Henrik Håkansson

The siren of progress weighs on the intentions of scientific study like a pathology. Advancement is a dirty word and research is only a means to get somewhere. Science is sullied by its ability to initiate change, so much so that it becomes a self-perpetuating end, an overarching goal and overbearing justification. As a condition, the idea of moving things forward is a distraction from scientific method, a deviation from its basic functions of observation and description. In this view, understanding comes from looking and recording, and progress is left as abstract.

Henrik Håkansson uses the tools and methods of scientific research with this fundamental flaw in mind. Since the early nineties, Håkansson has built an art practice that links scientific study to cultural production, reworking the terms and technologies of science within the discursive realm of aesthetics. In science the function of observation refers to a system of acquiring knowledge; in aesthetic terms this knowledge or amassing of information remains ambiguous. Uncertainty in art is generally understood as positive, leaving meaning open to interpretations that are informed by immediate and lived experiences. Vague findings in science are more likely attributed to poor research practices, unfinished work or flat-out failure. If ambiguity can be a point of difference between the two fields, what does bringing them together mean? Does it simply draw out their differences or does it remind us of a common goal.

In using the tools of science and scientific data to make art Håkansson manages to bring out something base in both disciplines. He pares them down to their most fundamental elements, which rest in the formal apparatuses linked to information gathering and presentation. For *From Here to Eternity (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), The Wind Tunnel Sessions, Lund, October 24-29,2004*, Håkansson rebuilt a large scale, low turbulence device originally designed to test and document bird flight  in the confines of the art gallery. He formally mimicked the rounded and elongated cone shape of the recording apparatus to scale and displayed a selection of black and white high speed video taken from just below and to the side of where the original scientific recordings were being made to study body and wing movement. In the gallery the wind tunnel became a beautifully crafted sculpture to be walked around and the slow motion video, which in the original experiments was transformed to dots and colours, created a dramatic effect.

The research tool and data became forms for aesthetic contemplation. A shift in reading and approach occurs by presenting scientific equipment in the art gallery, taking them out of their original context and intended usage. But this move still leaves the fundamental method for scientific research intact, highlighting a similarity between the way aesthetic exploration and scientific research privilege the process of observation.

Håkansson starts as an observer. In a interview with UK writer Will Bradley, Håkansson states, “At the moment, I’m developing methods that work more directly with the idea of observation and a relation to time and space: what I see, what I believe I see, and a reflection of the state we’re in.” So the state of observation is both a part of the process of production and also linked to subject matter. Collecting information starts with looking and listening, which is then transformed into data through recorders or cameras and presented to an audience. Looking, listening, receiving information is primary to each step. How the information is collected and described is essential to its presentation, and its presentation refers to the initial mode of observation.

*Aug.26,2003 – Aug.27,2003 (Vespa vulgaris)* Håkansson’s installation for the Contemporary Art Gallery, started in his backyard, watching and listening to wasps. Using a specialized high-speed video camera which is often used for research purposes to collect information related to growth and motion, he documented individual wasps in flight, capturing their unique movements in slow motion; a fifth of a second in real time equals approximately thirty seconds of film. The wasps are isolated in the video frame, edited into approximately thirty second to one minute flight patterns and divided into ten sequences. The separate videos were then transferred to 16mm film, put through individual looping systems and projected onto individual screens. Although the films are silent, Håkansson turns the white noise of the ten 16mm projectors into sound. The repetitive rotation of each film and the high frequency noise of the projectors’ cooling systems turn into the buzz of insects.

The noise is inescapable, cacophonic and meaningful. The technology factors in the work’s meaning. Håkansson never hides it under seamless white boxes or in a completely darkened room. In his film installation *Aug 6 2004 (Bembix rostrata)* the viewer has to walk past the 35mm projector in order to view the image it projects, and in the sound piece *A Different Day, A Different Dream*, the speakers and wires that generate two different bird calls are formal elements in the construction of the overall sculpture. In *Aug.26,2003 – Aug.27,2003 (Vespa vulgaris)* all the electronic cords, projectors, loopers and stands are formally arranged, not necessarily for better viewing of the filmic image, but to create movement and define a way to view the installation as a whole. It is as if the image is not enough or the sound waves are too unstable.

