FOXGLOVES
Old sculpture by Fabiola Carranza
Opening reception Friday, March 26, 8 pm
March 27-April 28

Besides the obvious difference of language, there is an important material distinction to be made between foxgloves and kid gloves - the one being not what one might think, and the other being almost exactly what one might think, but not quite, depending on what one is thinking.

Not of, but in, and for.

Collages by Les Ramsay and Allison Tweedie.

Opening reception February 5, 8 pm
February 6-March 10

The space of collage, as both process and product, is a space of, and for, inclusion: its language is at once controlled and infinitely variable, in and of time.

In combination, and re-combination, this space of inclusion, with its uncanny juxtapositions of objects and subjects within material connections, is activated as if by magic; presenting itself not only as the careful experimentations of alchemy in the transformation of common materials to rare objects, or the momentary seductions of sensory perception enabled by mirror tricks and sleight of hand, but common to these, the productive confusions and double-entendres of simultaneity.

Many of Allison Tweedie’s collages begin as extractions of individual images from the repetitious format of an instructional book on gardening and lawn maintenance. Focusing on the isolated repetition of consecutive documents, images of re-appearing formal elements and recurring methodical gestures within these constructed landscapes are re-assembled in collage as surreal manifestations of double visions.

The repetition of the deceptively simple triangular forms of Les Ramsay’s work from a long stay in Berlin appear as perfected formulas of his earlier collages from a longer stay in Spain, but his use of newspapers and fake finish materials, cardboard backings and cigarette foil, reflect an historical engagement: a lineage of informed provocations and imitated tomfoolery.

Historically new, and still very much tied to the situations of its creation, collage is not necessarily used for representation, but for re-presentation. As always already a natural and unlikely interaction, it has been suggested that the ambiguities inherent in this type of negotiation multiply questioning of what is, what was, and what might be.

Not a field, a feeling.

John Burgess, Henry Murphy, Daniel Oates-Kuhn, Emiliano Sepulveda

Opening reception Friday, January 15, 8 pm
January 16-31

Taking its title from a pair of essays, written on sculpture and photography at crisis points in the definition of these media, and intersecting in the space of the document, Not a field, a feeling presents the work of John Burgess, Henry Murphy, Daniel Oates-Kuhn, and Emiliano Sepulveda, as shifting points of reference within these overlapping, expanding fields: the spaces of physical experience, construction and documentation, and the grounds of intellectual play, negotiation and provision.

John Burgess’s sculpture and installation works deal with specific architectures built in and around the Vancouver area. Partial, or imaginative, re-constructions are made through careful examination of photographs and elevation plans, but never transcend the only optical experience of these media, by which the architectures have been made iconic to the general public.

Henry Murphy works in the quiet tradition of photography. Self-conscious of his medium, his pictures are careful arrangements made by small steps forwards, backwards, and side to side, always focused on their final visual experience, and emotional affect.

Daniel Oates-Kuhn has made a careful documentation of specific objects that invite or inhibit gestural actions and reactions, working out a phenomenology of gaps and walls that force projection and re-distribution.

Emiliano Sepulveda’s photographic practice is more specific to the developmental processes of the enlarger, and the chemical reactions that are necessarily kept in the dark. Working out of doors, with light sensitive materials, Sepulveda collects both objects, and the light that makes these objects what they are, within a mapping strategy that could be best described as obscure.

Further reading
George Baker. “Photography’s Expanded Field,” October 114, (Fall 2005): 120-140
Rosalind Krauss. “Sculpture in the Expanded Field.” In The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Post-Modern Culture. Ed. Hal Foster. New York: The New Press, 1998.

1001

Amy Horne, Anna Szaflarski, Brooklyn Cannon, Cassandra Everestina Falafel Sanchez-Brown, Christy Nyiri, Elise Beneteau, Karen Ngan, Melanie Coles, Mérida Anderson, Peggy Ngan, Rebecca Brewer

Opening reception Friday, November 6, 8 pm
November 7-30

The storyteller has been described as both traveller and local: one who comes and goes and has something to tell, and one who stays and re-tells what has already been told. Of faraway lands and faraway people, telling tall, taller, and tallest tales, of selves and others and other selves, the storyteller is also that exile or prisoner who lives in the remembrance of love and loss, adventure and thievery, death and life, and in the clutches of one or the other, comes and goes freely.

1001 presents the work of 11 artists, illustrating narratives through creations of characters, depictions of places, explorations of memories, dreams, enigmas, imaginings, and laughter.

Of the 11 artists I can tell you that most live here, a couple have lived here and now live elsewhere, one has never lived here, but has visited; more than half went to art school, most of those went to the same art school, a few never went to art school, but maybe wanted to; two are related, closely, while some have never met; combined their work has been shown internationally, nationally, regionally, and locally.

I can also tell you that one has commented on the difficulty of drawing horses, but others might agree. If you ask, I am sure they will tell you themselves.