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Indepth Arts News:
"Getting It Together in the Country: Rodney Graham"
2000-11-04 until 2000-12-14
Presentation House Gallery
North Vancouver, BC,
CA
Rodney Graham’s first exhibition in Vancouver since 1996 will present three very recent
works and an early photographic project. In all, Graham’s quiet wit is at play. In the two
major works, which investigate mythic themes from the cinema, the artist once again
steps into the lead role.
The large photo diptych, Fishing on a Jetty, is -to use
the artist’s words- a not-too-scrupulous reconstruction of a shot in Alfred Hitchcock’s
To Catch a Thief, wherein Cary Grant (here played by me), hiding from the police
who suspect him of a series of jewel robberies on the French Riviera, disguises
himself with a hat and sunglasses and pretends to be a sports fisherman.
How I became a Ramblin’ Man, a video projection work, has Graham as singing
cowboy meandering across a British Columbian range. It’s like a classic western: the
narrative is in place and the composition and framing seem to be taken right out of
John Ford’s The Searchers. The protagonist radiates the modest decency of Jimmy
Stewart’s character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and the easy
self-confidence of Johnny Guitar. . . The video is idyllic, dreamy and patient, with none of
the draw-at-high-noon angst normally associated with the genre (Jan Estep, New Art
Examiner).
Rodney Graham was born in Matsqui, British Columbia, in 1949. He studied art history
at the University of British Columbia from 1968 to 1971, and at Simon Fraser University
in Vancouver from 1978 to 1979. Graham has been included in numerous important
international exhibitions and his piece Vexation Island represented Canada at the
Venice Biennale in 1997.
Rodney Graham lives and works in Vancouver. The exhibition is supported by the
Canada Council for the Arts.
IMAGE:
Rodney Graham 2000,
still from How I became a Ramblin’ Man
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