The apparatus that produces the images or sounds figures prominently in the way the work is read, drawing attention to process, which here is for the most part about observing. The transfer of technology from high tech to old school plays a part in this framing of attention. One must pay attention to the way images get produced and why they are chosen for presentation in order to understand why they are important. In these terms, the language of science is more familiar than that of aesthetics. We know how to use scientific data to make an argument. But then this line of reasoning has to lead to a point. In transferring the technologies from digital to analog, Håkansson has stepped out of that particular system of knowledge, presenting a mode of observation that sees our relation to nature in more aesthetic terms; in terms that are more open ended, questioning the very nature of observation and attempting to articulate our wonder of things without any other goal in mind. In this manner, Håkansson draws a line between science and aesthetics, providing reasons for both to exist that don’t need to go beyond our own amazement of whatever may be around us.

By Jenifer Papararo


Seven film projectors are installed in the middle of a darkened gallery. On the gallery walls, these machines project a film showing a wasp flying in the blue sky.  

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A film projector is installed in the middle of a darkened gallery. It projects a film showing a wasp flying in the blue sky on a small rectangular screen mounted on a gallery wall. 

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Aug.26,2003 - Aug.27,2003 (vespa vulgaris)

Chris Gergley

Chris Gergley is a Vancouver-based photographer who has developed a signature style over several serial projects. His first major work, *Vancouver Apartments*, is a series of eighty-eight photographs of the lobbies of middle class apartment buildings. This work explores the success of typological photography, as practiced by artists as diverse as Bernd and Hilla Becher or Ed Ruscha, as well as documents the quick decay of Modernist apartment buildings in Vancouver. Queen City is a growing record of images of Regina, Saskatchewan, Gergley's hometown. His photographs are deliberately commonplace, capturing what is typical to many small North American cities. For his solo exhibition at CAG Gergley will present a new body of work. *Copy Work* will include four separate components, all of which include elements culled from his archive of images and photographic paraphernalia. In large part, *Copy Work* is a reworking and reframing of Gergley's photographic documentation and work for other artists. The exhibition will also include *Gobo*, a series of slide projections, a presentation for the gallery's street front windows and an artist's bookwork, which will include texts by John O'Brian, Maria Fusco, Steve Edwards, John Roberts and Jenifer Papararo.

This exhibition is sponsored by The Audain Foundation. 

Curated by Jennifer Paparo


Essay: "Writing out Failure," Jenifer Papararo

A small light is placed on the gallery floor. The shape of this light resembles an old accordion camera. It projects a shape of a star, with the word BIG written inside, on the wall.

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Three photographs on the gallery walls are visible in this image. The photo in the middle shows a person’s feet standing at the corner of a room. The person wears a pair of blue jeans. 

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Four photographs on the gallery walls are visible in this image. One of the photographs depicts a man’s severed head lying on the snow-covered ground.  

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This is an installation shot of Chris Gergley’s art photography exhibition. Various sized coloured photographs, some framed and some unframed, are mounted on the gallery walls. 

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This image shows a series of various-sized photographs installed on a gallery wall. Some of them are street snaps, and others are human and animal portraits. All photos are white framed.

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Two large-sized posters are installed on a gallery wall. The one on the left side is a photograph of a shelf filled with toys, and another poster shows countryside scenery with a car and a house. 

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A black carousel slide tray is placed on a pedestal installed in the middle of a gallery space. A tiny light is also installed on the floor around the corner of the same room. 

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This is an installation shot of Chris Gergley’s installation on the CAG facade. The windows are all covered by black sheets. Some coloured images are embedded in the cutout part of the black sheets. 

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Two of the CAG’s window spaces are visible in this image. The windows are all covered by black sheets. Some areas of the sheets are cut out to hold an image of a colour palette. 

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Copy Work and Gobo

Elspeth Pratt

Vancouver artist Elspeth Pratt will produce an abstract sculpture for the gallery's street front windows. Using common building materials, Pratt will construct a cohesive composition to create a unified design over nine windows. In general Pratt uses forms and materials that align more closely with architecture than the history of visual art. At times she directly references the space she exhibits in but more often her abstract-like sculptures carry direct references to other more ubiquitous architectural spaces. *World Traffic* (2004) with a curving cardboard dome and grated base, reflects the now pervasive shape of many new airports. Her wall piece *Pendulum* (2000), which uses a stick, sponge and wire to precariously balance a protruding block of wood and suspend a carved piece of pink foam, is characteristic of a cantilevered stadium balcony. For *Bluff*, her new work for the Contemporary Art Gallery, Pratt does both. She responds directly to the space, but also makes reference to more general and common architectural forms.

