ufv bfa grad exhibition 2011
a
ll of our lives are connected by the fact that they will one day end. Death is the one barrier that we as humans have been unable to curb, and remains the most unifying aspect of our individual lives.
Despite this, the end of the corporeal substance is only the most definite death that we can point to in our collective and subjective experience. Our lives encompass countless deaths every day – the death of cells in our body, the death of memories, the death of remembrance of a given time or place. A defining aspect of our modern Western societies is our proficiency at manufacturing means by which we attempt to ignore the fact of our mortality. By immersing ourselves in memory, by building monuments to our passing, by accident or design, we figuratively and literally leave pieces of ourselves behind every day. Some are tiny pieces that are lost as soon as they are discarded, some capture the attention on one, many or possibly millions, and some live in the hearts of friends, lovers, family and passers-by for years. Leave Your Skin At The Door is an attempt to document this process; it is an elegant, direct, slow-burning and emotional show that is innately human at its core. The many and varied pieces within depict facets of humanity that are universal and intensely personal, and the questions it poses are far-reaching and ambitious, yet succinct: What is death? When does life end and death begin? What is memory and how can it be captured? What do we do – and what can we do – to stop this procession towards death? In the same way that the individual life makes more sense when placed in its societal context, this show is more than the sum of its considerable parts. The pieces individually and collectively take the uniquely individual and the demonstrably universal and utilises them to depict a remarkable insight into the inner, outer and in-between machinations of human relationships, fears, memories and death. Leave Your Skin At The Door takes eternal themes and makes them immediate, fresh and urgent, and it will hold a mirror up to your life that may lead you to assess your very existence. Just don’t forget your skin on the way out.
Paul E. Brammer April 2011
hannah bennett rebekah brackett michelle carlson warren davis scott douglas carla miller sandy moulton amy powers parker reid melanie rogers haley smith
“
dip
into the
sea,
the sea of
possibilities.
“
— patti smith
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leave your skin at the door
hannah bennett ........................................................................................ A Time for Everything
Mixed Media | Installation | 2011
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Time for Everything is a sculpture installation which is concerned with the collection of memories, the gathering of experience and the passage of time. The use of vintage, hard-shelled suitcases with their connotations of a personal past and personal ‘baggage’ set up a nostalgic matrix onto which projected images of everyday people are cast. The projections are created by setting up slide projectors in front of open suitcases placed on the floor. The wires and other parts of the analogue equipment spread freely, connecting the cases and the humming projectors. The smell and heat emitted by the burning bulbs is an integral part of
this installation as well as the use of low lighting within the gallery space. By integrating elements that interact with more than one sense, the installation creates an environment steeped in nostalgia for what has passed and for what will inevitably come to pass. The colour, shape and texture of the fabric lining inside the suitcases creates a non-neutral base onto which the projections are cast. Shaped like caskets, these cases and their linings allude to death, and this sense of loss seeps into the unknown narratives of the projected images.
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hannah bennett ............................................................... Memoranda
Digital Print | 22� x 30� | 2011
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n this series memory is expressed through layering and collaging images of everyday materials and paper ephemera. Coloured and patterned paper, ink and chalks are used to build-up the surface of large digital prints, representing the layering of memories. Recent memories tend to distort and obscure those from an earlier time. Rather like looking into a still pool, the viewer can recognize imagery at various depths.
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leave your skin at the door
“ forgetting
the existence of has never been proven.
we only know that some things
don’t come to mind when we them.
want
“
— Friedrich Nietzsche
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hannah bennett ........................................................................ Canadian Landscapes 1-9 Acrylic paint | 9’ x 12’ | 2011
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t
his series of works is concerned with the materiality and directness of mark-making as well as evoking the tradition of landscape painting in Canada. This series began with the creation of many small coloured chalk drawings that were used as thumbnails for the larger paintings. The work distils the components of a ‘landscape’ down to basic shapes and colours, highlighting the fact that a landscape painting is made up of materials of representation: pigment, gesture and ground as opposed to earth, water, clouds and sky. The intention of these works set up a dialogue between reality and the abstracted/ re-presented images that sits within the gallery.
