artotate - art annotations

META PAINTING WITH ALLAN SWITZER

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:00:48 -0500

An essay on Vancouver-Based Allan Switzer’s exhibition at Winsor Gallery. Written by Sunshine Frere, shared on Artotate.

SEE ME FEEL ME

META PAINTING WITH ALLAN SWITZER

Time moves in one direction, memory in another.-William Gibson

A song is the most intangible thing in the world.- Jimmie Davis

Winsor Gallery (est. 2002)is opening its new space on East 1^st Avenue with work by Vancouver-based artist Allan Switzer. From December 7, 2012 – January 12, 2013, visitors will encounter See Me Feel Me, Switzer’s new body of transfixing work. Throughout 2011-2012 the artist honed and developed a style of painting that is personified via constant stochastic visual stimulus and tantric lyrical iterations.

See Me Feel Me represents a body of painting that is exponentially meta. Yet, Switzer hasn’t simply produced paintings about painting(s), he has made an affective body of work that philosophically, and aesthetically explores: what the viewer can ask of a painting about paintings, what the painter can ask the viewer to ask of a painting about paintings, and what the painting itself can ask of the viewer and the painter.

Desperate Measures, 2012, acrylic on linen, 72 x 96”

From first glance, Switzer’s painting is overwhelming, the deeper one dives into its hyper-visual fold, the more disorienting the effect. Synchronous bursts of vivid colours and abstraction, give way to layering, grids, and movement. At the same time all of this action is perceived, the paintings also reveal a sense of extreme clarity and isolated perfection.

As eyes randomly wander over the layers of abstraction, the mind seeks to make sense of the colourful shapes. After a moment of observation, these forms become words, and soon thereafter, looped and contrasting song lyrics are deciphered. The symbolism held within these lyrics evokes waves of nostalgia, from there, a didactic curiosity is also triggered. Are the lyrics meant for the viewer, the painting, or the patron who acquires the work? Perhaps these are the tantric realisations of the artist as he exorcises sentiments from his own life and artistic process directly into the painting. In order to truly seeSwitzer’s work one must first look at it meta-contextually, through its topography, colourful composition, lyricism and through time itself.

Similar to the historical canon of painting that carries with it many interwoven layers of technique, process, and skill, the Switzer practically begins working on the surface of his paintings with a perfect build up of base paint creating the best possible underlay. The artist’s materials serve as direct reference to older eras of painting, linen, gesso and rabbit-skin glue is strategically incorporated into into each painting’s base composite, supplies that pay direct homage to the painting process. Even before he begins this complex system of layering colour to surface, the artist has already laboured for hours and hours, developing a taut and vitreous base layer of gesso. He creates a surface that is so smooth and free of imperfection that it could be confused for a white coat of polyurethane.

Switzer working on a painting in his studio.

Next, Switzer tirelessly grids, maps and tapes, paints, un-tapes, and re-tapes his paintings. Each new layer of colour-blocking involves countless re-applications. Switzer’s paintings typically build up four to eight different colours of paint, as well as multitudinous layers of each colour on colour. Within each oeuvre he intuitively creates an undulating abstracted meta-topography. A surface that is only fully revealed once the artist decides that the final coat of paint has been applied, and all excess tape has been removed. As the work is constantly masked, even the artist does not know what image will fully resemble until the final reveal.

The super-perfection of Switer’s painting surface also subsequently reveals chance anomalies found within its multiple layers. These small imperfections create an idiosyncratic style and topography for each painting. The artist has stated that he is married to the sense of production, a thorough investigation of the surface of any of his paintings reveals this intense focus. The impurities of this complex topography demonstrate the varying viscosity of each paint colour, the tools the artist used in application, the artists hand in the work, and even, painting’s past. Even though deemed completed by the artist, topographically Switzer’s paintings do not provide a final resolution to the viewer. The aggregate colour layers chaotically interrupt the smooth undercoated surface. Each surface interrupt demands a lot of its viewers, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of these, on each painting’s surface.

Viewing these works, the eye is not sure where to begin, nor where to finish; the text, embedded within an abstracted colourfield, is a difficult read. Font and colour take on affective qualities, and serve as a challenge to the viewer. A statement further affirmed by the fact that when prompted on the significance of the colour palette for each work, Switzer only reveals that he enjoys experimenting with colour, and that he mixes his own colour. Compositionally, the artist’s use of colour and font contradicts, and compliments. Evidence that perhaps the artist is intends the viewer to read the work on a subconscious and sensorial level.

Ultimately the colour and font of Switzer’s paintings create optical interference: stochastic overload. The abstracted text lines of the painting literally vibrate on the canvas, they seem to flicker, moving back and forth, up and down. The uncanny wave-like movement in Switzer’s work mimics a similar visual affect found within old analogue televisions, that of the screen flicker^ⁱ. Switzer’s paintings are fascinating because there is no live signal feed that his paintings are distorting, yet, he has created a retroactive media affect within a stand-alone painting. Distortion and feedback, items in any rock-star’s tool-kit, but also in Switzer’s painter bag of tricks.

The bright colour palette of the work also harkens back to an older more psychedelic era in time, the late 60’s and early 70’s. All of the affective font and colour qualities found within this painting series are strategic elements employed by the artist to create ambiguity. Within the development of this strategy the artist inadvertently created a new painting technique: Meta-font colour-blocking. The high contrast colouring in conjunction with the bold font patterning of these paintings successfully obscures and abstracts. The technique pays homage to a myriad of painters before Switzer’s time^ⁱⁱ, and also explores new territory in painting.

Once the aura of the ocular has somewhat subsided, viewers of Switzer’s paintings often begin to explore the lyrical component in the work. In true meta-form, Switzer conjures emotional inoculations on our collective memories. Just as the painting’s surface, colours and font visually and affectively prompt the viewer to move in and out of focus, the jumbled yet familiar song lyrics of each work pushes and pulls the viewer through a tense and complex narrative quest for meaning. The blended phrases from multiple familiar rock-ballads turn the canvas into a hybridized super-song. Pregnant with narrative antibodies, mixed and cut in complimentary and contrasting contexts. They provoke nostalgic interpretations that range from sentiments of truth, love, and sincerity, to severity, confusion, craving and loss. Meaning is inter-dependant with where or who one envisions these lyrics are coming from. On one hand, one could venture these lyrics potentially represent a direct message from artist to viewer, on the other, a beyond the brush message from the painting itself.

