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ALTERNORTHERN
Text by Jason Gowans
Bringing Canadian
Artists to San Francisco
—
What is the deal with Canada? You can almost hear this question at the
beginning of a successful standup routine wherein the comedian pokes fun
at Canada as the strange little brother of the U.S. But aside from comical
stereotypes of Johnny Canuck and a country inhabited primarily with moose,
what is Canada in the context of North America and globally?
During 2008, I was living in San Francisco and working on a small screening
of emerging video artists from Montreal. As a practicing artist myself, this
was the first time I had brought together an exhibition. Being from Montreal,
I was curious how Québécois artwork would be read in a Californian setting.
The exhibition was admittedly rushed and left me with more questions than
answers. I began to wonder how Canadian artwork could create a cultural
dialogue between the two countries. Firstly, I was curious if there are enough
differences between Canada and the U.S. for Canadian art to take on a specific
identity that exists separately from art of the United States. Secondly, and
more importantly, Canada is a country whose national narrative is difficult to
define, even for Canadians. We are a country in flux of many different identities and, to try and pinpoint a single particular theme that translates across
the boarder is not only inherently difficult but seemingly impossible. This
question of identity became especially pertinent when looking at younger
emerging artists who have grown up with globalization as a strong part of
their cultural psyche. In a globalizing world specific cultural identities are
more difficult to pinpoint and, when they are, they often resort to stereotypes
that are problematic and bound up in colonial histories.
I began to conceive of an exhibition that would exist as a double-edged
sword. The show’s main goal would be to exhibit emerging artists from all
across Canada, as well as address some of these questions I had regarding
Canadian identity. I began talking with Kevin Bertram about co-curating this
exhibition in San Francisco. Bertram, at the time, had been curating a show
in Montreal called Canadian Shield, which examined how emerging artists
were subverting Canadian identity within the context of contemporary art.
Together, Bertram and I started with the most obvious of questions: “What
does it mean to bring a group of young Canadian artists to the United States?”
We both saw an opportunity to use the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver
as a springboard for this exhibition. The Olympic games would give the Bay
Area audience a media backdrop of Canadian symbols, themes, and politics.
Moreover, as Canada chooses to present its touristic identity on the international stage this exhibition could also function as a way of transgressing this
identity. Thus, for Bertram and I, we saw this exhibition not as a response to
the event of the Olympics but as an opportunity to subvert cultural dialogue
that will exist during this time.
Though we both had particular cultural and conceptual concerns, this
exhibition also came from a genuine love for the artistic communities that
are situated throughout Canada. From the beginning, both Bertram and I
wanted to create an exhibition that allowed the artists to showcase their
distinct individual identities. For this reason, we felt it was inappropriate
to distinguish a curatorial framework and then search for artists that fit
within that said framework. Thus, we presented this exhibition as an open
call for submissions that was sent throughout Canada’s art institutions and
not-for-profit galleries. Opening up the exhibition to all Canadian artists
allowed us to thoroughly consider how we would present Canadian identity
to a U.S. audience.
Alternorthern
as a name
—
The title of this exhibition, Alternorthern, was chosen as a tongue in cheek
reference to Nicolas Bourriaud’s term Altermodern. Referencing Bourriaud’s terminology works as a vehicle for how both Bertram and I look at
this exhibition. The title Alternorthern simultaneously pays tribute to, and
contradicts Bourriaud’s ideas.
Altermodernism is a way of looking at twenty-first century artists within a
globalized cultural network. For Bourriaud: “artists are looking for a new
modernity that would be based on translation: What matters today is to
translate the cultural values of cultural groups and to connect them to the
world network.”1 The artist existsas a “cultural nomad…wandering — in time,
space and mediums.”2 The artist is not bound to geographical locations, like
Canada, but is connected throughout the globe.
In bringing together a show about Canadian artists we chose to title the show
Alternorthern as a reference to both the ideas of the global artist, as well as their
situation in specific political and regional dialogs (Canada). In other words,
the artist is in flux: a product of both cultural values and cultural hybridity.
Canada, it can be argued, is especially aware of this tension. Although we
have certain ideas that can be equated to Canadian identity, we are unlike
the United States in that we do not have an explicit and grand narrative.