### Biography

Elspeth Pratt is a Vancouver-based artist who uses common building and household materials to explore architectural forms. She has exhibited her work since 1984 with her first solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery in 1985. Other solo exhibitions include Artspeak, Vancouver; YYZ Artist’s Outlet, Toronto and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge. She has participated in group shows such as *Architypes* (2004) curated by Greg Bellerby, Felicity Fenner and Makiko Hara for the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver and the Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney. Her work was also included in *Work Work Work* (2004) curated by Ingrid Jenkner for MSVU Gallery, Halifax.

This image shows two of CAG’s window spaces, in which Elspeth Pratt’s installation art is displayed. Thin wooden bars are diagonally placed. These bars do not parallel to each other. 

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This image shows one of CAG’s window spaces, in which Elspeth Pratt’s installation art is displayed. Eight thin wooden bars are inserted in the window space diagonally to create a rough fence.  

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This image shows two of CAG’s window spaces, in which Elspeth Pratt’s installation art is displayed. About ten wooden bars are diagonally placed in each window. No bars parallel to the others. 

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This image shows three of CAG’s window spaces, in which Elspeth Pratt’s installation art is displayed. Unpained thin wooden bars are diagonally installed in those window spaces.

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The CAG’s first-floor window spaces display Elspeth Pratt’s art installation. Unpainted thin wooden bars are diagonally placed in those window spaces. About ten bars are installed in each window. 

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Bluff

Kristan Horton

For Kristan Horton's first exhibition in Vancouver, the Contemporary Art Gallery will present a selection of thirty-eight photographs from *Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove*. The doubling of the title of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film is the first key into this ambitious project in which the artist reproduces scenes from the film as sculptures. Using various commonplace items from his studio (a glue-stick, garbage bags, cutlery, felt markers, and dirt, to name only a few) Horton constructs the overall composition of each scene. He then places side by side a black and white photograph of his improvised constructions with a reproduction of the original film still, amalgamating them into a single printed image. In conjunction with his recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of York University, Horton published an artist bookwork of 200 scenes from this on-going series. He has also recently exhibited as part of the group exhibition *We Do This Now* at the Power Plant in Toronto and will participate in *Stutter and Twitch* at Bard College Museum, Annandale, New York and in *Beyond/In* Western, New York at the Albright Know Art Gallery, Buffalo.

### Biography

Kristan Horton has had an international exhibition career since the late 1990s exhibiting at Glassbox, Paris; ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Intercommunications Center, Tokyo. He has recently exhibited *Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove* at the Art Gallery of York University, North York, Ontario and has had solo exhibitions at Jessica Bradley Projects and Mercer Union in Toronto. Horton was recently featured in the magazine *La Repubblica Delle Donne*, Milan and a text by Ian Car Harris on his work has appeared in *Contemporary Magazine*. David Balzer has written on Horton’s work for *Canadian Art* (Spring 2006) and Yam Lau wrote a feature article for *C Magazine* (Fall 2006). 


A pair of black and white photographs are installed on a gallery wall. The image on the left shows a book titled TOP SECRET. The next image mimics the left image with everyday objects.

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A number of same-sized black and white photographs are installed on the gallery walls. Two similar images are paired and exhibited side by side. Many of those images depict landscapes. 

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A number of same-sized black and white photographs are installed on the gallery walls. Two similar images are paired and exhibited side by side. Some images depict airplanes and scenes at an airport. 

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This is an installation shot of Kristan Horton’s art exhibition at CAG. Across three white walls, same-sized black and white photographs are mounted in a row. Many of those images depict landscapes. 

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A number of same-sized black and white photographs are installed on the gallery walls. Two similar images are paired and exhibited side by side. Some of those images depict cityscapes.

