Preview
FULL SPECTRUM: GRADUATING STUDENTS’ SHOW
Runs May 11 to 20
Illingworth Kerr Gallery (ACAD)
Every spring, graduating post-secondary students prepare to set out into the world and demonstrate the knowledge they’ve amassed during time spent in the hallowed halls of academia.
Many head off to corporate offices, some to master trades and still others to practise medicine. And then there are the artists.
Alberta College of Art and Design’s graduating students’ show, Full Spectrum, which opens May 18, blends creativity, beauty and social satire in an exhibition with works from all of the college’s faculties.
Yet, one graduand is sure to have everyone talking at this year’s party. Former punk rocker Jane Trash turns her jaundiced eye on society and then turns out her own brand of art.
In her artist’s statement, Trash says she is an interdisciplinary artist who was exposed to "drug abuse, violence, gender definition, political activism and minority identity" while growing up.
And from that potent mix of idealism and social problems pops out an installation that she calls Trash Store.
Dressed in fishnet stockings with her hair in a bouffant, Jane Trash takes us on a guided tour of society’s ills via the store she will be setting up in the Illingworth Kerr Galley at ACAD.
The shelves will be filled with products for sale. Not the latest Gucci shoes or Louis Vuitton handbags, but instead goods affixed with Trash’s art through processes of silkscreen, Xerox transfer, etching or relief. Trinkets, toys, bottles of beer and the latest Jane Trash fashions will welcome the art lover in the mood for a bargain and a free dose of Trash talk exploring all of the things that plague us.
"Trash Store strives to create a parody of my own social situations and more importantly, of our ever-growing cultural consumer sickness and need for material substance," says Trash. "Is our culture and individual personality made up of what we own? Do our possessions portray our self-worth?"
Part Value Village, part philosopher’s lair, Jane Trash’s Trash Store underscores why we should all take an hour or two away from the shopping mall and visit an art gallery. |
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