Though we have specific institutions that are designed to promote Canadian
culture and heritage, the fact is, most Canadians have grown up with media,
cinema, and music from the United States being very important to our cultural
understanding and worldviews. Moreover, in establishing differences from
the United States, Canadians do not point to their own identity but that of
a European identity. John Ralston Saul notes that:
“Endlessly, we go to Europe, and in order to differentiate ourselves from the
United States we say, “Well the thing about us is that we are so much more European
than the United States.” And you can just see the European’s eye’s rolling up because someone has just come to them and said “We are so proud to be a second rate
imitation of you.” 3
Canada is slightly more socialized than the U.S, it is part of the British Common Wealth, and has a large French speaking population. This, in accordance
to most Canadians, is enough reason to cite that our country has a certain
European je ne sais quoi. Although Canadians are aware of having a specific
cultural narrative, it is often entangled with the narratives of other countries.
One key aspect to Canadian identity is the thought that we are somehow a
multiculturalist utopia. In 1985 Canada passed the Act for the Preservation
and Enhancement of Multiculturalism in Canada stating: “multiculturalism is
a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity”4 and it
“acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve,
enhance and share their cultural heritage.”5 Canada’s multicultural act is
not universally accepted; it is criticized and problematic. It has, however,
helped cement a general belief amongst Canadians that part of our cultural
narrative is that we have no specific cultural narrative. Canada is a mixture
of many first nations tribes, a European colonialist history, and a growing
number of first generation immigrants who have the desire (and right) to
preserve the cultural heritage of their home countries. Thus, Canada can be
thought of as a country that is geographically situated in North America but
also shifts through different times, places, and histories. This parallels the
idea of Altermodernism, wherein, according to Bourriaud “the core concept
is the experience of wandering — in time, space and mediums.” 6
Throughout the exhibition we have chosen works that speak to the Alternorthern ideal. This theme, for example, is very explicit in the practice of Brendan
Fernandes. Fernandes, born in Kenya and of Indian heritage, immigrated to
Canada at a young age. His practice is concerned with his identity as the product of three different cultures and the continuing question of: “who am I?”
For this exhibition we have installed Fernandes’ work Foe, a video representation of the artist receiving lessons from an acting coach teaching him
the accents of his cultural backgrounds. The text that Fernandes reads is
taken from a sequel to the book Robinson Crusoe. In this book, Friday (the
savage) has been mutilated; his tongue has been removed and he cannot
speak. Through the video the artist recites the specific passage where Crusoe
explains this to another.7
In another series entitled Neva There, Fernandes plays with the cultural
signifiers of Caribbean street posters. The artist presents the work as advertisements for an event that will never exist. The graphic red, green, and gold
posters reference Rasta culture and use the vernacular of a reggae concert.
The posters are void of any event information and the text, a mixture of
English and Swahili, is somewhat nonsensical. However, Fernandes notes,
to some, the posters read perfectly and point to philosophies regarding
unity, emancipation and revolution. When installed in public, the poster
thus becomes the “event” itself.8
Cultural authenticity and displacement are themes that are carried throughout
all of Brendan Fernandes’ work. Moreover, they are themes that are specific
to the Canadian psyche and relevant to Bourriaud’s idea of the global artist.
For Fernandes, these shifts through time, space and mediums are matter
of fact. His work is an investigation into cultural authenticity. Fernandes
presents us with “the artist as cultural nomad,” wandering multiple countries where he feels a cultural belonging: Africa, India, Canada, and his new
home in the United States.
Identity and space
—
I should clarify, it was not my goal in this essay to present Canada as a nation so boring that, aside from maple syrup and an obsession with hockey, it
has nothing that distinguishes it from other countries. Moreover, I am not
attempting to come down on Canada when I state that it is a country that
shifts through different times, places, and histories. Although, the mythology of Canada is problematic and confusing, as Bertram and I discovered,
it does transfer well into cross-cultural dialogues. I imagine that the media
will present a vision of Canada through the 2010 winter Olympics that will
contradict everything I am saying, and will showcase Canada as a nation with
a rich cultural mythology. A vision that, as Erin Manning writes: “refutes such
deterritorialization, adhering to a representation of Canada that depends
not on Canada coming apart at the seams, but, rather, on Canada being able
to define itself as a coherent entity.” 9
It is because Canada is a country in fluctuation of many different identities
that we felt it was inappropriate to curate a show that dealt specifically with
concepts that were “distinctly Canadian.” Bertram and I have chosen artists
that quite literally insert themselves in their artwork. The artists’ actions create space in particular times and landscapes in order to address issues that
are both personal and communal: subjects that are pertinent to Canada as
well as the world. In curating the work we were interested in the tension that
exists between nationalism, globalism, and, individualism. Alternorthern,
as an exhibition, celebrates its paradox as global and domestic, individual
and communal.
Zoë Yuristy, for example, has three separate works in this exhibition wherein,
through autobiographical and performative gestures, the artist inserts
themself in the artwork and subverts pop cultural references, historical narratives, and gender politics. Yuristy’s work, After William Notman is a “series
of photographs that revisits the work of 19-century Canadian photographer
William Notman in a contemporary context; exploring the way nature is
packaged in imagery of the Canadian tourist landscape.”10
William Notman (1826-1891) is an important figure in Canada’s early photographic history. “His career in Montreal spanned thirty-five years and
during that time he built up the largest photographic business in North
America.”11 Notman’s documentary and studio-based photography earned
him a reputable name and he was eventually declared by Queen Victoria to
hold the title “Photographer to the Queen.”12 Many of Notman’s clientele
requested portraiture that would showcase them within the setting of the
Canadian landscape. One of the many reasons Notman was revered as a
photographer was his ability to convincingly execute outdoor photographs
in his studio. “Outdoor settings could easily be simulated by rolling in the
appropriate background and changing the props or furniture. An outdoor
patio, forest dell, rustic stream or mountain landscape could all be had for
the asking at a minute’s notice.”13
Yuristy utilizes the language of Notman’s studio “outdoor” shots to create
a space wherein the artist can address how Canadians perceive their own
identity. Throughout the series, Yuristy situates scenes in a contemporary
studio setting with a white backdrop, flash lighting and colour film. The artist’s “backdrops” are, in fact, digital projections that force us to consider the
nature in which the photographs were constructed. A studio flash brightens
the subjects and separates them from the digital landscape in which they
are situated.
Yuristy writes of their interest in revisiting William Notman’s imagery in a
contemporary context:
“As I began to research more about William Notman, I found a wealth of archived images
that all depicted staged recreational scenes indoors: hunting, sledding, skating, tobogganing, skiing, and camping. That’s when I realized that Notman’s photographs were
true “Canadiana.” Even though Notman’s images were taken more than a century ago,
their self-conscious construction still spoke to me of how we see ourselves as Canadians.
We can point to our identity as being about “the outdoors” or the recreational, all the
while being aware that this is a simplified way of imagining and imaging ourselves. I
started to think about how I could, as a young Canadian artist, use Notman’s imagery
and techniques to question the production of Canadian identity as one that is synonymous with “the outdoors.” The series I produced is composed of images that were staged
in a studio setting and address and reconstruct the myriad of clichés that constitute the
concept of “Canadiana.” 14
In their performance-based photographs, Yuristy is able to create a space that
speaks to the construction of identity. By being the main performer in the
photographs, the artist also inserts their own queer identity into a masculinist
narrative of the hunter, camper and wilderness explorer. John O’Brian and
Peter White note in their book Beyond Wilderness, that “the identification
of Canada with wilderness landscape may have been faithful to the outlook
and interests of a segment of Canada’s population but as a national myth it
has always had grave shortcomings…it has mocked the values and ways of
life of Canada’s indigenous peoples; it has also refused to demonstrate dif-
ferences of sexuality and gender.”15 Thus, Yuristy politicizes the constructed
space, showcasing the inadequacies of one of Canada’s few mythologies: the
undomesticated landscape.
Another artist in this exhibition, Jenny Gag, creates and transgresses space
through her larger-than-life drawings. Gag’s new series entitled “The last
day of summer forever” was made during a period of transition. The artist
had been living in California for about a year and was forced to return to
Canada after her VISA expired. For Gag returning to Canada was bittersweet.
