UNDERTHESUN is an artist publication by Roy Arden, produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery in 2011 as part of his solo exhibition, UNDERTHESUN at the Contemporary Art Gallery, January 28 – March 27, 2011.

The publication documents the majority of the nearly one hundred works on view. It serves as a representation and record of the exhibition, as well as providing the artist with an opportunity to formally reconsider the excess of images, his reasons for selecting them and their relational context.

Mimicking commercial advertising layouts, Arden’s design is a cacophony of colour and image. The publication has a refined newspaper-like quality. Printed on large broadsheets folded down to loose sheets, each page opens into individual collage posters.


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UNDERTHESUN

Roy Arden

The colloquialism of Roy Arden’s exhibition title *UNDERTHESUN* suggests open-ended generosity. It may imply the act of finding one’s place, it can also, quite simply and implausibly conjure “everything.” Arden’s dense installation of nearly one hundred works, comprising broken antique toys, rusted objects, spinning sculptures, loud horns, colourful palettes, and graphic imagery, gives the exhibition a carnivalesque atmosphere, and the dynamism collectively draws a history that is at once playful and welcoming yet foiled by a cool elusiveness and criticality.

From intimate handmade collage to large-scale kinetic sculptures, Arden chronicles the progression and effects of modernity. Beginning with images and materials from his extensive digital and print library, Arden extracts a seemingly unsystematic selection: a short newspaper article of a domestic break-in is rescaled into a pencil drawing, the covers of out-of-date and small print-run books are painted, found and aged materials become assemblages on wheels. Yet the ostensibly diverse works are linked by lines and repetitions that provide crucial clues to our understanding of social and economic history, beginning with the industrial revolution. Depictions of technological advancements in textile and transport industries may simultaneously signify progress as well as the deteriorating conditions of workers; a reiteration of a mid-twentieth century illustration comically signals the machines domination over man as well as female liberation. *UNDERTHESUN* is a multifaceted compilation of works that combine to speak of a focused search to discover manifold causes of our present condition through relentless digging, quotation and reinterpretation.

Arden is well-known for his austere photographs depicting transformative effects on Vancouver's cityscape and its surroundings. As such this comprehensive exhibition at the CAG may seem a departure, but he has always performed a parallel combing of the larger image world. In the 1980s Arden produced a body of work that employed historical photographs to explore the social history of BC. Recently he has returned to working with found images in video, online works, drawings, sculpture, paintings, paper and digital collage, which continues his broader artistic interests.

This exhibition was sponsored by The Hamber Foundation.

### Biography

Roy Arden studied at the Vancouver School of Art and received an MFA from the University of British Columbia in 1990. Although best known for his photographic work, Arden’s artistic practice is multi-disciplinary, including collage, painting, sculpture, and video. Over the past three decades, Arden has exhibited extensively across Canada, as well as internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include *I Can Only Give You Everything*, Richard Telles, Los Angeles (2010); *People of British Columbia*, Monte Clark, Vancouver (2009);  *Roy Arden (Selected Works 1981-2007)*, Vancouver Art Gallery (2007); *Always the Sun*, Galerie Tanit, Munich (2006); and *Roy Arden (Selected Works 1985-2000)*, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2006). Arden lives and works in Vancouver. Arden is represented by Monte Clark Gallery, Vancouver, Clark & Faria, Toronto and Richard Telles, Los Angeles.



A collage of cut and pasted photographs on a red background; a sunset, black and white images of a couple, people lying on a beach, and a person in a suit all overtop of an image of a gallery space.

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Various artworks are installed in the corner of a gallery. Multiple two-dimensional works of different sizes cover the walls behind a large-scale sculpture installation resembling a cart.

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Multiple two-dimensional works of different sizes are mounted on gallery walls behind a large-scale sculpture resembling a wind wheel. The wheel is attached to a bicycle and moves as a person pedals.

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Artworks installed in a gallery. A sculpture of rusted wheels hangs from the ceiling. Behind it are large sculptures resembling a cart and a wind wheel along with many two-dimensional works on the walls.

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Multiple artworks by Roy Arden are installed in a gallery. Three, large multimedia sculptures occupy the gallery floor while various two-dimensional works cover the walls surrounding the sculptures.

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Detail image of an installation by Roy Arden. In this image, the top part of a white bike is visible below two graphic design works mounted on the wall; one is blue and the other is red.

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Various artworks are installed in the corner of a gallery. Framed drawings and photo-collage pieces are mounted on the walls behind a small-scale multimedia sculpture on a pedestal.

Roy Arden

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