealist dreamscape, striving to seek order out of disorder, certainty out of uncertainty.  It evokes those feelings of wistful longing we all have at times, of trying to make sense of a distant past that’s slowly slipping away.

Remembrance plays an important role in Sormin’s art, though it’s especially foundational in “Uncertain Ground.” Born in Thailand, and raised both there and in Canada, Sormin is several degrees separated from her Batak ancestors. But in the work, she explores how their lives and culture still echo within her. 

These themes of tension and transformation are reflected throughout Sormin’s installation. As I took it in, I found my eye darting from the macro to the micro, from the familiar to the unfamiliar — then back again. 

Standing by the west wall of the exhibition room and looking east, I was drawn to an abstract image on the opposite side, resembling a fireball streaking through the sky. It’s an angry, even belligerent visual. Then, I looked down and saw another small figurine: a soft, outstretched hand, cradling a posy of delicate flower petals. The contrast is both striking and surprisingly stirring. 

Occasionally, however, all these components overwhelm. A video playing in the background, depicting various disparate rituals and routines, somewhat distracts from the rest of the work. And I wish Sormin did a bit more to visually bind the elements on the periphery of the room with those part of the central caldera. 

But these quibbles aside, there’s no denying that Sormin’s “Uncertain Ground” is impressive — in its scale, scope and thematic breadth. It’s reason enough to pay the Gardiner Museum another visit following its major renovation.