Canada is the artists’ home country and a place with family and friends, but
it was also a place that was bound up in bad memories and cold winters. A
tension between two spaces is at the core of her new work. The images are
large, bright, and celebratory. The use of exaggerated colours creates a Pop
mixture of abstraction and representation. However, the images are also on
paper that has been ripped, taped together, and laid directly on top of one
another. The viewer can see that the drawings have gone through a very laborious process wherein images have been covered up but never completely
erased. Gag constructs and deconstructs her work over and over again until
the final product is excessive and nearly falling apart. Text, smaller works,
and repetitive themes link each piece together to create one large work that
physically dominates the galleries white walls. Gag’s work presents the tension between Utopia and Dystopia. The artist creates a space that is always
in transition and fluctuation. Conceptually, her work does not resolve in
traditional methods but exists contently in the tension of two spaces: perfection and failure. The work gestures toward many art historical genres but
never fully commits to a specific way of being.
Gag physically inserts herself into the work in that it is autobiographical,
but moreover, through the manner in which the images come into being. In
the past, Gag’s artistic practice and education was performance based. This
sense of physicality and duration that performance art utilizes has carried
over into her new drawings. Gag is acutely aware of the art historical narrative
that Jackson Pollock’s work – dripping and pouring paint on to the canvas
– helped place the body at the center of the work of art.16 As a performance
artist, Gag works in a long-standing tradition “wherein the artist’s role is not
that of a bystander outside of the canvas but that of an actor whose every action is it’s subject.”17 Gag’s drawing becomes a performance of endurance in
that through repetitive cycles of construction and deconstruction the viewer
becomes aware of how much physicality has entered the work. Gag creates
the works using paper on drywall and not canvas on a stretcher. This process
disallows “bounce back” that a canvas would have. The artist is able to use
gestures that are much more physical and can dig into the work in a manner
that would actually rip canvas.
Jenny Gag, and the other artists in this exhibition, function in similar methods
in that they all use their own identity to make gestures that transgress time
and space. Each artist in the exhibition is Canadian, however, the artists’
create works that speak to issues that are pertinent to both the Canadian
and global geographic and political landscapes. For Bertram and I, we were
interested in the tension that exists between nationalism, globalism, and,
individualism in these artists’ works. It was the space between these concepts
that Alternorthern was conceived. Alternorthern is a word that contradicts
itself; it is both global, and domestic. The word sets the stage for the question
that we started off with: “What does it mean to bring a group of young Canadian artists to the United States?” In the end, I don’t believe that we came to
an answer, but created an exhibition that is self-referential to the question.
—
ZOË YURISTY
—
VINCENT CHEVALIER
—
BRENDAN FERNANDES
—
SONNY ASSU
1
Nicolas Bourriaud, “Modern, Postmodern, Altermodern?” 7 July 2005, http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/
aaanz05/abstracts/nicolas_bourriaud (accessed December 8 2009).
2Bartholomew Ryan, “Altermodern: A Conversation with Nicolas Bourriaud,” Art in America: International Review (March 17 2009), http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2009-03-17/altermodern-a-conversation-with-nicolas-bourriaud/ (accessed December 8 2009).
3John Ralston Saul, “Big Ideas Podcast,” http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.
woa?bi? 1252267200000 (accessed December 8, 2009)
4Department of Justice of Canada, “Canadian Multiculturalism Act” 1985, c. 24 (4th Supp.), http://laws.
justice.gc.ca/en/C-18.7/FullText.html (accessed December 8, 2009)
5Department of Justice of Canada, “Canadian Multiculturalism Act” 1985, c. 24 (4th Supp.), http://laws.
justice.gc.ca/en/C-18.7/FullText.html (accessed December 8, 2009)
6Bartholomew Ryan, “Altermodern: A Conversation with Nicolas Bourriaud,” Art in America: International Review (March 17 2009), http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2009-03-17/altermodern-a-conversation-with-nicolas-bourriaud/ (accessed December 8 2009).
7Brendan Fernandes, “Foe” artist project description, paraphrased.
8Brendan Fernandes, “Neva There” artist project description, paraphrased.
9Erin Manning, “I AM CANADIAN Identity, Territory and the Canadian National Landscape,” Theory &
Event 4, no. 4 (2000)
10Zoë Yuisty, email to author, 24 November 2009
11Stanley Triggs, “The Man and the Studio,” McCord museum of Canadian History (2005), http://www.
mccord-museum.qc.ca/notman_doc/pdf/EN/FINAL-NOTMAN-ENG.pdf (accessed Nov 24, 2009).
