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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
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ArchiveExhibition
13 Nov 15until31 Jan 16

Walter K. Scott

A Home Underground (Excerpt II)

Offsite at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station

A graphic illustration of two figures. One is walking and the other is upside down with a drill-like head. Bold text reads “TWO THOUSAND FEET UNDERGROUND'' and “WRITING A ONE THOUSAND PAGE NOVEL.”

Walter K Scott,A Home Underground (Excerpt II), 2015. Courtesy the artist.

Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across writing, illustration, performance and sculpture. In 2011, he began a comic book series, Wendy, the story of a fictional young woman living in an urban centre, who aspires to global success and art stardom but whose dreams are perpetually derailed. The position of the underdog, outsider and shape shifter is central to this body of work and the influence of feminist icons such as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde or artist, punk poet, experimental novelist, and filmmaker Kathy Acker lingers.

Scott’s two panel installation at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station, A Home Underground (Excerpt II) (2015) evolves from a new Wendy volume in which the eponymous character moves to Vancouver. Evoking the malaise of urban life, we see Wendy pictured moving through the city, a foil or reflection of the daily commuter passing through the station. Considering the two possible viewing positions for the work, inside the station descending the stairs or outside walking by, Scott has developed a recto-verso installation referencing the alter-ego/duality Wendy embodies, and the antagonism between mind and body. In this case, Wendy navigates Yaletown on her smart phone, juxtaposed with her inner self drilling head first into Vancouver’s sub terrain — a representation of existential frustration.

Presented in partnership with the Canada Line Public Art Program, InTransit BC.

Biography

Walter K. Scott currently lives and works in Montréal. For the Images Festival 2015, Scott produced Wendy Live! where a cast of English, Japanese and Mohawk-speaking performers enacted the newest Wendy book before its 2016 North American English-language release. Alongside his comic work, Scott produces work involving printmaking and sculpture. He is represented by Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver and recently completed a residency at the Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Japan.