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leave your skin at the door
“ breathe
i like a canvas to
alive. point. and be
be alive is the
and, as the limitations are something called
pigment & canvas, let`s see if i can do it
“
— Lee Krasner
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Rebekah Brackett .................................................................................... The Bridge
Ink, watercolour & polystyrene | Installation | 2011
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his series of ink and watercolour drawings encapsulates the research, design, and construction of the iconic Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. Having studied Hart Cranes poem, ‘To Brooklyn Bridge’, I have gathered information regarding the psychological, literary, symbolic and personal aspects of the Lions Gate Bridge and have infused his romantic approach conceptually in the drawings and paintings. The installation of the frames echoes the drawings of the bridge itself – supporting the research for this particular bridge. Through this series, I am questioning the symbolism and the notion of transition, which can awaken a state of anxiety on a subconscious level.
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leave your skin at the door
The bridge may also symbolically resonate with the uncertainties of life. Personally, this aspect of transition is particularly meaningful for me as I reach the end of my undergraduate studies.
o
“
sleepless as the river under thee,
vaulting the sea, the prairies’
dreaming sod, unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend and of the curveship lend
a myth to
“
god
— Hart crane
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Rebekah Brackett .................................................................................... 26 Conversations (and then some)
Pen and ink on paper | 8.5” x 10” | 2011
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Conversations (and then some) is a compilation of individual pages of conversations recalled from memory in the style of panels, collectively a graphic novel printed and drawn with pen and ink. I have randomly selected conversations that I’ve had throughout my life that, for some reason or another, have stayed in my memory. Through the use of imagery and text I am looking between the subconscious and the conscious state, to select certain segments of conversations that I’ve had. Though these conversations may seem to have little connection, I am questioning the process of selective memory and why we retain such seemingly random thoughts.
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leave your skin at the door
you can do
“
anything
with words and pictures.
there is
no limit to what
what kind of
order you put ‘em in or
illustration you use.
it’s not the fault of comics. i have
access to the same choice of words as
shakespheare
“
— harvey pekar
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michelle carlson .................................................................. Passage
Acrylic on salvaged doors 20.75” x 74” | 24” x 70.5” | 28” x 74” | 2011
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he domestic interior is imbued with human presence. Often, a personal connection is formed between a house and its inhabitants; it is a repository of belongings, memories, aspirations and records. An abandoned home wrought with decay and neglect may signify a sense of loss and unfulfilled dreams. Images such as these act as a metaphor for any number of life’s transitions such as changing careers, growing a family, or enduring financial hardship. They may even symbolize the experiencing of declining health or the passing of a life. For human existence is constantly in flux—metamorphosing and transforming—in which the means of passage could very possibly be as simple as a door.
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leave your skin at the door
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michelle carlson .............................................................................. Beings Without Bodies
Gauze, thread, fabric starch, tea | 34” x 9” x 9” | 2011
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lothing is an appropriate medium with which to explore the inevitability of human mortality. Most importantly, it is a vital component in funerary rituals all over the world. For some cultures, it is customary for the deceased to be buried in extravagant cloth, ensuring that their soul will be granted access into the afterlife. For others, it is common for the bereaved to dress in a specific colour, sometimes for extended periods, as a way of publicly announcing their personal loss. As part of our everyday existence, however, an individual’s garments act as an interface between their private and public image. Clothing may communicate one’s personality, social status, and occupation, embodying a person’s identity. With the application of semi-transparent clothing, I am creating a space in limbo, located somewhere between the materiality of the garments and that of human absence. This is a feeling that may be familiar to those who have experienced loss. During this process, many individuals find consolation in the belief of a non-physical self that exists apart from the corporeal body, and this piece invites such contemplation.
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leave your skin at the door
what is it’s like
“
soul?
electricity-
we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.
—
“
ray charles
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michelle carlson ................................................................................... Human Remains
RC print | 25� x 36� | 2011
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i
mprints of decaying, transparent clothing function as a trace or a remnant — fossils that speak to the existence of life from a previous era. When we bear witness to these past lives, personal connections, narratives, and memories can percolate through our senses, evoking feelings of loss, longing or perhaps regret.
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leave your skin at the door
“
history
with its
flickering lamp
stumbles along the trail of the trying to reconstruct
past,
its scenes, to
revive
its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the
passion
of former days.
“
— Winston Churchill
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“
at any rate, nothing just of everything that disappears there remains traces.
vanishes;
the problem is what remains when everything has
disappeared.
it’s a bit like
lewis carroll’s
cheshire cat...
a cat’s grin is already something terryifying,
but the grin
without
“
the cat...
