Opens Thursday\, July 24\, 2014\, 7-9 pm. To August 23\, 2014.
Saturday 1 - 5PM • Tuesday 6 - 9PM
ARTISTS : asianpunkboy (Terence Koh)\, Keith Cole\, Todd Evanger\, Brendan Fernandes\, Eve Fowler\, Paul de Guzman\, Jeffrey Hallbauer\, Luis Jacob\, Attila Richard Lukacs\, Will Munro and Patryk Stasieczek
The use of text has been a significant feature of artists’ practices over the past century. Within the gay community\, language has functioned as a syste m of binding people to overcome the days when homosexuality was deemed\, du ring Oscar Wilde’s lifetime\, the love that dare not speak its name. This e xhibition intends to explore the ways in which contemporary gay artists hav e used language in their art to explore their identity.
Playful manip ulation of language is demonstrated in Luis Jacob’s work\, a print derived from the action of him kissing a sheet of paper\, a la Joyce Weilland\, whi le singing the disco funk anthem\, Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Re al)”. Keith Cole marries text and visual in collages derived from mass medi a and advertising as he draws upon popular culture.
Text can be immed iate\, and billboards and signage exemplify the commercial world\, as demon strated by the poster work of the late Toronto-based artist\, Will Munro. M unro was one of Toronto’s most active promoters of queer culture over the p ast decade\, and brought to Toronto such legendary music performers as The Hidden Cameras\, Nina Hagen\, Peaches\, among others. His work with monthl y events Vazaleen Peroxide\, NoT.O. and Moustache yielded an astonishing am ount of artist multiples\; especially noteworthy is his work with silkscree n posters\, produced in the collectively run Punchclock Studio.
In pa rallel\, Los Angeles-based Eve Fowler took poetic licence with the early wo rk of famed lesbian Gertrude Stein\, Tender Buttons\, by working with now d efunct commercial LA printer\, Colby Press\, to create signage which visual ly reference ubiquitous commercial signs posted on buildings and electrical poles throughout the city\, while communicating information that is arguab ly non-immediate.
In a deeply personal work called dear folks\, Todd Evanger mines meaning from a collection of handwritten letters\, signed by the artist’s father\, sent from the Boundary Lake oil field to Marsden\, Sa skatchewan\, during the 1970s. In a different way\, the narrative possibili ties of text appeals to Jeffrey Hallbauer in a skillful watercolour that in vestigates the image-conscious element of gay culture that binds and divide s it. Patryk Stasieczek’s photographic work\, I Am You\, all crumpled destr uction and chromatic exposure as a form of conceptual engagement with the m aterial process\, poses a thoughtful philosophical response.
Artists have also looked at words as graphic signs in their own right. Terence Koh\ , as his early alias\, asianpunkboy\, created a text piece carved on painte d metal called No Sissy Gays that employs a sensitive phrase as a method of an oppressed person reclaiming language.
Paul de Guzman’s new slides how titled i need you investigates the phenomenon of mass communication of private desire\, often closeted and hidden\, on game-changing technology\, Craigslist. He explores visual alliteration by entwining Craigslist M2M pe rsonal ads with deftly-chosen\, phallicly-inspired architecture. The slide show will be available on the internet during the exhibition dates at https://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=tdXoRsMoZJ0 and is best viewed using full screen settings at high definition with audio. Due to the sexually explicit text used in this sli deshow\, some parts may prove objectionable to some viewers. Viewer discre tion is advised.
Attila Richard Lukacs’ explicit references to homoer otic sexuality in his paintings have often shocked galleries and the public . In a series of pure-text paintings\, the inscribed text are both literal and resonant to those who have experienced the thrilling facets of dom / su b relationships.
Artists have\, of course\, also looked to language f or its poetic impact and literary resonances. Like Eve Fowler\, Brendan Fer nandes’ text on wall contribution draws upon the daddy mentor / young mente e relationships illustrated in Plato’s Symposium and references his newest sculptural and recent performative dance work that looks at the intimate re lation between embodiment and identity.
In all these cases\, the open ness\, ambiguity and power of language has offered these artists the means to suggest\, instruct\, provoke\, urge and compel the viewer to explore the multivalent and complex realms of gay existence in contemporary life beyon d gallery walls. During this season of Pride spectacles\, it’s thought prov oking\, but nothing strange.
LOCATION:WAAPART GEO:49.266872;-123.098269 URL;VALUE=URI:https://ahva.ubc.ca/events/event/a-spectacle-and-nothing-stra nge/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ahva.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2021/05/1312.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20140309T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR