Published as part of the exhibition *As the sun disappears and the shadows descend from the mountaintop*.

thumbnail_Loneliest Loneliness by Kathy Slade.jpg

Loneliest Loneliness by Kathy Slade.jpg

Loneliest Loneliness

Kathy Slade

For over three decades, Kathy Slade has produced conceptually driven work that engages techniques of copying, repetition and reenactment, often coalescing in materially sumptuous objects. In her wide-ranging interdisciplinary practice, Slade inhabits sources from literature, art history, philosophy, and popular culture, weaving her references into absurd and frequently playful loops and voids.
 
At the Contemporary Art Gallery, Slade presents *As the sun disappears and the shadows descend from the mountaintop*, a new body of work rooted in a research trip to Sils Maria, Switzerland, where Friedrich Nietzsche spent the majority of his summers during the decade he wrote his most enduring works. There, Slade retraced the philosopher’s steps along the shore of Lake Silvaplana, where upon encountering a large, pyramid-shaped rock he arrived at what he called “my truly abyssal thought”: eternal recurrence, “the unconditional and infinitely repeated circulation of all things.” In the exhibition, Slade reimagines Nietzsche’s encounter in two depictions: an enormous tapestry representing the rock to scale, and a series of graphite rubbings that maps the entirety of the rock’s surface over twenty monochromes.

#### Biography
Kathy Slade (b. 1966, Montreal) is an artist, writer, curator, editor, and publisher. She works across mediums and has produced textile works, prints, sculpture, film, video, performance, music projects, and publications. Slade’s solo exhibitions include *Wherever You Go*, Monica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver (2020); *This is a Chord. This is Another.*, Surrey Art Gallery (2018); and *Blue Monday*, 4COSE, London (2017). Her work has recently been included in group exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin; Kunstverein Braunschweig; Fluc, Vienna; and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver. In 2009, Slade was awarded the VIVA Award from the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts. She currently teaches at the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University.


Reading the Rock - Kathy Slade and Lisa Robertson in Conversation

CAG_WinterProgramGuide_P1- Web file.pdf

CAG_KathySlade_ExhibitionGuide_LargePrint_D1- Web file.pdf

CAG_KathySlade_ExhibitionGuide_RegularPrint_D1- Web file.pdf

A black and white photograph depicting a large triangle-shaped stone on the shore of a lake, with mountains faintly visible in the background.

thumbnail_rockNietzsche.jpg

rockNietzsche.jpg

A very large tapestry by Kathy Slade depicting a large rock, visible in a gallery behind a title wall showing the exhibition's title and artist's name.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 01.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 01.jpg

A frontal photo of a very large tapestry by Kathy Slade depicting a large rock, suspended from the ceiling in front of a white wall. 

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 02.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 02.jpg

A thin artist book by Kathy Slade lying closed on a white plinth, in front of a white wall with a small, black framed mirror slightly to the right of the plinth.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 07.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 07.jpg

A framed black mirror by Kathy Slade reflecting a tapestry depicting a large rock.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 08.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 08.jpg

A thin artist book by Kathy Slade lying closed on a white plinth, with the title Loneliest Loneliness visible on the cover.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 10.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 10.jpg

A thin artist book on a white plinth. A pair of hands hold a page open to show a black and white photograph of a large rock and its reflection in a lake.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 11.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 11.jpg

A thin artist book on a white plinth. A pair of hands hold a page open to show facing pages with abstract grey texture printed allover.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 12.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 12.jpg

Graphite rubbings on rectangular sheets of paper arranged in a row around a corner in a room with white walls.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 13.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 13.jpg

A frontal photo of five graphite rubbings on rectangular sheets of paper arranged in a row on a white wall.

thumbnail_Kathy Slade 2023 14.jpg

Kathy Slade 2023 14.jpg

As the sun disappears and the shadows descend from the mountaintop

Kathy Slade’s Love Poem is made in homage to Michael Joseph Phillips’ *Graph of an Affair*, published in 1972. Slade’s attempts to recreate Phillips’ concrete poem were written on a Smith-Corona Skywriter manual typewriter with a faulty ribbon return and a tendency to jam. Each attempt here to complete the triangle of text has failed in a slightly different way.


thumbnail_Love Poem by Kathy Slade.jpg

Love Poem by Kathy Slade.jpg

Love Poem

Kathy Slade undertook a 52-week performance, beginning in September 2006, resulting in a unique bookwork. Once a week, on an appointed day and time, she visited the Vancouver Public Library to choose and borrow a book. Each transaction receipt, which clearly states the date, time and book title, was digitally scanned and saved. Because the receipts are printed on thermal paper, they will slowly fade. At the end of the year, these documents from the performance were assembled into an artists’ book that was donated to the Vancouver Public Library Special Collections.

Kathy Slade

Related