>>REVIEW
TERMINAL MODERN
Megan Hepburn
Runs until January 30
Plus-15 walkway (Epcor Centre)
Dead dogs don’t bite, right? It’s a question that comes to mind when viewing the three paintings of Victoria, B.C.-based artist Megan Hepburn.
The works, Terminal Modern, are co-presented by Bubonic Tourist as part of its Mutton Busting Performance and Visual Art Festival, and Stride Gallery. Located in a window gallery on the Plus-15 walkway connected to the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, one of Hepburn’s three paintings shows a dog lying on a bathroom floor, partially wrapped around a toilet bowl. The first reaction on seeing the glassy-eyed canine is to assume it’s dead – yet its body still seems to hold out the possibility of life, that it could stand up on its four feet and walk out of the frame.
This paradox is what draws us into Hepburn’s work and confuses us at the same time. Increasingly frustrated by the lack of concrete evidence about the animal’s state, we create a narrative in order to fill the vacuum the artist has left. Each of Hepburn’s paintings offers up a wealth of possibilities and it’s those who stop to take a look that complete the storyline.
The next painting is of a fox, this time unceremoniously strewn across a dark surface, its mouth wide open – dead, to be sure. And the final painting is of another dog – this time in a modern kitchen that could be found in almost any Canadian home. Shiny appliances and gleaming floors suggest order. But the order appears ominous as it closes in on the dark coated canine staring out from the canvas. What is the animal saying to us? Save me? Help me? Leave me alone?
Viewed as a series, Hepburn’s paintings provoke tantalizing questions about the human world and its relationship to animals. Are we their masters? Protectors? Exploiters? In a culture that supports "doggy day cares" for city dwellers who are too busy to care for the animals that they have chosen to bring into their homes in the first place, it’s no wonder the sight of a seemingly dead dog on a bathroom floor stirs such reactions from those who walk by the window, jolting them out of their complacency.
One passerby says, as she walks on, "These paintings have caused quite a bit of debate around here." Another chimes in, "I don’t think they should have them here, where children will see them."
And it’s not just this inquisitive journalist who is getting an earful. The curator of Mutton Busting, Eric Moschopedis, has also received spontaneous feedback about the paintings.
"Somebody yelled at me the other day that they’re offensive," he says, adding that it isn’t the festival’s motive to anger and upset people. "We don't program for shock value. We try to present work that interprets the world (as) we see it."
It’s at this point that Hepburn’s exhibition transcends its state as a static series of three paintings and becomes theatre as powerful as any being performed on the stages in the auditoriums of the arts centre. The very public window space supports the notion that every pedestrian has a right to voice his or her opinion about these three animals, which raise questions about freedom, death, relationships and our place in the world.
Three other Plus-15 windows also contain visual art as part of the Mutton Busting festival: Are You Scared? by Geneviève Castrée of Anacortes, Washington, Gaylord Phoenix in the Flower Temple by New York City-based artist Edie Fake and We Are Constantly Deceiving Our Eyes by Kit Malo of Montreal are on display until the end of the month. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.