12Stanley Triggs, “The Man and the Studio,” McCord museum of Canadian History (2005), http://www.
mccord-museum.qc.ca/notman_doc/pdf/EN/FINAL-NOTMAN-ENG.pdf (accessed Nov 24, 2009).
13Stanley Triggs, “The Man and the Studio,” McCord museum of Canadian History (2005), http://www.
mccord-museum.qc.ca/notman_doc/pdf/EN/FINAL-NOTMAN-ENG.pdf (accessed Nov 24, 2009).
14Zoë Yuisty, email to author, 24 November 2009
15John O’Brian and Peter White, “Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity, and Contemporary Art” McGill-Queen’s University Press (2007): 297.
16Michael Rush, Video Art (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2007).
17Rush, 63.
—
VALERIE BOXER
—
JENNY GAG
—
UNTIL WE HAVE A HELICOPTER
—
MICHAEL LOVE
—
JON SASAKI
—
ZOË YURISTY
—
Zoë Yuristy’s photography based work engages with the cultural production of
images as a means of exploring identity. In doing so, Yuristy’s work moves seamlessly through art historical conceptualism, pop cultural references, historical
narratives, and personal confessions. Through juxtaposing sincere gestures and
ironic distanciation, the artist is able to create a space where the real and the
fantastical can co-exist. Yuristy is often concerned with subversively appropriating references to pop culture, the historical, and art historical narratives. For the
artist, image-making is a multi-faceted process by which narratives about culture
become sites for artistic production. In this way, Yuristy’s approach to imagemaking is as unique to each work as the diversity of themes the artist addresses.
.Zoe Yuristy.
.Self-portrait with Nerd Glasses and Ironic Moustache After Chuck Close.
.Single Channel Video.
.13:00 looped.
.2009.
Yuristy’s methodology of image making is quite apparent in their past work Selfportrait with Nerd Glasses and Ironic Moustache After Chuck Close, a single-channel
video projection where Yuristy inserted their identity into the role of “the artist”
in Chuck Close’s famous painting, Self-Portrait. Looking at his image in a contemporary context, Yuristy states “I was interested in how I could appropriate the
few signifiers contained within the image to play with the inscription of identity,
fiction and history, and popular culture.” Wearing thick-rimmed black plastic
glasses and a moustache, in the video, Yuristy sits as still as possible while dangling a lit cigarette from the side of their mouth until it burns down completely.
For this exhibition we have installed three works by Zoë Yuristy: Northern
Afghanistan Fantasy Playset, After William Notman Series, and Lost Boy and 5225
Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441 (Neverland Ranch).
VINCENT CHEVALIER
—
Vincent Chevalier is an interdisciplinary artist performing work around themes
of disclosure, agency, labor, and identity. Chevalier uses video, performance,
and installation to reveal hidden relationships of power between the body as
subject and structures that dictate our everyday action. These actions range
from the quotidian to the theatrical; they bring the personal to the public, and
push the latent into view.
Some of Chevalier’s past actions include: walking on a piece of red carpet continuously for a whole week; giving public lectures about his drug addiction while
serving beer; dressing up as Lisa Loeb and lip-syncing her debut album in a single
video take; sanding pieces of plywood into dust; and, as part of an ongoing and
relentless process, telling people that he is queer and HIV-positive.
This disclosure informs Chevalier’s aesthetic and methodological approaches.
The artist considers the act to be a formal gesture around which his practice can
be organized. Recently, Chevalier has been examining disclosure as an intersubjective process that produces physical, emotional, and social effects. He writes:
“This holds personal as well as political significance. As an individual claiming
a queer/fag and HIV-positive subject position, disclosing plays a significant role
in structuring my everyday. My art practice attempts to insert this gesture into
the everyday as an intervention.”
.Vincent Chevalier.
.So... when did you figure out that you had AIDS?.
.Single Channel Video.
.4:27.
.2009.
So... when did you figure out that you had AIDS? consists of home video footage
recorded when Chevalier was 13 years old in which the artist plays the role of
“a man dying from AIDS.” The video predates Chevalier’s HIV diagnosis and
performance career. Chevalier presents the performance as a foundational work
within his art and identity histories highlighting themes of performativity and
representation.
This exhibition showcases three separate works by Chevalier, So... when did you
figure out that you had AIDS?, Full Disclosure: I have gingivitis, and Roundabout.
BRENDAN FERNANDES
—
Brendan Fernandes’ current work represents an investigation into the concept
of authenticity as an ideological construct that both dominant and subordinate
cultures use to their own ends. For Fernandes, authenticity is a word that shapes
cultural experience, and thus also shapes concepts and formation of identity. Fernandes, born in Kenya of Indian heritage, is a Goan who has never set foot in
India much less Goa. As a Goan-Kenyan who immigrated to Canada at young age
he is often confronted with questions of his own identity. He writes: “I experience my identities as informed by all the places I have lived, and the cultures to
which I have connections, threads that my family has striven to maintain while
living in a country that is neither their birthplace nor mine.”
Throughout his work Fernandes confronts the tension of being caught between
a habituated respect for the cultural traditions of his ancestors, and an understanding of Kenyan culture from the perspective of a “native” (somebody who
was born and lived in the country) as well as from the point of view of a Westerner
and, therefore, a de facto tourist.
.Brendan Fernandes.
.Neo-Primitivism I.
.Deer Decoy: 44” x 41” x 21” Wadding Pool: 66” x 18”.
.Deer Decoy, Children’s Wadding Pool, Box and Shredded Paper.
.2007.
These concepts filter through a diverse practice of sculpture, video, performance,
installation, and animation. Fernandes’ installation Neo-Primitivism I explores
landscape and notions of home. Elements from interior and exterior environments, organic materials (water) are placed against synthetic materials (deer
decoy in a children’s pool) to form a narrative where this seemingly majestic
creature emerges out of a box to search for a home in this new strange world.
For this exhibition we have installed two of Fernandes’ works, Foe and NeoPrimitivism I
SONNY ASSU
—
A multi-disciplinary artist, Assu merges Northwest Coast Aboriginal iconography
with the aesthetics of popular culture to challenge social and historical values we
face on a daily basis. His work is an exploration of his mixed ancestry and creates
a discourse into how we use consumer items and popular culture to define our
personal lineage. His current body of work discusses the use of branding, brand
loyalty, and technology in conjunction to the ideals of totemic representation
and issues that the First People of North America face.
Assu’s conceptual framework can be seen clearly in 1884/1951. The artist has spun
67 disposable coffee cups out of copper. The cups, for Assu, are an investigation
into his west coast First Nations heritage, and moreover, comment on the western
ideals of wealth and value. The copper cups were made to reference the potlatch,
a theme that is predominant in much of Assu’s work for it’s significance in his
culture and as a reference to the potlatch’s themes of re-distribution of wealth.
.Sonny Assu.
.1884/1951
.67 spun copper cups, grande size.
.2009.
.How Soon Is Now, exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, February 7 to May 3, 2009
Photo: Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery.
Assu writes: “The status of wealth for a Chief was his copper shield; I’ve heard
stories of Chiefs who felt they were so rich after a potlatch, that they destroyed
parts of their Copper to prove it. One story I heard was that of a Chief who felt
he was so wealthy after a potlatch that he had no want of anything. He proved his
bravado by tossing his full copper in the fire. I found it an interesting juxtaposition of culture, we will spend $5 on a latte and walk around town displaying our
wealth in these disposable cups”. 1884/1951 presents a cup for each year that the
potlatch ceremonies were banned by Canadian law.
Assu is continuing similar themes and creating new work for this exhibition.
VALERIE BOXER
—
The most recent interests in Valerie Boxer’s work originate from the desire to
encounter the metaphysical within modern everyday life. Her work addresses
how we perceive utopia and spirituality through popular culture.
Boxer’s work is overtly embellished, stylized and humorous. Her work uses a
camp aesthetic that allows her to call into question how people relate to beauty
through the Kitsch. Her practice involves fibers, video, and illustrations that are
created from meticulous processes. For Boxer, engaging in repetitive gestures
and time consuming practices such as embroidery and video editing are forms of
meditation that allow her to identify with the core concepts of her work.