The lyrics in Switzer’s paintings not only refer back to songs of an older era, one can find resonance within the pop and rock songs of today. The artist is no stranger to symbolism, cyphers and discordant/harmonious counterpoints. It is no coincidence that the narratives unfolding within each work also provide multiple points of entry to references and ideas found the artist’s older works^ⁱⁱⁱ, and also within the history of painting.

The evolution of the blended lyrics and meta-composition in this series is representative of the artist’s constant quest and search for the intangible in his practice. The lyrics Switzer worked with in late 2011 were simple contrasting pairings: Give Peace a Chance, Destroy Your Enemy. They grew into a complex and less tangible abstract expressions, further evolving within each sequential painting. Shifting the lyrical content from more staid concepts into the realm of real-time thought. The works became more representative of a process as opposed to a previous state of being, reflective of living as opposed to moments lived. They grew closer to affect as opposed to being representative of an effect:

BABY THE TRUTH IS OUT SO DON’T DENY IT

TO THINK I BELEIVED ALL YOUR LIES

YOU’LL NEVER BREAK THIS HEART OF STONE

LOVE ME HOLD ME CAUSE I’M FREE

(Text from Switzer’s painting Desperate Measures, 2012)

Similar to the lyrical development of the artists work, Switzer’s meta-font colour-blocking grew into even more complicated abstraction with each new work in the series. The last work for the See Me Feel Me exhibition, The Pleasure of the Everyday (2012), provides the viewer with a climax of the artist’s compositional exploration. In this work he distorts the text by pulling it out of its linear presentation and shifting it into a three-dimensional, spherical space.The increasing complexity of each composition parallels the artists struggle to progressively create work that speaks to its audience, its beholder and its own history.

You Can’t Always, 2012, acrylic on linen, 72 x 96”

In the context of this new exhibition, in this new space on the eve of what the Mayan’s predicted as the end of an era, these colourful, vibrant and intoxicating works weave memento-mori narratives that extend far across rings of painterly time. Switzer’s See Me Feel Me paintings contribute rich thought and substance towards the ongoing historical dialogue between viewer, the painted and painter. They are meta-paintings, they are an open ended love letter to painting proper.

POLKA DOTS AND STARS

As part of the artist’s new body of work, Switzer also produced a series of approximately 20 painted drawings titled Polka Dots and Stars. These smaller framed works were created in tandem with his aforementioned painting series. These works are figurative and pictorial, and they, like Switzer’s paintings, are also evocative of nostalgic and hazy 70’s memories.

The Stars in the series are small painted/drawn studies that investigate the capacity of lyrics as celestial beings operating on a different scale of time. Bold black words with hints of colour, these stars visually exist on a level of immediacy, similar to how lyrics from songs are felt and experienced in the present. The repetition within each drawing enables each star to to also transcend its own immediacy, and the context of the tantric lyrical repetition throughout the series set ignites the braided thread of present, past and future. The striking composition, and the cyclical nature of the stars is synchronous with the Polka Dots from the same series.

The Polka Dots are circular drawings that appear to act visually and metaphorically as a porthole into a specific memory and time. These drawings reference abstract moments: what the turkish carpet from a rolling stones concert looked like, or a glimpse of iconic figures from the age of rock. When one sees the series installed together on a wall, the repetition of shapes, themes and lyrics instantly conjure the game of memory. One is compelled to match up particular patterns and pieces. These painting/drawings also become an inherent visual memory card lexicon of the 70’s. The viewer is invited to fade in and out of memories from another place and time. The context of the imagery is suggestive of an era, but several of the images also hold within themselves direct references to personal experiences of Switzer from that time. Within this installation Switzer’s work reflects upon signifiers, the visible versus the intangible, and how the virtual unfolds within the topography of memory, reality and the present.

These works could be seen as a tantricundertaking for the artist. A series where he attempts to dissolve the dichotomy of the spiritual and the mundane through the cataloging of the minutiae within personal and collective memories. The work from the Polka Dots and Stars seriescohesively pulls together fragments and themes on history, time, and the cyclical nature of the cosmos. Exploration of the series effectively compels the viewer to realise the transcendent in the immanent.

THE TWO MIKES

The Two Mikes, 1984/2012, archival pigment print, Image size 42” x 62” Framed,Edition of 3

The final work in Switzer’s See Me Feel Me exhibition, The Two Mikes serves as a photographic talismanthat coheres the collective effort of the works into a sum of the whole that is greater than its parts. Switzer cunningly provided the title as somewhat obscure double entendre. This shot was taken by the artist at a Michael Jackson concert in 1984. It is representative of many of the key elements found within Switzer’s practice and current body of work. It is a piece that captures time, memory, and emotion, one can virtually feel the excitement in the smokey air, and the energy within this monumental amphitheatre.

The Two Mikes also intimately explores another critical component to the See Me Feel Me exhibition, that of invisibility. Apart from the reference in the title, it is quite obscure who is on stage, the artist is invisible. When discussing his forthcoming exhibition, Switzer mentioned how he thought his own artistic practice for a certain recent period of time was also invisible, he was making work alongside his contemporaries but unlike his contemporaries, it was not being seen in context, it was mostly shown in his studio. This past year has been an incredibly productive year for the artist. He was able to devote much of his time to his studio practice, the results of which, led to an expansive survey of work. Switzer embarked on an exhausting quest of painting the intangible, discovering new forms in meta-painting, and realising new ways of seeing and feeling the invisible.

i By using magnets to distort particular elements of the signal of analogue television, Fluxus artist Nam-June Paik experimented with the undulating effect of signal, noise, and television imagery throughout the 70’s.

ii Switzer’s paintings reference many painting styles from the 60’s and 70’s: Op Artists such as Bridget Riley, Mono Chrome Painters such as Yves Klein, Hard-Edge Painters such as Ellsworth Kelly, Colourfield Painters such as Morris Louis, Geometric Abstraction Painters such as Josef Albers, and Pop Art painters such as Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, and Jim Dine. With reference to colour-blocking, the work also appears to share a dialogue with the colour-blocking techniques of First Nations Haida painters such as: Robert Davidson or Trace Yeomans.

iiiSwitzer’s previous work with painting and patterning directly influenced this new text based off-shoot. As did his previous cypher painting series.

DAY 30 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 01:07:00 -0400

30 Day Project - One-Liners

I am pleased to say the project is now complete… Stay tuned for Papergirl July and August Musings on the notion of the Giftervention.

A full survey of the One-Liners can be found below, but if you want to see what each one is specifically referencing, simply scroll down and scroll down some more!