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Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove

Corin Sworn

Laura  Piasta

Ryan  Sluggett

Luanne Martineau

Shannon Oksanen

Kim Kennedy Austin

*There Are Those* is an attempt to look more deeply at the process of drawing and those reasons to draw. Why are we seeing so much drawing, why are we interested in it and how are artists using it? The medium of drawing holds a particular place in the hierarchy of the arts. It is a method for sketching, a way to solve problems, a mode of research, a part of a larger practice, and a place to begin. Historically, drawing is seen as supplementary more than definitive. It is traditionally distinguished as being made with a pencil, pen, charcoal, marker, or crayon, usually consisting of lines, patterns or shading. Drawings are typically presented in intimate spaces often hung close together to bring in the viewer. *There Are Those* includes a small selection of Vancouver-based artists who use drawing as part of a larger process of working, but who also set it apart for its specificities, using it in a particular way, as a means to slow down their thinking process. All the works in this exhibition are labored, generally overdrawn. They have a slightly obsessive character, either through exhaustive detail, repetitive gestures or the obvious working and reworking of a motif. All the works make reference to historical material, either stylistically or thematically, but all the artists have very different approaches to the process. What brings them together is their reliance on drawing a way to come to terms with their subject matter, as a process for acquiring knowledge.

A graphite drawing of fly-fishing hooks arranged in a grid. Beneath each drawing is handwritten text. 

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Three separation walls are placed inside a gallery. Various drawings are mounted on those walls. Three of those are figurative abstract paintings. There are two black and white human drawings. 

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Ten drawings are mounted on the gallery walls. There is a set of three black and white portraits of people wearing suits. A set of five drawings show dots drawn on white sheets of paper. 

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Six drawings are mounted on the gallery walls. The set of three coloured drawings on the left depicts people sitting inside. The other set of drawings show figures which look like a design of a dorm. 

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Four drawings are mounted on a gallery wall. A set of three coloured drawings depict sculptures made of geometric shapes. There is also a black and white drawing of a child sitting at a table. 

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Kim Kennedy Austin, Luanne Martineau, Shannon Oksanen, Laura Piasta, Ryan Sluggett, Corin Sworn

There Are Those: Drawings by Six Artists

Derek Brunen

It is so easy to walk by a place and barely take notice.  Even in its heavy traffic location on Nelson Street and Richards Street the Contemporary Art Gallery, if you are not looking for it, is one of those places that blends into its surroundings. Regardless of signage, changing window projects, recent marketing stunts and over five years of occupancy, the gallery at times is camouflaged by its environment, regularly being mistaken for the lobby of the high-rise condominiums above. Derek Brunen's project for the gallery's street front windows is recognition of and an invitation to the many casual passersby who might not take notice of the Contemporary Art Gallery and its many activities.

For *Blind*, Brunen has tailored an array of secondhand curtains to hang closed. Windows are a logical place for curtains, but they are out of place on these uniform retail-like vitrines, under this cement.and gridiron tower and in this still developing neighbourhood. Curtains are an outdated mode of window dressing and not common to urban condos where blinds and shutters are more often pulled closed than drapes drawn. They are more particular to suburban homes like the one I grew up in where each window was specially dressed. I remember how my mother agonized over what to do with our two front windows. She eventually decided on three layers, a sheer curtain for the day to soften direct daylight, a heavier drape to close out the night and a third layer that remained tied to the sides. When the first two layers of fabric were closed, the drapes served as a decorative centerpiece in the room. They commanded attention. They were on view not for those outside who were intentionally shut out but for those inside.     

Here, in Yaletown, in the densely populated downtown core of Vancouver, Brunen has inverted the display. He has faced the curtains out, aesthetically arranging them into a united composition that takes both texture and colour into consideration. By covering the windows he has concealed what is behind them, but by creating a considered composition and directing the colour-field toward the street he is asking the accidental spectator to investigate what is behind the curtain. Blind is an invitation to look. The unified colour scheme, clean and tidy installation and precise fit encourage the voyeur instead of closing them out.	

The word voyeur is over-determined, it is too particular, commonly associated with the perverse and with an unwelcome gaze.  In his picture book, *City of Glass*, Douglas Coupland challenges this connotation by speaking about Vancouver as the ideal place for the voyeur with its skyline of glass towers a key element in establishing the city's character.  He describes Vancouver through a friend from the United States who "told his mother that Vancouver was a city of glass buildings and no curtains, and everybody gets to watch each other. A voyeur's paradise, so to speak."(1) In this way, Vancouver is articulated as a city built with looking in mind. For Coupland, windows are as much to look into as they are for looking out. But the CAG's windows don't actually function as windows, they don't let in light or air. They are an extension of the façade of the typical Vancouver high-rise and were originally designed to display merchandise rather than offer a view. The gallery uses the windows as an exhibition space, bringing its programming to the street, using them in a manner that is intrinsic to its overall mandate, which includes engaging wide audiences.

