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Indepth Arts News:
"One Touch of Nature: An Environmental Artwork Exhibition"
2002-07-06 until 2002-09-29
Gallery 96
Stratford, ON,
CA Canada
One Touch of Nature is the first of what the organizers hope will be an annual
event. Inspired by Shakespeare's quote "One touch of nature makes the
whole world kin," this environmental artwork exhibition is on view on
the grounds of the Discovery Centre, the site of the former Normal
School, adjacent to the Stratford Festival Theatre. The works provide a
number of diverse examples as to the exploration of the relationships
possible between people, nature and art. The artists selected for this
exciting project are varied in their mediums and techniques. Each
contributing artist is well-respected and critically known for their
ongoing commitment to the exploration between environment and art.
Some artists have created new work for the site at Stratford, while
others adapted previous pieces for this project. The creation,
installation and changes (if any!) of these artworks throughout the
duration of this project will be documented on video, in photographs and
digitally. By doing this, the project becomes accessible to a greater
number of people than those who will have the opportunity to visit the
site.
The works on view in One Touch of Nature sometimes directly refer to
Stratford, Shakespeare, and history as well as to the environment. In
doing so, they demonstrate that all of aspects of life and culture can
be interrelated and not separate. The works on view in One Touch of
Nature help us to reclaim that important connection between art,
environment, history and culture.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS (2002)
Napoleon Brousseau, one of the founding members of the FASTWURMS
Collective, has exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums in
Canada, the United States and Europe. His work is represented in the
permanent collections of institutions such as the National Gallery of
Canada, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank, Vancouver
Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Brousseau has created a unique sound sculpture for this exhibition.
With speakers placed selectively around the grounds, motion detectors
will activate recordings of over sixty one-minute clips. These clips
will be recitations of quotes dealing with nature culled from
Shakespeare‚s plays. As one proceeds through the grounds, the trees
will seemingly be breathing Shakespeare‚s words to us ˆ reminding us of
the importance of the natural world as a source and stimulus of
inspiration. The quotes will range from the descriptive to the
metaphoric. In creating this work, Brousseau will effectively be
bringing both Shakespeare's words and the treed grounds to life. The
installation also pays subtle homage to the magical and the mysterious
scenes which are found within Shakespeare‚s works.
Ian Lazarus has been working as a professional artist since 1977. He
has exhibited nationally and internationally. He has created large-scale
earthworks in Canada, United States, Mexico, Greece, Italy, Ireland and
Malaysia. For this project, Lazarus created a unqiue earthwork which
addresses the multi-faceted concept inspired by the layering of
histories and erosion over time. The sculpture does not simulate
history, but rather reflects trace elements of historical evidence left
by time‚s passage. The transience of time is a recurring theme
throughout Lazarus's body of work. The rhythmic movement of his earlier
work was revealed through the slicing and phrasing of space. The ebb and
flow suggested by this, was further developed through the artist
imposing elements of ascent and decline, macro and micro time onto his
work. This interplay of time and process is developed through his
layering and juxtaposition of materials. The completed earthwork
sculpture induces a perceptual shift, alternating our viewpoint
seemingly between macrocosm and microcosm, between the real and the
simulated.
Colm MacCool creates works that have consistently synthesized
dichotomous ideas and philosophies. His seemingly innocuous and/or
playful installations often become parodies of xenophobia,
militarization and consumerism. He deliberately perverts societal
"ideals" to reveal the implausibility of fantasies such as escape,
freedom from persecution, and the possibility of beginning anew in the
Wilderness. In doing so, his work calls into question an individual's
responsibilities for the state of society as a whole. In recent work,
MacCool played with image and perception, creating what look like
enormous ruptured tires out of salvaged tree trunks. These highly
finished sculptures are purposely subversive, referencing environmental
issues, commodification and industrial consumption. A graduate
from the B.F.A. programme at York University, Colm MacCool has exhibited
in many Toronto galleries as well as at the Viridian Gallery in New York
City and was voted Toronto‚s Best Sculptor in Now Magazine‚s Readers‚
Poll (2000). He is employed in the film industry and was nominated for
the Art Direction Award at the Yorkton Film Festival in 1998 for his
work on "The Cellar" produced by "Incriminating Pictures". His
exhibition Black Toys garnered much critical and curatorial acclaim.
Janet Morton graduated from the Visual Arts programme at York
University, Toronto, in 1990. Since 1989 she has exhibited extensively
in group and solo exhibitions in public galleries and artist-run centres
in Canada. These exhibitions include Naked State - A Seclected View of
Toronto Art, curated by Phillip Monk for the Power Plant, Toronto
(1994). A catalogue accompanied her solo exhibition wool work last year
at the Museum for Textiles, Toronto. The recipient of numerous grants
and artistic awards, Morton is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary
Art. Morton frequently creates work which transforms something
commonplace into something unique and original. Past examples include a
tea cozy which covers a small house on Toronto Island; woolen work socks
become dozens of "maple" leafs and in turn these leaves become letters
in a poetic language invented by the artist. Morton consistently and
continually invests the mundane and the ordinary with an element of
transcendence. In keeping with the theme of theatre and Shakespeare,
Morton will be "dressing" a tree. In effect she creates a covering, a
costume for a large pine tree in order to disguise it as a birch tree.
The resulting work will cause the viewer to question his or her
perception - what kind of tree is that? What am I seeing? Is this real?
It also acts as a gentle reminder that much of the natural world has
been transformed or disguised by the industrial urban world built upon
it. This kind of installation insists that the viewer actually "look"
at what s/he is seeing rather than what one expects to see.
Tina Poplawski attended the Fine Arts programme at York University in
the 1990s and the New School of Art in the 1970s. An active artist,
Tina Poplawski's work can be found in the collections of Topix Computer
Graphics & Animation Inc., Allen Smart Services, Scorpion Minerals and
Wirral Manufacturing. She has exhibited in Ontario, Quebec and New York
with shows at such galleries as Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant, York
Quay Centre, The Art Gallery of Mississauga, John B. Aird Gallery, The
Ward-Nasse Gallery (New York) and Salle Augustin-Cenier (Quebec). Her
work will be featured with Aganetha Dyck in Swarm which takes place at
the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery this summer. Poplawksi is creating
a new work for this project. Titled Cold Comfort Poplawski‚s work draws
upon the themes of her earlier exhibition Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
which dealt with memory and imagination, particularly the preservation
of memories of events that were not, or could not be spoken of.
Poplawski's materials often include pulped paper, graphite, wood ash
collected from camp sites, botanical matter, beads and other human-made
objects in the work, such as Monopoly tokens. Cold Comfort presents the
viewer with a veritable waking dream scene with dozens of frozen pink
snowflakes cascading down upon a doll‚s cradle in the middle of the
grounds. Like many of Shakespeare's fantastical scenes, Cold Comfort
becomes a metaphoric symbol for states of being. Poplawski's work
refers to the passage of time. The small cradle represents the hopes
and dreams of the child which represent nature and innocence. The
frozen snowflakes juxtaposed against the living tree remind us of the
progress of time with the passage of seasons. All life must follow the
cycle of birth, death and renewal. Cold Comfort is a contemporary
exhortation to the viewer to sieze the day - carpe dieum.
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