Here is the Breakdown:

Distilled pinpoints of clarity, colour splashed landscapes void of periphery but abundant in sense of place; the paintings of Trevor Kiernander simultaneously provoke and still the senses, creating a complex map of explosive thought patterns which resemble the urban landscape that the artist is so expert at isolating.
And the Beat Goes On, And So it Should…
Cosmically floral last breath of life.
Reflective, reflexive, still and serene, Avantika Bawa places the with, within and without achieving minimalism in its purest and most subliminal refreshing state.
Noospheric undulations of thought and process mulled into one, to experience it is to conceive.
Multifaceted viewing, Locke fuses fragments of sculpture, text, painting, and interactivity with notions of the gaze, resulting in a cohesive collection of locution.
The tripodic and fragmented sculptural oeuvres of Richard Henriquez are as ever elusive a double rainbow; the awe and wonderstruck that ensues from such chance encounters is firmly rooted in a soil rich with elements of curiosity, and nostalgia.
Concrete investigations on Paint-things; each Malereian entity found at Transition Gallery is involved in its own identity crises and existential investigation: am i a painting or am i something else, in what reality do i exist?
Time to commemorate time.
Ganani’s work is triumphant in its spectacle and intimacy exploits; the layers and predetermined schematics of interaction superimposed onto the visceral platform of visual video bodies creates an ephemeral layering, one that simultaneously solicits curiosity, frustration, and restlessness.
FLASH: impulse: I love I Love You. No, really, I really do.
anonymity, ingress the cimmerians. they seek compliance
Way too repetitive, way too repetitive.
ICE FIGHT ABSTRACTION? FUCK YEAH!
Glamour’ishly’ dry… It’s like dazzle, without the razzle, and we all need a bit of razzmataz.
Shadow play; Harasymowicz’s Wolf Man exhibition imbrues trace elements of process and memory into tangible analytical form.
Peter offers up controlled compositions of entropic hybridized (in)organic entities; his imagery punches viewers in the face with tacit colour speculation and corporeal sensory overload.
Life Lines: an investigation into the ephemeral and ethereal layering of life’s cacophony by grasping at it’s more tangible linearity.
Domesticated dogs demonstrate devotion to owners, reciprocation required. Domesticated dogs dive into the wilderness wishing for ways of days long gone.
Porcelain detritus become a map of the past, the map spans each object’s physicality, and historicity, our memory of it as it is, as it was, and most importantly, our interpretation anew.
Godoy’s powerful and intentional vacuous aesthetic presentation (how very LA of him) leaves the mind serene, allowing for an overflow of thought rejuvenation, and sentient renewal.
Some Metaphorical and Mental Assembly Required…
Multiple nods to artists of other eras, and works of other eras, Kalberg appears to be attempting to disrupt the time space continuum of art.
Isolated moments, faded memories, Jodoin pulls memory threads through our hearts, leaving not only long-lasting retinal impressions but also evocative anamnesis.
In order to make a version, aversion of a version of my one-liner review, I deemed it appropriate for appropriated appropriation: irony is about humour and serious play. it is also a rhetorical strategy and a political method … - Donna Haraway, cyborg manifesto
Abstract wanderings and mystic musings, life and death are intertwined.
Heightening the awareness of our surroundings, our limitations, and our consumptive exploitations Moveable Feast is a positive pollination of mind, body and environment complete with nourishing ideas, challenges to our limited perspectives.
A space dedicated to contemporary art without the funding restrictions like so many of its calibre, Esker Foundation: New Contemporaries - starts out bold, starts out young, starts out fresh, an excellent survey of recent Albertan graduates.

29. Tracing matter, material, and memory; testing time, translation and terseness.

30. A Tricontagonal Critique of 30 Days of Art in June. Multifaceted and complete.

DAY 29 - REVIEW 29 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Tracing matter, material, and memory; testing time, translation and terseness.

KT KILGOUR - july 6 - 21 - BLIM

*All Images courtesy of KT Kilgour

Thread Projector

interactive installation where viewers play with threads cut from my loom to create temporary compositions. Projector is a lenticular overhead that projects materials in 3D.

“Reflection”

Tapestry Weaving, Wool, 30”x30”

Setts 1 & 2

Overshot Weaving with Duct Tape 7 Cotton, 24”x24”

May Contain

Jacquard Weaving, Cotton, 32” x 48”

May Contain

Jacquard Weaving, Cotton, 32” x 48”

Setts 1 & 2

Overshot Weaving with Duct Tape 7 Cotton, 24”x24”

Setts 1

Overshot Weaving with Duct Tape 7 Cotton, 24”x24”

Untitled

Canvas with 300 rows of Duct Tape, 48”x48”

Chevron, Diamond and Twill brings together woven works by KT Kilgour. Often process and material based, KT has concentrated on creating contemporary weaving that flutters with history and tradition.

KT will install her sound piece, Industrial Weaving for Music on the opening night.

KT Kilgour was born in Aberystwyth, Wales and immigrated to Canada as a young child. Daughter to a weaver and recording engineer, KT grew up amidst the analog processes of craft and music. In 2009, KT graduated from the Textile Arts program at Capilano University where she studied the traditional textile process. Wanting to explore the conceptual processes within craft she continued on to study Visual Arts at Emily Carr University with a focus on textile sculpture. KT graduated this spring with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a skilled weaver KT engages with textiles as personal expression. Her current practice bridges theories of craft and feminism through labour, process, perception and technology. The extension of the body through the loom has led her to question how other structures function in our environment in relation to the human conditions of control, perception and embodiment.

Call 604 872 8180 or info@blim.ca for more information.

DAY 28 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:05:00 -0400

A space dedicated to contemporary art without the funding restrictions like so many of its calibre, Esker Foundation: New Contemporaries - starts out bold, starts out young, starts out fresh, an excellent survey of recent Albertan graduates.

Jennifer Akkermans

Daniel J. Kirk

The New Alberta Contemporaries

JUNE 15 – AUGUST 29, 2012

The New Alberta Contemporaries is the inaugural exhibition for the Esker Foundation. One of its primary objectives is to celebrate the creative potential of recent fine arts graduates from all the degree granting institutions across Alberta. The 47 artists were chosen for the ability with which their practice moves across disciplines in the emerging post-disciplinary and post studio age.