Still, these windows conceal the inner workings of the gallery and at times feel more like a protective barrier than a viable way to connect with the outside. They close something off. Brunen's gesture to cover the non-windows manages to open them up. To make them more about looking than concealing what is happening behind them.  In "Heart of the Event: Marion, Badiou and the Limits of Representation," Garnet C. Butchart talks about Brunen's earlier paintings as "...marking nothing less than an event of visibility."(2) What Butchart suggests by this 'event of visibility' is that Brunen creates a surface that "bridges the distance separating the visible and the invisible."(3) Even though Butchart is speaking about Brunen's paintings, which attempt to collapse abstraction and representation, this play with representation is still evident here. The curtains are curtains but without typical function. They are in their logical place, but are flipped. They cover what is already opaque and invite the gaze rather than detour it. Whether *Blind* as a material presence or cohesive idea holds such grand narratives as pulling the "unseen from the depths of the invisible..." remains to be seen.(4) Brunen's piece doesn't simply ask to be looked at. It draws attention to itself, to its dysfunction, to the fact that it is concealing something that is already concealed. It seems that this doubling is more like a triple layer, like my mother's curtains. It is a covering of something that is already hidden, but it is designed to hold the gaze and to create spectators. The gallery's position may be obvious at this point. *Blind* is an apt metaphor for the CAG as an institution that takes responsibility for its own invisibility. Through signage, window exhibitions, location in this dense area of the city and public campaigns, the gallery strategically encourages the voyeur, attempting to draw a complex and careful notion of what it is to look, and address how easy it is to escape notice.	

(1) Douglas Coupland. “City of Glass: Douglas Coupland's Vancouver”, Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, 2000, p126.
(2) Garnet C. Butchart. "Heart of the Event: Marion, Badiou and the Limits of Representation", antiTHESIS (Vol 16: March 2006); Melbourne, University of Melbourne Press: p157.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.

### Biography 

Derek Brunen's  work has been exhibited in the United States. Europe, Japan, and Canada with recent solo exhibitions at the Or Gallery, Vancouver (2007) and CSA Space, Vancouver (2005). He has participated in several group exhibitions worldwide at the Sparwasser HQ, Berlin (2005) and the Prince Takamado Gallery, Tokyo (2003). His screenings also have been presented at various sites including the Vancouver Art Gallery (2005), and City TV's *TV Frames*, Vancouver (2002), as well as the FW Digital Film Festival, Toronto (2002). He is a graduate of the Emily Carr Institute (2001) and a former member of the intermission Artists Society (1998-2005). He lives and works in Vancouver.



CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Six windows on the first floor facing Nelson street are all covered by colourful curtains. Some curtains are layered. 

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CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Each of two cream-coloured curtains and one brown curtain covers an entire window. 

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CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Six windows facing Nelson street are all covered by layers of colourful curtains. 

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CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Six windows on the first floor facing Nelson street are all covered by layers of colourful curtains. 

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CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Two of those windows visible in this image are covered with pink, yellow and dark blue curtains. 

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CAG’s window spaces are covered by the fabric installation by Derek Brunen. Two of those windows are covered by yellow and orange curtains. Each curtain has different patterns and textures.

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Blind

Pavel Pepperstein

The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to present the first Canadian exhibition by Russian born artist Pavel Pepperstein. Pepperstein has an eccentric practice in which he mixes painting, drawing and writing to build idiosyncratic iconographies and elaborate chronologies that both reflect a hazy past and predict a fantastic future. His recent series of paintings and drawings, *Landscapes of Future* depicts an absurd timeline of a not so plausible future. Many of the pieces in this body of work link figures of Russian mythology and fairy tales with wings and symbols from critical theory, literature and current politics, creating a bizarrely abstract representation of a society as we know it that hovers between optimism and anxiousness. Pepperstein aptly situates this series within the genre of landscape painting. In general, the individual works either directly incorporate the common tropes of this genre or move toward total abstraction; for example *2388* depicts the year lakes will begin to fly and *3017* abstractly represents the fight between “The All” and “Nothing.” 

### Biography

Pavel Pepperstein (b.1966) lives and works in Moscow. He graduated from the Akademie der Schönen Künste in Prague in 1987, and was a scholarship holder at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart in 1997-98. In 1994 he was guest Professor at Städelschule, Frankfurt a.M. Solo exhibitions in recent years have included shows at Galerie Kamm, Berlin; Sutton Lane, London; Elizabeth Kaufmann, Zurich; as well as Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland and Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Germany; among others.



