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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
12 Sep 92until17 Oct 92

Alan Dunning

ELISION: The Sick Bed, The Body of the Astronaut, Susie Clelland

555 Hamilton St

A closeup of several cursive capital letters. The letters are printed on clear plastic film and pasted on white walls, creating repeating shadows that replicate their curves and details.

Alan Dunning is a British-born Canadian artist who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. Since the late 1980s, Dunning has been producing ambitious installations that explore the complexities of language and perception through the juxtaposition of text and images generated from a variety of sources. His site specific installations are ephemeral and require up to two weeks to mount; the labour intensiveness of these works arises from his history as a performance artist.

The installation Alan Dunning has conceived for the Contemporary Art Gallery employs some two thousand 8 ½ inches by 11 inches transparent acetate sheets mounted edge to edge and broken by vertical striped banners. The accumulated letters, uninterrupted by word or punctuation breaks, form texts that are read horizontally along the wall. These texts shift from the prosaic to the poetic and are derived from three sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica's 1984 Medical and Health Annual, Larry Niven's Neutron Star and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Together they present a dense, interwoven narrative that physically envelops the viewer. The grid of ornate typeface frustrates quick assimilation of letters, words or phrases and creates an effect which has echoes of the Baroque, where the difference between the decorative and the symbolic becomes blurred. Dunning's work interrupts linear thought patterns and the stability of language.

Alan Dunning has exhibited in Banff, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Windsor, and Toronto. He has also produced a number of book-works to accompany his exhibitions.

The corner of a gallery space. The walls are nearly covered with clusters of cursive capital letters on clear plastic film. Between the clusters of letters, there are long black vertical lines.
A gallery space, its walls nearly covered in cursive letters. The letters are printed on glossy clear plastic and arranged in clusters which are separated by long black lines, also printed on plastic.
Cursive capital letters mounted on a white wall. They are printed on clear plastic sheets and are arranged neatly but out of alphabetical order. The letters are thin and highly ornate.

Documents

Essay: "Reading Dunning," Nancy Tousleypdf2mb
A closeup of several cursive capital letters. The letters are printed on clear plastic film and pasted on white walls, creating repeating shadows that replicate their curves and details.
The corner of a gallery space. The walls are nearly covered with clusters of cursive capital letters on clear plastic film. Between the clusters of letters, there are long black vertical lines.
A gallery space, its walls nearly covered in cursive letters. The letters are printed on glossy clear plastic and arranged in clusters which are separated by long black lines, also printed on plastic.
Cursive capital letters mounted on a white wall. They are printed on clear plastic sheets and are arranged neatly but out of alphabetical order. The letters are thin and highly ornate.