The New Alberta Contemporaries exhibition is a snapshot of a cultural moment in the province of Alberta. It is neither representative nor thematic, although a series of “themes” have emerged. While one will not see the grand geopolitical issues that play out on the international stage in the exhibition, one will instead see elements of the artists’ personal histories becoming staging grounds for exciting explorations in areas such as landscape/geography, gender, sexuality, the body, memories, and ecology

With the range of materials and theoretical approaches employed by the artists, the works can be seen as a series of possible conversations between artists, interweaving various common approaches found in their work. The exhibition is a travel story of sorts—across Alberta’s institutions and faculties of art, artists’ studios, and galleries alike—providing a window into the future of contemporary art in the province. Variety and commonalities have been found in the “temperaments” of the various institutions and the balance they have attained between studio practice, theory, and scientific research.

For the next ten weeks, the Esker Foundation will become a platform for this burgeoning class of art graduates, assisting them in developing their practice and allowing them to professionally exhibit their work at a time when both the market and government funding are shrinking.

- Caterina Pizanias

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Jennifer Akkermans |
Carolyn Bailey |
Carissa Baktay |
Nika Blasser |
John Brosz |
Stacey Brown |
Matthew Brunning |
Sheelagh Carpendale |
Julie Cosgrove |
Jane Durham |
Raina Enss |
Anna Gaby-Trotz |
Yan Geng |
Sara Girletz |
Jamie Gray |
Jill Ho-You |
Whitney Horne |
Leslie Hunter |
Andrea Kastner |
Annie King |
Daniel J. Kirk |
Lindsay Knox |
Eveline Kolijn |
Edith Krause |
Galia Kwetny |
Craig Le Blanc |
Tyler Los-Jones |
Colin Lyons |
Maria Madacky |
Emma McLay |
Lindsay McDonald |
Martina MacDonald-Blériot |
Stephanie Murray |
Miguel Nacenta |
Leah Nowak-Petrucci |
Shanell Papp |
Mark Porcina |
Patrick J. Reed |
Landon Scott |
Danielle Smerek |
Kristin Smith |
Richard Smolinski |
Dana Tosic |
Hope Wells |
Ben Williamson |
Ryan Wolters |
Michelle Yong

DAY 27 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Heightening the awareness of our surroundings, our limitations, and our consumptive exploitations Moveable Feast is a positive pollination of mind, body and environment complete with nourishing ideas, challenges to our limited perspectives.

The Moveable Feast: Planting for Pollinators

May – October, 2012

This summer the Burnaby Art Gallery presents The Moveable Feast, a public project by Vancouver artist Holly Schmidt. The Moveable Feast is a series of workshops, edible events, free youth programs, and a vegetable garden beside Ceperley House in Deer Lake Park. The Moveable Feast responds to the current global mobility of food in the context of rapidly dwindling food varieties.

The first workshop of the summer, Planting for Pollinators will take place on Saturday, July 14th from 2:00-4:00 pm.Explore the garden from the perspective of a pollinator with artist and beekeeper, Lori Weidenhammer. Learn to invite pollinators into your neighbourhood by creating pollinator friendly habitat for bees, butterflies and beetles. Tour through the garden to see what pollinators are at work and take a selection of seeds home to start your own garden.

Follow Holly’s project blog and check out more information regarding upcoming programs at www.moveablefeastburnaby.ca

The Burnaby Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the British Columbia Arts Council.

To register for this event contact the Burnaby Art Gallery at 604-297-4422.

Cost: $20.00

DAY 26 - ARTOTATE

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:24:00 -0400

Abstract wanderings and mystic musings, life and death are intertwined.

Zoloflot, 1985

A Moment of Eternal Noise

IMAGE

SOUND

TEXT

Day 25 - 30 Days Project

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:53:00 -0400

In order to make a version, aversion of a version of my one-liner review, I deemed it appropriate for appropriated appropriation: irony is about humour and serious play. it is also a rhetorical strategy and a political method … - Donna Haraway, cyborg manifesto

topdown bottomup presents
sophia bartholomew
with kate barbaria, nelly césar, evan french, and you

June 22- July 10

“the reason i’m painting this way is because i want to be a machine.” because i want to be a factory. an assembly line of readymades: appropriated garments and regurgitated texts. words from conversations, from jokes, from art, lectures, fiction, facebook, feminist theory, politics, film, self sabotage, scrutiny, music. and a different t-shirt. everyday. for three hundred and eighty two consecutive days. a daily dance; an exercise; a hyperbole; an open door. phenomena of transmutation.

come. loan a t-shirt (more than one hundred and sixty models currently available) and leave the shirt off your back (a stand in, a stunt double – a placeholder in the archive).

make a version, and a version, and aversion of yourself.

vancouver-based artists nelly césar, evan french, and somewhat-nomadically-based artist kate barbaria will intervene with or borrow from the project during the show’s two week duration.

possibly-cheeky, post-media, project-driven-artist sophia bartholomew is recently undergraduated from ubc’s visual arts program. she is a fiction in the way that every name is a fiction. she is an imposter in her own role.

www.topdownbottomup.ca

aversionofyourself.tumblr.com
sophiabartholomew.com

Artist Statement: in part, the project has been a provisional model for conceptualizing theories of subjectivity and social relations, with a particular interest in judith butler’s emphasis on identity as “constructing” rather than constructed (a continuous performative act rather than a predetermined fact).

as an extended act of material consumption, aversion is also a means to investigate a cultural climate in which incessant consumption is ‘individualized’ and thought to define us as subjects, almost exclusively: hoping hyperbole will highlight the absurdity of this ideology.

through the project’s physical archive – from which t-shirt ‘documents’ can be loaned, ‘viewer-generated content,’ and collaboration with other artists, the project seeks to remain open to interpretation and appropriation.

to access the archive, contact me at bartholomew.sophia at gmail.com. if you loan a shirt from the archive, you can contribute photos to the online archive here.

” irony is about contradictions that do not resolve into larger wholes, even dialectically, about the tension of holding incompatible things together because they both are necessary and true. irony is about humour and serious play. it is also a rhetorical strategy and a political method … ” (donna haraway, cyborg manifesto)

DAY 24 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 10:59:00 -0400

Isolated moments, faded memories, Jodoin pulls memory threads through our hearts, leaving not only long-lasting retinal impressions but also evocative anamnesis.

close your eyes - June 29 – August 26, 2012 - Richmond Art Gallery

Sophie Jodoin, From the series Small Dramas & Little Nothings, onté and collage on mylar, 2008, 9.5” X 7.5”

Remnant 2, Sophie Jodoin, black gesso on magazine page, 2011, 8” x 6”

Sophie Jodoin, From the series Small Dramas & Little Nothings, onté and collage on mylar, 2008, 9.5” X 7.5”

close your eyes covers a span of four years and consists of three body of works by Montreal artist Sophie Jodoin: Small Dramas & Little Nothings, Charred and Vigils. Materially, it includes black and white drawings, collages, video, a sculptural piece and tables with artifacts.