A small watercolor painting depicting a watery landscape with a bright red square shape in the centre. Faint pencil text is visible at the top of the paper. 

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Unframed colour drawings are exhibited in a gallery space. Five pieces on the walls are visible in this image. They depict organic shapes including waves and some single-celled organisms.

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Nine unframed coloured drawings are mounted on the gallery walls. Eight of them are coloured. All of the pieces depict some creatures including humans and bacterias. 

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Four coloured drawings are mounted on the gallery wall. Two of them are larger than the rest. These large drawings depict geometric shapes including triangles and circles. 

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Six unframed coloured drawings are mounted on the gallery walls. They depict abstract images resembling various seascapes. Various red, blue, and sand colours are used in those drawings.

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Landscapes of Future

Robin Peck

Robin Peck is a renowned Canadian artist and an artist's artist in a genuine sense of the phrase. He has a dedicated sculptural practice that continues to inform and challenge the  exhibition and production of large scale three-dimensional objects. He has also recently published *SCULPTURE, A Journey to the Circumference of the Earth*, a collection of his writings as a study of the philosophy, history and material technology of sculpture within the context of a travel narrative. For his solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Peck will bring together recent works that reference the formal lexicon of sculpture, colliding it with the grand gestures of architecture. Each of the individual works in the exhibition are identical. They are fabricated from the same material, have the exact dimensions and are evenly distributed throughout the gallery. Peck brings them together in an overall composition that reflects the architecture of the gallery while also transforming it into a new frame-like structure.

### Biography

Robin Peck studied Art History at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (1990-1991) and obtained his MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1975). His work has been exhibited in solo shows across Canada and internationally including the Vancouver Art Gallery (1993); Or Gallery, Vancouver (1996); Gallery 25M2, Reykjavik (1997); and Diaz Contemporary, Toronto (2006). Peck has also participated in several group exhibitions at Wynick-Tuck Gallery, Toronto (1997) and Trepanier-Baer Gallery, Calgary (1997). He has recently published *SCULPTURE, A Journey to the Circumference of the Earth*, Broken Jaw Press, 2004. Robin Peck is currently an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Saint Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

A number of rectangular-shaped mirrors are placed in a row on the gallery floor. Bright sunlight is entering the room from the windows placed on the top of the gallery wall. 

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A number of rectangular-shaped mirrors are placed in a row on the gallery floor. This row of mirrors reflects the white gallery ceiling, on which many white fluorescent lights are installed.

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A number of rectangular-shaped mirrors are placed in a row on the gallery floor. In the same gallery space, many white fluorescent lights are installed in rows on the ceiling. 

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Shallow Flight of Stairs

Eli  Langer

Eli  Bornowsky

Kika  Thorne 

Geoffrey Farmer

Holly Ward

Derek  Sullivan

This group exhibition gathers works by six Canadian artists who bring abstraction to the edge of representation. Eli Bornowsky (Vancouver), Eli Langer (Los Angeles), Kika Thorne (Victoria/Toronto), Holly Ward (Vancouver), Geoffrey Farmer (Vancouver), and Derek Sullivan (Toronto) all question the use of abstraction through their own formal explorations. Many of the works directly reference and represent Modernist paradigms. In some ways the works are like caricatures of Modernism, simplifying and exaggerating its familiar and canonized aesthetic concerns. Vivid colours, bold forms, elaborate compositions become tangible objects that relate to intangible ideas, materializing abstract ideas through abstract forms. This investigation into form for form's sake is not to set Modernism up as a foil, but is used to bring out the specific qualities of aesthetic exploration, using form as a viable and particular method to communicate specific ideas.

Eli Bornowsky holds a diploma of Visual Communication: Design and Illustration from the Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton (2001), and a BFA in Visual Arts from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver (2005). Bornowsky has participated in solo exhibitions, *In Advance of the Coffee Table Book. Or Reterritorialized Deterritorializations of a Stream of Consciousness* at the Helen Pitt in Vancouver (2003) and *Great Drinker and Chandelier* at the Lobby gallery in Vancouver (2006 as well as group shows including *Chamomile Testerosa* at the 1066 Project Space in Toronto (2003), *Dept* at the Other Gallery, Banff Centre in Banff (2005), and most recently *Way Crafty* at Blanket Gallery in Vancouver (2006). Bornowsky has also performed at various sites including untitled sound pieces at Blim in Vancouver (2004, 2005), and collaboratively with the Tokyo Orthodox Noise Choir at Studio 80 in Tokyo, Japan (2001). Bornowsky lives and works in Vancouver and is represented by Blanket Gallery, Vancouver where he has an upcoming solo exhibition.

