Readings is an exhibition o
f new work by emerging Vancouver artists Anna Marie Repstock and Casey Wei.
Romantic ideals associated with painting and writing are examined in works
that highlight the artists' shared interest in the philosophical relations
hip between painting\, poetry and contemporary art.
Co llapsing representation and abstraction\, Repstock's paintings draw upon th e history of hard edged abstraction and conceptual\, procedural painting. W hile the paintings are recognizable as replicas of lined papers\, and are s uggestive of reading and writing\, the colored rays that breach them are le ss easily readable. As abstract and poetic forms\, these rays address the s pace where readability yields to poetic abstraction.
Wei plays with t he visual and aural qualities of typewriting. She investigates the relation ship of words with imagery and\, like Repstock\, she privileges careful and labor intensive processes. The Past is Better Left a Bone\, b logs from 1998-2008 is a papier mache sculpture constructed from print ed\, shredded blog entries. The addition of a sound recording of typing enh ances the romanticism of the writing process.
Readings negot iates the relationship between language and visual language\, between the f irst look and the close reading.