— Jean Baudrillard
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leave your skin at the door
scott dougl as ................................................................................... corridor_01 / farm_01
Pigmented ink on archival paper | 23” x 35” | 2011
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ear is a natural response to threats in our environment. It is an instinct that has kept us safe from dangers in our primal past. From infancy to death, we are genetically programmed to feel fear. Taking visual information from our environment, our brain assesses and responds accordingly to ensure our personal survival. There are many different layers and interpretations of how and why we fear certain things. The fear of the unknown often leads to a projection onto a figure that is alien to our perception. This alien, or rather ‘the other’, is a concept, situation, or figure that we cannot understand or empathise with. French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, briefly discusses
this fear through referencing the disappearance of the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland which leaves nothing but a ghost, a narcissistic grin still hanging in its place. With a subject’s rational thought disappearing, Baudrillard describes an entity that remains, a mindless irrational resemblance to the subject. Sigmund Freud talks about the aesthetics of the disturbing, including the ‘other’, in his concept of “The Uncanny”, a subtle event of finding something familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time.
areas, uncanny figures stand to confront or observe the viewer that has entered a space that is as empty as the figures themselves. I strive for the creation of something that is not just an image but a presence, something that haunts the space. Through understanding emptiness and irrationality, I will continue to sculpt my imagery to become the eerie presence that lingers and unnerves all that see it.
I seek structures that are empty, purely functional and mechanical without human presence – a rotting world that is not meant for our eyes. In these
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the
“ “
end itself has disappeared
— Jean Baurdrillard
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leave your skin at the door
sandy moulton ................................................................................................ Free Floating Hostility
Lino cut prints on canvas, sculpted frames cast in polyurethane rubberliquid latex, paper and acrylic painting | 5” x 7” | 2011
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t
hese pieces investigate aspects of the human heart focusing on the psychological and the social influences that trigger negative self-talk and defeatist attitudes. The physicality of the heart is affected by these emotional perceptions. The black polyurethane rubber of the frames, signify loss and suffering or as Curtis White states in The Barbaric Heart that “tragically we have become eager participants in our own defeat, slaves to our own destruction.” When people become aware of their mortality, they tend to search for deeper meanings within themselves in the attempt to understand the complexities of their past and the worth of their presence. This work reflects how the heart can grow into a distressed state over the ideals of love and romance.
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carla miller .................................................................................... Soap Sculpture
Soap, hair, fingernails and bone | Installation | 2011
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n relation to the living human body, filth is produced when substances become detached from it. This includes secretions such as saliva or blood and solid materials such as hair, fingernails or dead skin cells. After death the entire corpse is considered unclean. It appears that filth is not created because a substance has crossed the boundary between the body and the outside world, but rather the boundary between the living and the dead. The meaning of filth is varied. It defines the dirty, unclean, gross, offensive, and impure. Corpses are feared for the belief that they will spread disease. There also exists the need to spiritually purify the deceased body as well as the living who have come into contact with the dead, as is evident in the vast number of cleansing rituals that exist globally. It appears that there is something inherently filthy about death, regardless of whether the term is being used to define the diseased or the evil. By combining soap with biological materials this installation questions the origin of these beliefs and practices by essentially skewing the boundary between filth and cleanliness.
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leave your skin at the door
filth
“
is not a quality in itself,
but applies only to
what relates to a
boundary
and, more particularly,
represents the object
jettisoned out of that boundary,
its other side, a
“
margin.
— Julia Kristeva
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amy powers ................................................................................... Without Words
Oil paintings | 24” x 30” | 2011 | Photographic emulsion on canvas, plexiglass, zinc, wood panel, and ceramic tile | 48.5” x 42.5” | 2011
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aking art is an act of expression; it is the unleashing of one’s inner self, a physical manifestation of private thoughts and emotions through which viewer can catch a glimpse of the way in which the artist perceives the world. This is intriguing because perception is an isolated experience, ordinarily confined to the mind of the perceiver. It is this subjectivity of perception which continues to influence my work. One’s sense of self is affected by the way in which one perceives the world. Yet the way the world is viewed differs for each and every individual. The minds of others become like blind spots while the individual peers egocentrically at the world. My work approaches these ideas with a philosophical sense of awe inspired by an episode of the CBC podcast “Ideas” with producer Frank Faulk, who muses over the ineffable, that
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leave your skin at the door
which cannot be expressed with words. Faulk believes the sense of the ineffable is as common as sight. Since art is predominantly visual, it follows then that my sense of the ineffable might best be captured with art. Through an intuitive process of layering paint and stylistic line work, the abstract paintings reveal the way in which one’s inner reality influences one’s outlook. Offsetting the abstract nature of the paintings, layered photographic representations of cityscapes printed on various materials are intended to dwarf the overwhelming sense of inner self. The cityscapes serve as reminders of how isolating perception can be, and beyond that is a vast world which can diminish one’s sense of self-importance.