Jodoin’s work has the capacity to draw the viewer in to its intimate dramas through the sensitive and proficient handling of her thought provoking subjects. Equally conceptual and representational, her drawn series of works can take up to two years to realize. close your eyes is conceived as a long continuous thread echoing the course of one’s life—a collection of narratives and struggles encountered by simply living.

This exhibition is a rare opportunity to view Jodoin’s work on the west coast and it has been scheduled to coincide with the Fourth Annual Vancouver DRAWN Festival, an event that promotes drawing as an important visual medium.
www.sophiejodoin.com

DAY 23 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:29:00 -0400

Multiple nods to artists of other eras, and works of other eras, Kalberg appears to be attempting to disrupt the time space continuum of art.

Monte Clark Gallery - Holger Kalberg

Holger Kalberg
Untitled (Modular Sculpture)
acrylic, rubber and string, dimensions variable

Holger Kalberg
Prop 4
oil on canvas, 44 x 40 inches

Holger Kalberg
Prop 3
oil on canvas, 55 x 70 inches

Monte Clark Gallery - Holger Kalberg

June 14, 2012 to July 14, 2012

Holger Kalberg’s new exhibition explores the legacies of modernism, offering critical and reflective works within the intersecting conceptual fields of abstraction, non-figurative, and concrete art.

The paintings and sculptures are a combination of new and transformed versions of earlier works. They avoid both purely geometric abstraction as well as representational imagery. Each piece is edited and layered, referring to the process of production and the compulsive act of making and therefore responding to one of the paradigms of modernism: the self-referencing of its materiality. The paintings and objects result from a dialogue with the material that is defined by an awareness of the history of its application.

Kalberg has incorporated sculpture and installation into the exhibition to create an environment of separate objects which refers to a moment in history; not a melancholic looking back, but rather an evaluation and questioning of strategies, an observation of a moment in time. It is more about the production, the hand, studio and the idea of creating an object causing a response. The different works in the space set up a dialogue, questioning the notion of originality, the studio, and the object. The broadening of the lexicon from painting and collage to sculpture and installation reflects Kalberg’s increasing interest into the notion of the role of the artist, individuality, and the studio practice.

Holger Kalberg was born in Germany and currently lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Kalberg studied at the Emily Carr Institute of Architecture and Design, Vancouver (BFA 2001) and the Chelsea School of Art, London, UK (MFA 2007). His work was recently featured in a solo exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Ontario.

DAY 22 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:29:00 -0400

Some Metaphorical and Mental Assembly Required…

Cut and Paste - Equinox Gallery

Christopher Kukura slices and then reassembles photographs of purebred dogs.

Peter Gazendam, Me Me Me Me Me Me Me, (detail), 2012, 4x6 c-prints, dimensions variable

Equinox Gallery is very pleased to present a new group exhibition: Cut and Paste. Opening on June 2nd at the Equinox Project Space, Cut and Paste presents works by over 30 Canadian artists whose processes are connected by an impetus to cut, tear, separate, juxtapose, contradict, assemble, and reassemble.

The term collage is derived from the French verb “coller,” which means “to glue,” however the medium and process of collage has broadened and come to include three-dimensional assemblage, digital stitching, video layering and more. As a creative strategy, collage often attempts to deviate from deliberate and reasoned constructions of meaning, relying instead on the use of residual imagery and objects to create narrative detours and fantastic new forms. The artists in the exhibition are: Vikky Alexander, Roy Arden, Michael Batty, Raymond Boisjoly, Paul Butler, Sarah Cale, Gathie Falk, Geoffrey Farmer, Charles Gagnon, Lynda Gammon, Peter Gazendam, Rodney Graham, Randy Grskovic, Holger Kalberg, Christopher Kukura, Tiziana La Melia, Lyse Lemieux, Elizabeth McIntosh, Jason McLean, Al McWilliams, Ron Moppett, Office Supplies Incorporated, Toni Onley, Jean Paul Riopelle, Jack Shadbolt, Krisdy Shindler, Gordon Smith, Derek Sullivan, Jonathan Syme, Takao Tanabe, Harold Town, Allison Tweedie, Renée Van Halm, Etienne Zack, and Elizabeth Zvonar.

DAY 21 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:53:00 -0400

Godoy’s powerful and intentional vacuous aesthetic presentation (how very LA of him) leaves the mind serene, allowing for an overflow of thought rejuvenation, and sentient renewal.

Vacant Mounds and Markers, Gustavo Godoy - Honor Fraser Gallery - June-July

Vacant Mounds and Markers, 2012 Installation view

Vacant Mound (I), 2012 Cast concrete 120 x 120 x 4 inches

Vacant Mound (IV), 2012 Cast concrete 45 x 45 x 5 inches

Vacant Sites (X), 2012 Lambda C-print 30 x 20 inches Edition of 3 + 2AP

Vacant Sites (III), 2012 Lambda C-print 30 x 20 inches Edition of 3 + 2AP

Vacant Sites (II), 2012 Lambda C-print 30 x 20 inches Edition of 3 + 2AP

Honor Fraser Gallery is pleased to present Vacant Mounds and Markers, Gustavo Godoy’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Gustavo Godoy employs a more restrained and minimal approach with Vacant Mounds and Markers, bringing together a new body of cast concrete sculptures. In contrast to Godoy’s previous exhibition, Fast-formal Object: Big White, which invited viewers to directly interact with his large-scale wood sculpture; the sculptures in Vacant Mounds and Markers quietly examine spiritual spaces and secular objects. Positioned at ground level, Godoy’s sculptures transform the gallery into a meditative sanctuary, addressing the physicality of space as well as the ritualistic spaces inspired by secular and sacred belief systems. His concrete “mounds and markers” are reminiscent of ancient altars, minimalist sculptures, futuristic architecture, and urban demolition sites. They appear to be part of sanctified rituals, which may provide insights into the sensibilities and culture from which they’ve emerged. Attempting to capture the essence of a culture, Godoy not only alludes to ancient histories, but also references contemporary idols. On entering the space, viewers will encounter an unraveling of history, manifested in objects emblematic of both progress and return.

