|
Reviews / Essays... | |
|
VIEW Magazine, 1997 ArtVIEW The Inc. Says it all By Cynthia J. Klaassen A week ago Thursday I visited the Inc.. On that day the air of downtown Hamilton was thick with the noxious fumes from the Plastimet fire which I’d been breathing at work all morning. Contrary to some reports, I did experience a headache, as did most of y colleagues. A walk at lunch is what I needed to "clear my head" Earlier in the day, one of my colleagues had compared the current conflagration to the Hagarsville tire fire. Well, wouldn’t you know that upon entry to the Inc., the first work I see is Catherine Gibbon’s large work documenting that event. I’d seen these works before, at the McNaught Gallery, and was struck by their beauty. Gibbon has selected a a high viewpoint, outlining the fire’s source, and the impenetrable black cloud billowing from it. A number of smaller pieces on the opposite wall document the struggle of workers trying to control the blaze. These pieces remind us that this kind of event happens over and over again, and my fear is of the number of potential disasters looming all around us. In ‘Valve: Artists from the Community" Gibbon has been teamed up with Thomas Monte and Tom Wilson – what a combination! Monte assembles a variety of discarded materials on large panels, themselves discarded. These are cast-away materials recycled into art. (Hey, wasn’t Plastimet a recycling facility?). As raw as his works may be, I find them quite passive. Perhaps because they seem so self contained and have an unfinished cast about them. Rather than assembling the pieces to create a particular statement, Monte simply asks the works to speak for themselves. Tom Wilson, on the other hand, feels a little more threatening. His photo collages have a naïve cast to it – like a kind o technology which hasn’t been perfected. I suppose that’s part of it’s appeal, but in the long term Wilson’s work will probably serve best as a documentary of a technique exploring the boundaries of technology. In the member’s 3rd space, Fiona Kinsella is showing "Prescribing Behaviour". Unlike Wilson’s photo collages, Kinsella has been able to perfect the use of heat transfers to move images onto paper and, in the case of this show, onto fabric. "This is a more consolidated grouping of that sort of work, and the one that I feel best about," states Kinsella. Although the show has a distinctive feminine cast, with prominent use of eggs and doilies, Kinsella insists the message applies to everyone. "Its about social norms and controls – how we are within our culture and how the way we live is dictated to us". After the show closes, "Prescribing Behaviour" is headed to the White Water Gallery in North Bay. so here we are, caught within the structures of our society and political system, being told that the air is still safe to breathe and we continue with our prescribed daily tasks. It’s up to the artists to remind us that this has happened before, and to hint at our apathy – the assurance that it will happen again. |
|
|
The New Gallery-07 S. Knelman Where Magazine-07 J. Hilliker Hamilton Spectator-07 R. Haggo Hamilton Magazine-07 T. Foss Macdonald Stewart Art Centre-07 J. Nasby No. 56 Number Magazine-06 J. Hamilton Nashville Scene-06 D. Maddox Latcham Gallery-06 M.Broadhurst Nashville Scene-06 D. Maddox J. Marx Cambridge Galleries-06 I. Jurakic Hamilton Spectator-05 R. Haggo Nashville Scene - 05 D. Maddox Hamilton Spectator-04 E. Hujer Artichoke, Kohli & Brace VIEW Magazine J. Deal Women's Post K. Somers Sieved.com Peter Paper Wait - Ace Art D. Lemieux The Latcham Gallery M.Broadhurst Hamilton Spectator J.Mahoney Sister ~ Family ~ Home R. C. Yates ID Magazine P. Molotov Scene S. Curtis-Norcross Hamilton Spectator J. Mahoney VIEW Magazine C. J. Klaassen The Silhouette H. Ormerod Galerie Sans Nom G. Leblanc Hamilton Spectator J. Mahoney Hamilton Spectator J. Mahoney |