Elsewhere has been and gone … took down the exhibition this past Monday.
How the time flies past … it seems yesterday (and a long time ago) all at once, that I was preparing and packing the work for this show.
It was a great space to work in, and we had fabulous support from curator Brenda Barry Byrne, and the staff at Gallery @ 501. I think I have been spoiled for other spaces!
So, one last goodbye … a video “tour” of the work Brenda Danbrook and I exhibited in Elsewhere. Hope you enjoy.
After the busy-ness of getting the work up for exhibition, and then the opening reception on the 9th, I thought life was going to slow a little bit. Not so.
I have been elsewhere (metaphorically) – catching up on all sorts of things that needed attending to.
Amongst those ‘to-do’ list items: A few images from the exhibition, and the curator’s essay.
A quick shot of the installation work I did in the exterior window of the gallery. The quotation is taken from Roger-Pol Droit’s lovely book, entitled How Are Things? It seemed to sum up so perfectly that I have been striving for, in this body of work, and in my practice as a whole.Another quick shot, this a face-on view of the main window.A closer shot, showing some of the detail. I will be back out to the gallery shortly, to shoot a proper set of images of the work, but this does give you some idea.
This exhibition took the effort of many minds and hands to produce. My thanks to my co-exhibitor, Brenda Danbrook, and to Brenda Barry Byrne for comments, support, and great input and feedback, and to Strathcona County, for building such a beautiful gallery in which to show work!
My thanks and gratitude too to Kaylee Low from Gallery @ 501, Paddy Lamb, and Angele Karosi for their help in getting the work on the walls, and to Sara McKarney for helping me pack it and John Waldron for getting me and the work to the gallery!
I came across this bit of active erasure in Sherwood Park AB a while ago, outside Gallery@501.
This is perhaps a fitting follow-up to the idea of ‘fallow’ time. I think sometimes it’s too easy to shoot ourselves in the foot by buying into the notion that if we are not working all the time and at break-neck speed, then we are not being productive, that we have somehow ‘failed’. Quantity over quality.
Spent a lovely Saturday afternoon on the Art Bus Tour! It was great to see such a range of work in one afternoon – print media at SNAP, the Member’s Show and “Naked” Show (figurative works) at Harcourt House, then down the highway to Sherwood Park, and finally back to SNAP for some festivities …
The exhibition at Sherwood Park’s Gallery @ 501 was terrific … I attended the opening on Friday, but found myself eager to spend more time with the exhibition. My congrats to Sean Caulfield and Royden Mills for a beautiful, thought-provoking body of work. Well worth the trip!
The tour ended up at SNAP, and their Block Out Fundraiser … which is where the road repair equipment and printmaking come in!
The ingenious April Dean, Executive Director of SNAP, managed to secure a permit to block off a bit of Jasper Avenue so that some large-scale prints – 4′ x 8′ – could be inked and printed with an asphalt roller!
… the steamroller, getting into position to roll over the printing plate …… the protective blankets come off, revealing the plate and the fabric that’s just been printed …… the plate/block, after the steamroller print has been pulled …… another steam roller print being pulled by April and Sean; this plate/block was hand carved by Sean Caulfield.
It was actually quite exciting to see this whole process from start to finish … there were some moments where I think most of us were holding our breath, hoping that nothing happened to the plates under all that weight. And of course, it’s always exciting to see a print being pulled – it’s the ‘great reveal’ that comes at the end of all the time and effort spent creating the plate -but it was especially so with such large work!
There was also great music, food, and drink at the event, and a sale and silent auction of some beautiful (and cheeky) print works … including “art critic panties” (which I hope I won)!
All in all, a great art-filled day!
I’m looking forward to all the other art events this summer, including the next tour, coming up in July! I don’t think there will be steam rollers involved (m)any of those, but who knows … might run into some road construction, which won’t be nearly as fun.