The mounds reference the pitching mound from Los Angeles’s Dodger Stadium, a sacred space for Godoy. In 1981 Fernando Valenzuela, a Mexican pitcher for the Dodgers, quickly became an international phenomenon as he took his team to the World Series Championship and received baseball’s most prestigious award for pitching, the Cy Young. Idolizing the pitcher as a child (and furthermore, the stadium), Godoy witnessed first hand as “Fernandomania” swept the country. For the Mexican population of L.A., the success of Valenzuela was especially meaningful considering the controversial history of Dodger Stadium. The stadium was built in Chavez Ravine, an area previously home to a vibrant Mexican American community. In the 1940s the area was particularly appealing to real estate developers, who saw the potential in the neighborhood’s proximity to Downtown L.A. The residents were forcibly relocated to make room for new housing. Although the development never materialized, the land was sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers, creating a home for the newly christened Los Angeles Dodgers in Chavez Ravine. This recounting of fraught histories is prevalent in Vacant Mounds and Markers, as Godoy pays tribute to disenfranchised communities, the rise and fall of heroes, and the urban L.A. landscape.

Los Angeles is an urban jungle comprised of a stream of traffic and construction set against a landscape of ocean, palm trees and mountains. This juxtaposition of nature vs. industry can be seen in the commonplace materials that Godoy uses to build his sculptures. Maintaining a relationship with the day laborers that build our environments, Godoy’s work pays tribute to the true makers of our city. His embrace of quotidian construction supplies, readily found at any home improvement store, renders the objects familiar, yet the weight and stillness of the heavy material provides a solemn, cerebral experience. These concrete forms suggest permanence; a gesture of hope that the art object can capture and maintain the essence of time and social circumstance. Through an interest in the way belief systems parallel the value placed upon art, Godoy is able to question art’s ability to transcend spirituality and religion.

Gustavo Godoy lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a Master of Fine Arts at Vermont College in Montpelier, VT and a Bachelor of Arts at UC Santa Barbara, and has studied at the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, FL; L.A. Mart, Los Angeles, CA; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH; Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA. Group exhibitions include the SUR: Biennial, Norwalk, CA; Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston, TX; OHWOW, Miami, FL; the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Circus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Centre d’art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, France; Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico; Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, and Workspace, Brooklyn, NY.

DAY 20 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Porcelain detritus become a map of the past, the map spans each object’s physicality, and historicity, our memory of it as it is, as it was, and most importantly, our interpretation anew.

Manga Ming Vase, Brendan Tang, Porcelan and mixed media, 2005

Shelley Miller, The Wealth of Some and the Ruin of Others (triptych), 2008

ELEGANT DISORDER: perspectives on porcelain - Satellite Gallery

Elegant Disorder: Perspectives on Porcelainis a group exhibition featuring contemporary artists Paul Mathieu, Sin-Ying Ho, Shelley Miller, Elizabeth Zvonar and Brendan Tang. Presented at Satellite Gallery, this exhibition engages with the history of porcelain—in particular, contemporary expressions of the blue-and-white motifs reminiscent of Chinese Ming Dynasty wares. With more than a dozen works on display touching on pottery, sculpture and photography, this exhibition joins new perspectives to familiar porcelain motifs.

The works in this exhibition make a compelling statement: porcelain is an active and vivid vehicle for our imagination. It has always been a force in global trade and industrialization since early modern times and, while its proliferation is a direct consequence of Western colonialism, it is seldom considered within critical discussions of that history. This ancient material may seem obsolete within today’s technocratic societies, yet it continues to thrive, as it has for thousands of years, in both applied and creative fields.

Elegant Disorder seeks to make visible the tensions between local and global identities embedded within porcelain’s materiality and design. It is from this perspective that each artist in the exhibition subverts expectations of craft and decorative arts as well as gender roles. Each engages with the questions of history, technology, sexuality, colonialism, and labour that have long intersected on porcelain’s elegant surface.

Artist Biographies

Sin-Ying Ho’s works are part of her series Meeting Places (2007-2009). Her work reflects the impact of globalization on the cultural borrowings and interactions in an accelerated “global village.” She currently teaches at Queen’s College in New York City.

Paul Mathieu is interested in the role and function of ceramics within culture in general and art in particular. Mathieu explores concepts particular to craft practices, such as decoration, function and containment in relation to various contexts in time, history and human experiences. He currently teaches at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver.

Shelley Miller’s work is situated in public spaces, in both ephemeral form and impermanent materials. Miller is a Montreal-based artist whose installations, sculptures and public works have been exhibited across Canada as well as in India and Brazil. She completed her BFA degree at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, and received her MFA from Concordia University in 2001.

Elizabeth Zvonar’s pieces explore the material relationship of porcelain to the body and sexuality. Zvonar holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Her work has been extensively exhibited, most recently in Vancouver at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Contemporary Art Gallery, as well as internationally.

Brendan Tang’s work enters the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology and globalization through a fabricated relationship between ceramic tradition and Techno-Pop Art. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (as a 2010 Sobey Finalist), the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Power Plant.

Elegant Disorder: Perspectives on Porcelain is curated by Louis-Alexandre Douesnard-Malo, a candidate in the Master of Arts program in Critical and Curatorial Studies at the University of British Columbia. For more information please visit:http://www.curatorialstudies.ca

This exhibition is made possible with support from the Michael O’Brian Family Foundation, the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia

DAY 19 - 30 DAYS PROJECT - tabloid review 2 samples

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Domesticated dogs demonstrate devotion to owners, reciprocation required.

Domesticated dogs dive into the wilderness wishing for ways of days long gone.

Or Gallery | Facing the Animal
Mary Anne Barkhouse, Julie Andreyev, Bill Burns - Curated by Tarah Hogue

The works in this exhibition ask what facing the animal might mean in contemporary art. Using wolves and their domesticated descendents as subjects, the artists challenge dualities of human/animal and culture/nature in favour of more complex interactions. Through narratives of conservation, industry, wilderness and urban life using the media of sculpture, photography, video and installation, we are asked to question the categories we use to shape our sense of the world in works that are both irreverent and intimate.

Vancouver-based artist Julie Andreyev’s Animal Lover series is an interspecies collaboration with her two dogs, Tom and Sugi, that includes video works and an online blog). A newly compiled video collection from the blog follows the daily lives of Tom and Sugi, a portrait of the dogsâ unique behaviours and social lives. In the 2009 video installation, Aria, Tom and Sugi are pictured as the central subjects within the iconic Canadian landscape of Banff, Alberta. Recordings taken from the dogsâ vocalizations and their surrounding environment are composed into a musical soundtrack culminating in an
operatic solo by Tom.

