>>PREVIEW
FLOW
Runs until July 1
TRUCK Gallery
FLOW, on now at the TRUCK Gallery, features the works of four Canadians who are serious about interrupting the status quo.
An installation by Calgary-based artist Jason de Haan, titled I Know All the Songs the Cowboys Know `Cause I Heard Them on the Radio, sets the tone. Two 100-foot long "legs" of denim undulate from a pair of cowboy boots firmly planted on the floor, forming a knot of symbolism. It’s a visually arresting piece that can be interpreted through the lens of absurdist humour, or merely accepted as a statement about Western identity (dare I say Stampede pride?).
Much more sinister in appearance is the piece titled Equitable Friends by Edmonton artist Paul Freeman. A male and female figure (with heads that have been replaced by a connecting tube of skin), it dehumanizes, while paradoxically highlighting, our sex roles. The bright colours of the figures’ clothing, making it seem even more grotesque, set off the skin tube.
Freeman writes in his artist’s statement, "This work is deliberately distressing and can be difficult to look at; I am responsible for doing this to you. While I understand that for the viewer the initial contact with the work is more likely to be unsettling or even disturbing rather than pleasant, I encourage you to use this unease – as well as any fascination or curiosity that you might also feel at this moment – to good use. Let’s take this confrontation with unreal and uncomfortable combination of plant, animal and human forms as an opportunity to feel the weight of those things we are reluctant to address individually and collectively."
Next along the stream of social critique is the video installation P2, by Toronto-based artist Jennifer Chin. In it, blackstrap molasses glides from one screen (and mouth) to another, in an event Chin compares to the "passions" of medieval saints and martyrs.
She writes, "In Passional (P2), I set before me a series of three physical tests of endurance designed to allow myself to consume as much of a single substance as my body would tolerate. For each of the endeavours, I interacted with each substance as their material properties suggested; honey was left to dangle and drip, molasses to flow in a solid and steady stream and cream to pool and coat in its brilliant white. Each of these endeavours was documented with the aid of video, photography and written text and the resulting work comprises multiple video installations, photographs and prints."
Finally Tyler Hodgins from Victoria, B.C. presents his installation, Radiator.
A cast iron radiator that has been silver powder-coated is connected to unfinished pipe, forming a complete and unbroken "flow." Conjuring warmth, home and perhaps an earlier time, it’s the perfect way to end a visit to an exhibition that provides a flood of ideas within the vessel of this downtown gallery. |
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