FFWD Weekly
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| VISUAL ARTS EXHIBIT REVIEW One of the reasons Marjan Eggermont and Carl Danker's compact display of drawings and prints at Image 54 Gallery is an enjoyable exhibit is that their styles are completely different. Danker's crisply rendered linear works contrast nicely with Eggermont's looser, more spontaneous images. Nevertheless, there are many similarities between these two Calgary artists. For instance, they both studied art at U of C where they were inspired by printmaking professor Bill Laing. In fact, Danker's print of a solitary rumpled shirt suggests Laing's worn overcoats and their subtle references to the people who inhabit them. Both Eggermont and Danker became involved in artmaking in a roundabout way. Eggermont, who also has a history degree, began studying art after learning about the infamous exhibit Hitler staged in an attempt to vilify expressionist art. The two artists were both born in 1966, and to some extent they're cultural outsiders, having emigrated to Canada as young adults. They also both experienced culture shock after traveling to Calgary: Danker, who came from Singapore, was greeted by a freak May snowstorm; and Eggermont - who hails from an academic Dutch family - arrived during Stampede week. The rich cultural heritage of their native countries is reflected in their artwork. Eggermont's busy compositions perhaps echo the historic Dutch paintings she grew up with, while Danker's minimal images project the refined simplicity of Oriental art and philosophy. After finishing his art degree, Danker set up a graphic design business and Eggermont stayed in school to complete an MFA - although she's now assisting Danker a couple of times a week. But what really links the work of Danker and Eggermont is their sensual approach to artmaking. "I talk a lot about sight and touch in my art," Eggermont explains, and, referring to her black-and-white print of a hand gesturing against a nebulous background, she states: "I enlarge certain body parts because when you feel a particular sensation of emotion, that part of your body seems larger than the rest of you - a detail represents the whole." Although Danker says he focuses his attention on art's social perspective - how we see ourselves and how others see us - his drawings and prints are also inherently sensual. Included in this show are his pictures of clothing, the human torso, or a combination of both. "Clothing has often been used as a metaphor in art," he comments. "I've done pieces looking at clothing as our shell, our shield, or as a shroud. Clothing performs all of these things. It's either a place where we hide or a place we can be proud of." The fact that Eggermont and Danker are drawn to corporeal, sensual subjects is also revealed in the art processes they use. For one work which addresses historic views of the female form, Eggermont simply left the image on the thick steel printing plate. Her black-and-white hands are actually photocopies transferred on to cheesecloth dipped in wax. Eggermont notes she's happiest when creating installation art because it's temporary and intuitive, and her last installation featured configurations of salt mounds that symbolized sweat, tears and bodily excretions. In this exhibit she has attached salt to one of the printing plates; partly because of its tactile nature, but also because it will eat away at the metal over time. Danker says he's also interested in acknowledging the transitory essence of life and art, but does so by encouraging us to take stock of our surroundings and savor each of life's fleeting moments. This is particularly apparent in his new pomegranate series and its allusions to fertility and sexuality. The artworks in Transfer aren't necessarily what you would expect to see in an exhibit that deals with sensuality. Instead of bold, decisive, visceral images, Danker and Eggermont's prints and drawings are often flat, elusive forms, buoyant and fragile. But like the delicate drawings Danker has carefully inscribed on translucent sheets of Mylar, these subtle, down-to-earth notations gently urge us to accept our own sensuality and that of the world around us. (opening reception - October 29 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.) |