Mary Anne Barkhouse was born in Vancouver, BC, and belongs to the Nimpkish band, Kwakiutl First Nation. Currently based in Ontario, Barkhouse uses animal imagery in ways that examine popular perceptions of them and challenge divisions between scientific and
alternate forms of knowledge. In Barkhouse’s most recent work, Red Rover, wooden pull-toys in the shape of coyotes, wolves and poodles face off on playmats configured into a map of Canadaâs west coast, suggestive of contradictions between the treatment of indigenous species and the consumer pet industry.

Toronto-based artist Bill Burnsâ Dogs, Boats and Airplanes series includes a photographic collection from the artist’s travels as well as a collection of salt and pepper shakers of dogs, boats and airplanes. In its glaring absurdity, the work draws attention to the way in which dogs act as double agents that are at home in both urban and natural environments. The animals become a site of intellectual engagement with a highly rationalized and bureaucratic conception of nature, in which pedigree, global capital, movement and travel are all at stake.

Facing the Animal is curated by Tarah Hogue, a candidate to the Masters Degree in Critical and Curatorial Studies at The University of British Columbia.

This exhibition is made possible through support from the Killy Foundation and the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies through the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia.

DAY 18 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:37:00 -0400

Life Lines: an investigation into the ephemeral and ethereal layering of life’s cacophony by grasping at it’s more tangible linearity.

Oxford Pig, 2012, Angela Palmer, unique drawing engraved on 13 sheets of glass

Brain of the Artist, 2012, Angela Palmer, Engraved on 16 sheets of glass, Series of 5

Self Portrait, 2012, Angela Palmer, unique ink drawing on 14 sheets of glass, series 1 of 5

Waterhouse & Dodd is delighted to present a solo exhibition of Angela Palmer, Life Lines, from 24 May to 15 June 2012.

Palmer’s work uses a unique form of mapping to create sculptures of multiple sheets of glass, built up plane by plane, delineating through line the complexity and elegance of the human body. From digital information provided by MRI and CT scanners she delivers visually arresting works of art. This new exhibition records this artistic journey through space and time, from Ancient Egypt to the eighteenth century to the present day.

The skull of the legendary eighteenth century racehorse Eclipse is immortalised in a glass sculptural portrait. Eclipse was unbeaten in 18 races he ran between 1769 and 1771 with his descendants including Desert Orchid and Kauto Star. The skeleton of this infamous horse remains preserved at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and, here in this beautiful portrait, Palmer closes the gap between art and science.

Another human portrait depicted by Palmer is that of the author Robert Harris. In this case artist and sitter inspired each other. For his 2011novel, The Fear Index (out in paperback on 24 May 2012), Harris appropriated Palmer’s artistic techniques and applied them to Gabrielle, the artist wife of his anti-hero. Palmer produced an intimate portrait of the author which is reproduced on the inside cover of the book.

A work of a different order is Searching for Goldilocks, a collaboration with astrophysicist Dr Chris Lintott and physicist Dr Alexy Karenowska, which plots on 18 glass sheets the findings of the telescope aboard the Kepler space laboratory in the Milky Way. Each planetary system is engraved onto the glass, each sheet representing a further 250 light years from earth. These rocks depicted, which may sustain life, are known as the ‘Goldilocks’.

Life Lines continues Palmer’s ambitious preoccupation with and exploration of scientific techniques and art which she uses to create alternative representations of the human and animal figure.

www.angelaspalmer.com
http://www.waterhousedodd.com/angela-palmer

DAY 17 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 22:00:00 -0400

Peter offers up controlled compositions of entropic hybridized (in)organic entities; his imagery punches viewers in the face with tacit colour speculation and corporeal sensory overload.

Republic Gallery | RYAN PETER | A BUNCH OF RADISHES | May-June, 2012

Untitled (Assemblage), 2012

Acrylic, spray paint, and Pepto-Bismol on acrylic, with plywood wall mount, 70” x 48

Untitled (Assemblage), 2012 (detail)

Acrylic, spray paint, and Pepto-Bismol on acrylic, with plywood wall mount, 70” x 48

Untitled, 2012

Acrylic, spray paint, and Epson pigment-based ink on plastic paper, 40” x 26”

_________________________________________

Republic Gallery | RYAN PETER | A BUNCH OF RADISHES | May-June, 2012

In his work, Vancouver-based artist Ryan Peter investigates the division between painting and digital photography, focusing on the aural potential and repurposing of materials. Surrealism, biomorphic abstraction, and recent scientific phenomena - such as the
dematerializing effects of digital imaging technologies or the alienating forces of genetic engineering - are frequent themes in his work. Through the use of seemingly ordinary chemical substances such as industrial plastics, inkjet printer inks, and Pepto-Bismol, the artist creates multiple entry points for the work, bringing forward associations
atypical to painting. His amalgamation of synthetic materials creates an opportunity for mistakes to be utilized and amplified, resulting in what Peter calls “an attempt to recuperate the organic from the artificial.”

Based in Vancouver, Ryan Peter holds a BFA (2004) and an MFA (2008) from The University of British Columbia. He was a finalist for the 11th Annual RBC Canada Painting Competition, exhibited at the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal and at The Power Plant in Toronto. He has participated in recent group exhibitions at Equinox Gallery,
Vancouver and the AHVA Library Gallery at UBC. In addition to his painting practice, Peter also works collaboratively with artist Raymond Boisjoly on projects for exhibitions in Canada and the United States. This is his second solo show with Republic Gallery.

A Bunch of Radishes will be showing May 25 through June 24 with an artist reception on Friday, May 25, from 7 - 9pm. Regular gallery hours are 10am to 5pm, Wednesday through Saturday, and by appointment.

For more information please contact gallery director Pantea Haghighi pantea@republicgallery.com.

DAY 16 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:01:00 -0400

Shadow play; Harasymowicz’s Wolf Man exhibition imbrues trace elements of process and memory into tangible analytical form.

Installation View

Slawa Harasymowicz

Slawa Harasymowicz - Wolf Man June 2 - 24, 2012

Freud Museum

The Freud Museum is delighted to announce an exhibition of works by Polish artist Slawa Harasymowicz. The show combines an installation of silkscreen prints and drawings, including images from the recently published graphic novel ‘The Wolf Man’, alongside items from the Freud Museum collection. These items collectively document Freud’s attempts to unravel the source of the Russian aristocrat, Sergei Pankejeff’s, crippling neurosis. The exhibition reveals Harasymowicz’s own working methods, which explore ideas around repetition, collation and the reworking of images. Set in the house of Sigmund Freud, the works and their groupings are suggestive of the ambiguity of communication, multiple loose sheets of drawings are pulled together, offering different comprehensions of analytical processes, proposing implications of repetition.