Boxer is French Canadian and like so many Canadians she grew up submerged
in American media. She has learned a majority of her English through American
television, cinema, and music. This influence became just as important to her
cultural understanding as her own Québécois heritage. Boxer’s work in this
exhibition is informed by this tension. She has never been to California but she
celebrates it with both irony and sincerity calling attention to a culture that is
not hers but she feels a certain belonging to.
In the past, Boxer created work around themes of animal consciousness and
paranormal matters. She has become increasingly interested in how spirituality
manifests itself as part of our daily psyche within commercialized and globalized cultures.
Valerie Boxer.
.Don’t Laugh.
.Single Channel Video.
.2:00.
.2008.
In her past work Don’t Laugh, Boxer reveals the ridicule behind the idea of grasping
the infinitely complex nature of animal consciousness by a simple impersonation
of a monkey eating a banana. What seems at first like a comical experience proves
to reveal a disturbing duality between the voice over and the images, but also one
situated at the very center of the narrator/performer’s psyche.
JENNY GAG
—
Until recently Jenny Gag’s work has been primarily in performance, and although
her new works are all large-scale drawings, performance serves as a foundation
for her drawing practice. The artist’s new work entitled The last day of summer
forever was made during a period of transition. The artist had been living in
California a year and was forced to return to Canada. For Gag returning back to
Canada was bittersweet. Canada is the artist’s home country and a place with
family and friends, but it was also a place that was bound up in bad memories
and cold winters.
.Jenny Gag.
.Untitled.
.From the series: Last Day of Summer Forever.
.oil, oil stick, pastel, acrylic, graphite on paper.
.68” x 162”.
.2009.
This tension between two spaces is at the core of Gag’s new work. The images are
large, bright, and celebratory. The use of exaggerated colors creates a Pop mixture
of both abstraction and representation. The images are also on paper that has
been ripped, stitched together and laid directly on top of one another. The viewer
can see that the drawings have gone through a very laborious process wherein
images have been covered up but never completely erased. Gag constructs and
deconstructs her work over and over again until the final product is excessive and
nearly falling apart. Text, smaller works, and repetitive themes link each piece
together to create one large work that physically dominates the gallery’s white
walls. Gag’s work is always in flux between utopia and dystopia. Conceptually,
her work does not resolve in traditional methods but exists contently in the tension of two spaces: perfection and failure. The work gestures toward many art
historical genres but never fully commits to a specific way of being.
For this exhibition we have invited Jenny Gag to install excerpts of her new series
The last day of summer forever.
UNTIL WE HAVE A HELICOPTER
—
Wes Cameron and Matthew Robertson created their collaborative entity Until We
Have A Helicopter in order to have their operation of Lobby Gallery in Vancouver
identified as a project-based artwork. For two years they facilitated site-specific
installations in the unusual confines of a hotel lobby. Within the lobby gallery,
Cameron and Robertson created a ‘kneeling’ exhibition wall. This 18-foot-long
cantilevered bench allowed the curators to create installations and engage with
a submissive action of allowing gallery goers a place to sit. After leaving Lobby Gallery their interest in site-specific and context-driven
production was further demonstrated in subsequent exhibitions:
The exhibition UWHAH was conceived as a challenge to work site-specifically in
a commercial gallery, as well as to launch a publication documenting their past
projects. The exhibition was based on the gallerist’s request to exhibit Kneeling
Reprise (Chairs), a work consisting of two seats made from slices of the Lobby
Gallery wall-bench. Three accompanying functional sculptures were meant to
address elemental voids of the modernist gallery and comfort those attending
the winter exhibition. In UWHAH: Prequel, Cameron and Robertson continued to work in a dimension
between artist and curator by inviting artists to work with them to create an
exhibition about them.
The artists’ works in the exhibition helped invent a layered and incongruous
mythology behind Until We Have A Helicopter
.Until We Have A Helicopter.
.Replay and Stay Awhile (Coat rack).
.wall, sporting equipment (arrow, broom, bat,.
.club, cue, foil, mallet, paddel, pole, rackets, sticks).
.96” x 40.5” x 60”.
.2009.
Most recently, UWHAH invited eight artists to exhibit work stipulating that the
work enters the gallery through a third floor window without the use of devices
external to the work. With the intention of encouraging artists to functionalize
their works, anything used to get the pieces through the window also had to go
through the window and be integrated in the display.
