McClure Gallery, Visual Arts Centre, November 4 - 27, 1999

John K. Grande

The following review appeared in Vie des Arts no.178 (printemps 2000) 61.

Fire has long been a phenomenon of great interest to social anthropologists and social theorists including Gaston Bachelard and Joseph Campbell who called fire "one of the earliest signs of a separation of human from animal consciousness." Working in a large scale with oil sticks on transpagra, a translucent material that allows light to pass through the paper, Dana Velan has created a body of large scale works that recreate images of fire as a primal, spiritual force we associate with energy - both creative and destructive. Velan's approach is thoughtful, reflective, a cultural journey of epic dimensions. Through a series of steps that have involved looking at primitive dwellings, natural forms, forms built by humans and now fire itself, Dana Velan has gradually built a holistic vision of the artmaking process. These large scale drawings are the result of a search within for a greater intuitive sense of our links to the natural world.

Since ancient times humanity has sought to capture fire. Vestiges of fire sites have been found in the caves of Peking man dating from 400,000 B.C. The extensive history of human involvement with fire as a source of sustenance, a subject for story telling, religious rituals and rites, makes it surprising so few artists choose to work with fire as a subject. Fire as primordial, intuitive unity links our dreams with the conscious. As Velan states:

"Why fire? Because of its mesmerizing and hypnotic beauty. Because there is nothing as changeable, ever-moving and elusive, yet so present. Fire as a symbol for metamorphosis. Fire as a metaphor for life… Fire connects us to the raw, basic essence of life. Fire is the reminder of where we came from. It makes the mythological stories and ceremonies of some present day tribes alive for us."

Dana Velan's style is immediately expressive, textural, makes use of bold outlining, and earth-based colours. While some of these large-scale depictions have a documentary look, others integrate a sense of passage, of a journey, of things we cannot see as much as what we do see in them. Velan uses fire as imagery in her artmaking practice much as the "primitives" once captured fire. Thus ritual of re-creation informs her work with a holistic sensibility. Velan's search involves building an environment that celebrates our eternal links to primordial forces. These works do not simply objectify fire, they make it a subject. The act of drawing revolves around the dilemma of object/subject, creation and perception, a constant problem in modern and post-Modern art. As the post-Modern re-creates meaning, original meanings are lost, yet they are still as relevant as ever!

The most arresting of images Velan has created for the McClure Gallery show is a 420" x 96" wall drawing of fire. Darkness and light, vivid colours and a sense of unending ritual are evoked in this powerful piece. Both as an environment and as a subject to look at, this expansive work evokes images of reflection, resolution, identification, of universal energy. Other studies are close-up views of fire. As if entering into a dream state we sense a volatility, a mesmerizing force that captured our ancestors imagination in ancient times. Other works display the embers, what remains after a fire has followed its course, the bodies of once living tree trunks amid an array of smoke and embers. Dark, charcoal blacks and greys create intense contrasts with the bright resonating orange and red colours in the live fire works. Photo documents of fire have been brought together into large "books" presented on a table in the McClure Gallery. One opens them to read imagery instead of words. The imagery in these books communicates the feeling that the fire is like oral language or legends, something more alive in fluid than solid form. Fire, like art-making as process, is an oracular vestige of primeval life that captures life's mercurial essence. In seeking to recognize these forms of explosive fire, regenerative fire, unending fire, an allusion to the immateriality of form and matter gradually builds up. The message is that the earth is on a journey of transformation just as we are. Notions of civilization become unconscious, conjure up associations that are as illusory and transformative as fire. Dana Velan's art has a handle on this temporal nature of life that fire transmits. Her art raises our awareness of the linkages between nature and culture, investigates the age-old ties between humanity and nature. At the heart of Velan's art is this sense of endless mercurial movement - like fire - in many directions at one and the same time.