Eli Langer was born in Montreal in 1967.  Langer has been exhibiting both internationally and within Canada, including solo exhibitions at Daniel Hug in Los Angeles (2006), Paul Petro Contemporary Art in Toronto (2005) and Platform in London, UK (1999). He has also participated in various group exhibitions at the Helen Pitt in Vancouver (2001), Ben Kaufmann in Berlin (2006) and Raster in Warsaw (2006). He currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Canada.

Geoffrey Farmer has exhibited widely holding solo exhibitions at The Power Plant in Toronto (2005), the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver (2003) and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (2002).  He has forthcoming exhibitions scheduled at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Montréal in 2008, Witte de With in Rotterdam in 2008 and the Drawing Room in London, UK in 2007. Selected group shows include the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst  in Antwerp, Gasworks in London, Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, Vancouver Art Gallery, Seoul Museum of Art, Melbourne International Biennial and forthcoming at Tate Modern. Farmer lives and works in Vancouver and is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery.  He is currently exhibiting Announcements for Art School at the Chelsea Space in London, UK.

Derek Sullivan was born in Richmond Hill, Canada. He received a BFA from York University in 1999, and an MFA from the University of Guelph in 2001. His work has been featured at the 2004 Toronto International Art Fair, as well The Power Plant in Toronto in 2005. His work has also been shown at ARTFirm, Red Gallery, and YYZ in Toronto, as well as exhibitions in Montreal, Vancouver, Shanghai, Berlin and New York. In 2001, Sullivan was the youngest artist awarded a permanent outdoor sculpture commission for the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre’s Sculpture Park at the University of Guelph. He is completing projects for the Art Gallery of York University and Optica in 2007. Sullivan is currently based in Toronto.

Kika Thorne graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Media Production and Cultural Theory in 1990. For a decade she has made film and video art which spans the super 8 underground, experimental public access television, and mainstream broadcasting. In the late 90s, Thorne participated in the October and February Group actions against the Ontario Conservative government. She has had solo shows at the Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver (2001), Kino Arsenal in Berlin (2003).  Group exhibitions include *A Better Place*, McKenzie Art Gallery (2000); *Substitute City*, The Power Plant (2001); *Zones*, Art Gallery of Hamilton (2003); *25hours*, CCCB, Barcelona (2003); *Metro-Ago-Go*, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2004); *Old Habits Die Hard*, Sparwasser, Berlin + touring (2004-6); and *E-Flux Video*, KW, Berlin (2005-7). Based in Toronto, she is completing her MFA at the University of Victoria.

Holly Ward recently received her MFA from the University of Guelph, Ontario. Ward also holds a BA English degree from the University of New Brunswick, and a BFA Interdisciplinary degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.  Her work has been shown in solo shows across Canada and internationally including the Or Gallery in Vancouver and Oeil Du Poisson in Quebec. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions at the Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto, Art & Idea in Mexico City, and the VTO Gallery in London. Recently, Ward’s work was featured in *Until Then Then* at Western Front in Vancouver, as well as *How Soon is Now* at Western University ARTLAB in London, Ontario. She currently lives and works in Vancouver.

Essay: “Gasoline Rainbows,” Jenifer Papararo

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Various artworks are installed in a gallery space. Six large-sized two-dimensional works are mounted on the gallery walls. A thin tall sculpture covered with cutout papers stands on the floor.  

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Three graphic designed works are mounted on the gallery walls. On each white canvas, an abstract shape is drawn with the combinations of various coloured cells.  

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Three large abstract paintings are installed on the gallery walls. Overall, they are white paintings on which some strokes of tinted blue and light purple colours are drawn.  

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A large mirror is installed on the grey wall outside the Belkind Gallery. A wooden sculpture that looks like a stack of children’s toys is placed in front of that mirror. 

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CAG’s window spaces display some installation works. Various white cutout geometric shapes are installed behind the glass. All of those shapes cast shadows on the white background. 

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Black and pink fabric are installed in a gallery space. They both are stretched to make tent-like shape. Black fabric is suspended from four corners of ceilings, and pink fabric is suspended from four corners of the floor.