For this exhibition Until We Have a Helicopter has been invited to create a sitespecific installation within the space of The LAB.
MICHAEL LOVE
—
A significant portion of Michael Love’s work has been invested in the documentation of military-related sites throughout Canada and Europe. His most recent
work “The Long Wait” is a series of photographs that investigates Canada’s military
history during the Cold War. The images were taken at the twelve Canadian NATO
bases in Germany, which operated between 1956 and 1993. Love uses photography as a means to record and understand the historical and
repurposed uses of military sites. Through their detail, the images reveal traces
of their Cold War past and draw together politically-charged origins with their
current states of use or decay. The images present these spaces as archives in
flux, altered by appropriation and the passage of time. The act of surveying these sites has also informed Love’s interest in the severe
language of photography. Enacting the terminology of ‘taking’ or ‘shooting’ a photo,
his work considers the potential violence present in the action. The underlying
themes of control and aggression in his subject matter and image-making aim
to construct visual representations from what remains.
.Mike Love.
.Self Portrait with Rifle.
.B&W Photograph.
.60” x 90”.
For this exhibition we have installed Love’s work Self Portrait with Rifle. For this
project Love constructed a pinhole camera, where the exposure was created by
shooting a hole with a pellet rifle. The resulting hole then exposes the negative
in the light tight camera. Facing the camera, the act of shooting the rifle also
initiated the recording of the image—a self-portrait of Love shooting the rifle.
In the process of the shoot, the projectile from the rifle also pierced the film and
the image of himself, creating a void in the image where the gun would be. The
resulting image is a record of its own creation.
JON SASAKI
—
Jon Sasaki’s “romantic conceptualism” takes its form primarily in performancefor-video, objects, installations, and interventions. The artist’s work mixes dry
humor and pathos, often with gently antagonistic results. Cynicism, futility and
tragedy are taken as starting points, and then countered with dry, comic delivery.
Sasaki structures his work like the familiar “shaggy dog joke”: a deadpan escalation of expectations, followed by an anticlimactic punch line. It is a celebration
of futility and resignation.
In much of Sasaki’s performance-for-video work, he repeats an earnest “everyman” character in short looping videos suggesting an inescapable cycle of trial
and failure. He writes: “The ‘everyman’ character was inspired by silent film
comedians from the early days of cinema (Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Chaplin,
etc). Like these historic characters, he too is a bit of a fish out of water, always
slightly out of place or time. His activities are Sisyphean…earnestly attempting
to ‘move forward’, but never succeeding. But the fact that he never quits trying is
perhaps where the optimistic silver lining emerges from an otherwise cynical cloud;
he perseveres despite knowing the probability of failure. At times his activities
border on slapstick physical comedy, adding perhaps a second counterbalance
to the thematic heaviness”.
.Jon Sasaki.
24 lbs.
.HDV, 1:54.
.2006.
Throughout Sasaki’s work there is a strong skepticism toward themes of development, transformation and emergence. In his work Toronto’s Official Y2K Mascot,
Autumn, 2008”, he showcases the obsolete, CN tower shaped, Y2K mascot sitting
contemplating his few, if any, prospects.
This exhibition showcases four of Sasaki’s video’s: Ladder Climb, Fireworks,
24lbs, and Toronto’s Official Y2K Mascot, Autumn, 2008.
Kevin Bertram and Jason Gowans would like to express their most sincere
gratitude toward each of the artists for contributing work to the show.
Moreover, we would like to thank each artist for taking the time to interview
with the curators and contribute both their insight and words. Without you
this publication would not be possible.
Moreover, we would like to extend our gratitude towards The LAB for hosting
this event and taking a chance to engage with Canadian artists.
Lastly, we want to send thanks to Karine Cossette for contributing her
design skills at virtually no cost. Karine, it is because of friends like you that
this publication is possible.
Sincerely
Jason Gowans and Kevin Bertram
—
This publication was funded by a generous donation
from the Concordia Fine Arts Reading Room
CoVER IMAGE:
Zoe Yuristy, Bill Ramsay and Charles the Guide on Hike at Peyto Lake,
From the series After William Notman , 2007 , C-print , 30 40 inches