The Wolf Man – Graphic Freud, written by Richard Appignanesi & illustrated by Harasymowicz accompanies the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Jury.

Pankejeff’s dream would play a major role in Freud’s theory of infantile sexuality, and along with Irma’s injection (Freud’s own dream, which launched dream analysis), it was one of the most important dreams for the development of Freud’s theories. Additionally, Pankejeff became the main case used by Freud to prove the validity of psychoanalysis. It was the first detailed case study that brought together the main aspects of catharsis, the unconscious, sexuality, and dream analysis put forward by Freud in his Studies on Hysteria (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), and his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905).

Sława Harasymowicz has lived and worked in London since 1998, completing an MA in Communication Art and Design, Royal College of Art London, in 2006. Harasymowicz has exhibited widely and her work is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum prints and drawings collection, National Museum Poznan, Poland, Warsaw Poster Museum, Academy of Fine Art, Krakow, Poland and various private collections.

DAY 15 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:55:00 -0400

Glamour’ishly’ dry… It’s like dazzle, without the razzle, and we all need a bit of razzmataz.

WHAT A DRAG, Erdem Tasdelen | May-June 221A http://221a.ca/what-a-drag

bitch, please. , 2012, Erdem Taşdelen, 130 x 63 cm (51” x 25”)

Installation view at 221A Artist Run Centre, Vancouver, 2012

Erdem Taşdelen, FIERCE! (from the Drag series), hand-stitched sequins on felt, 147 x 51 cm (58″ x 20″)

WHAT A DRAG, Erdem Tasdelen | MAY 25 - 221A Artist Run Centre

http://221a.ca/what-a-drag

Exhibition: May 26 - Jul 22 2012
Opening Reception: 8:00pm, May 25
Artist Talk: 2:00pm, June 16
Curated by: Brian McBay

221A is pleased to present What a Drag, a solo exhibition of new work by Vancouver-based artist Erdem Tasdelen that examines the role of language in the making of subjectivity. In this series of works,Tasdelen transcribes camp performative enunciations into texts made of thousands of hand-stitched sequins. When read, the flamboyant visual
aesthetic speaks of the grandly wigged and dazzling acts of drag without necessitating an actual recital.

Erdem Tasdelen grew up in Switzerland, Germany and Turkey. He received his BA in Visual Arts and Communication Design from Sabanci University in Istanbul in 2007, and his MAA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver in 2010. He continues to live in Vancouver and teaches at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. His
artistic practice involves an interrogation of subjectivity and its manifestations, often resulting in works on paper, sculpture and time
based media.

221A http://221a.ca

DAY 14 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:53:00 -0400

ICE FIGHT ABSTRACTION? FUCK YEAH!

The Melting Point of Ice: Abstracts with Pucks, Fists, Cuts, Sticks and Skates, by Shelley Rothenburger, 2008

Artist Statement on the work:

I have connected these two opposing traditions: fine art and mainstream hockey culture, in order to portray that hockey’s colour, beauty and grace of movement is often paralleled with fractured noses, loose teeth, split heads, and concussions. It is not my intention to offer a critique or glorify fighting in the game. I strive to discover in this series, what is really going on within the game of hockey and how its function serves society. The game has become a militaristic, test of courage and the NHL “walks that delicate walk, making the right noises about curbing fighting to satisfy those appalled by it – but leaving enough rough stuff to satisfy the other side… who live for those moments when the gloves are dropped.”

As Ken Dryden states, “The NHL theory of violence is nothing more than original violence tolerated and accepted, in time turned into custom, into tactic, and finally into theory.”

Artist Website

DAY 13 - 30 DAYS PROJECT

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

Way too repetitive, way too repetitive.

Still from Song Dong’s Filll in the Sea which is being shown at Again and Again and Again… Serial Formats and Repetitive Actions at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Laugh, 2000
chromogenic print
Collection Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Alison and Alan Schwartz

Vancouver Art Gallery | AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, MAY - SEP
————————————————————————————————————
750 Hornby Street

AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
Serial Formats and Repetitive Actions
May 12 to September 3, 2012

Collection Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of Alison and Alan Schwartz
Drawn from the Galleryâs permanent collection, this exhibition features
artists who utilize repetitive actions or serial images to open up
perception both figuratively and literally. From the mechanistic
repetition inherent in much domestic work and industrial labour, to the
multiple versions afforded by technological developments, to the limits
of endurance that have been tested by performance artists, this
exhibition offers a number of perspectives on what it means to do
something again and again and again. These works demonstrate that
repeating an action over and over can foster dialogue by creating a
multiplicity of narratives and interpretations, as well as producing
comical or absurd scenarios. Again and Again and Again will include
works by local and international artists, including Eija-Liisa Ahtila,
Derek Brunen, Andrew Dadson, Song Dong, Jeremy Hof, Joyce
Wieland and others.

Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Daina Augaitis,
chief curator/ associate director.

Generously Supported by our Visionary Partner:
Michael O’Brian Family Foundation

DAY 12 - 30 DAYS PROJECT - Haiku Review...

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:00:00 -0400

anonymity,

ingress the cimmerians.

they seek compliance

James Petrucci

Imprint, Wimbledon College of Art, MA Project Space, June 2012

Imprint is a residency and exhibition of subsequent works at Wimbledon College of Art.

James Petrucci’s works aim to provoke the viewer to consider archetypes of youth as presented by the media, engaging with overly simplistic images and the status of photograph as ‘objective’ visual record.

Nietzsche speaks of challenging idols by ‘sounding’ them out, or ‘playing upon them’ like musical instruments. Mitchell states that sounding out idols ‘can make them speak and resonate’ transforming them into ‘an echo chamber for human thought’. Petrucci’s works mirror this concept aiming to subvert notions of superficial judgment through the appropriation of established archetypal imagery.

Culturally familiar in subject, pose and format these prints allude to their source as printed images on the pages of newspapers implying unknown characters and narratives. Vigorous painterly gestures and textures disrupt the photographic source obscuring the identities of the subjects and the specifics of the original photograph creating images, which are simultaneously suggestive and autonomous.

Reminiscent of school photographs and domestic portraits the achromatic palette and smeared removal of marks imbue the images with a sense of loss and melancholy whilst the vacant eyes invite the viewer to relate to and even occupy these habitable bodies. Each of these vacant beings suggests a myriad of possibilities creating the air of a memento both joyful and poignant.

More of James’ work can be found here: http://www.jamespetrucci.co.uk/