“
abstract pictures are
fictive models because
they make
visible
a reality that we can neither see nor describe,
but whose existence
“
we can
postulate.
— Gerhard Richter
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parker reid ................................................................................... Painting title 1-5
Oil and acryilic on canvas | 3’ x 4’ | 2011
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ostalgia is an inevitable experience that occurs when one is self reflective of the past, usually longing for a lost feeling, experience or event. When my own nostalgic memories are critically analyzed, I discover the experiences to be hazy, avoiding any linear narratives. The emotional resonance is vivid but the visual surface is layered and out of focus. Without the longing to recall moments from the past, the image that constructs familiar faces, locations, or even random thoughts diminishes over time.
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leave your skin at the door
This series of paintings explore the details that disintegrate in the attempt to recall particular facial features of individuals I have known. Time and age also play a role in the act of portraying nostalgia onto a two dimensional surface. Through this process, questions are raised about the longevity of a nostalgic thought and how and how itaddresses our fears and unknown desires, if at all.
“
when one person, for whatever reason, has a chance to
lead an exceptional
life,
he has no right to keep it to himself.
“
— Jacques Cousteau
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i
“ dreams.
lost myself in the
path of
i don`t know
who i am, where to go, i don`t know
sometime, somewhere,
i should retrace my way,
“
but there is no hurry.
— Germain St-Onge
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leave your skin at the door
melanie rogers ................................................................................... The Irrational Body
Digital Prints | 2’ x 3’ | 2011
................................................................................... We are not invincible, bulletproof, impassable, or firm. Bones break disintegrate, diminish and burn. Skin tears, ruptures, bruises and weeps, invincible is the mind with irrational belief.
For Death is swift, abrupt, sudden and sweet, Not unaware, aloof, blinded or discreet. So vital, conscious, alive is the human, Unaware of the Death that tip-toes behind them.
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haley smith ................................................................................... Catharsis
Acrylic Painting & Mixed Media | 5’ x 10’ | 2011
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or Catharsis there is a desire to show intimate spaces in the human body unseen until parts of it have gone awry. On a personal level, this subject matter has affected members of my family and has impacted my life much more than I could ever have imagined. To discuss a difficult illness like Crohn’s Disease is to empathize with the pain of the other and to comprehend the intricate model of the human body. By rendering the colonoscopy stills through an abstract painterly style, the moment of the inactive or active diseased tissues are adequately exposed, symbolizing either a state of repulsion or intrigue. To cleanse and purge is to express my own emotions associated in the past that have not been adequately acknowledged. Surroundings are often blurred and distorted; uncomfortable memories are repressed. Only when the taboo is shed can the prejudices of this disease be understood. Ultimately, the work addresses a desire to transform this incurable condition into something with which to be at peace, thus, embracing this painful disease to the point that it becomes bearable.
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leave your skin at the door
“ “
the only time i feel alive is when i am painting — andy warhol
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warren davis 1955 — 2010
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eginning with a fog of algebraic equations and a personal interest in relative explanations of our interdependent reality, I thought to play with a Quantum Mechanic equation and use its clinical abstractive design as a jump to form images. What is most important to me is the integrity of the image and I found it difficult to stay within the prerequisite boundaries I had set for myself. Numbers and mathematical symbols do not lend themselves easily to me as creative images but I imagined the possibility of those symbols rebounded as an emotional figurative image containing the gist of the equation. The work was to be as spontaneous as possible while being tacked to the severity of algebraic motifs which describe how suggestion affects possibility, and how a single action creates infinite realities.
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leave your skin at the door
untitled
acrylic on canvas | 2’ x 2’ | 2008
untitled
acrylic on canvas | 4’ x 4’ | 2009
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acknowledgements We are indebted to many people for this exhibition. First, this show would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of the UFV Student Union Society. This is the third year SUS has supported the BFA Grad Show, and we gratefully honour their commitment towards making this event a success. We also wish to acknowledge the sponsorship of the UFV Alumni Association. Your assistance and role in promoting the exhibition has been of enormous value, and for this we thank you. To the numerous organizations and local businesses, we are deeply grateful for your contributions to the fundraising of this event. Without your support for the students’ work here in the Visual Arts Department, the Fraser Valley community would not benefit from this rich, cultural exchange celebrating the arts and the creative talents of these graduates. To the University of the Fraser Valley, and to the faculty and support staff of the Visual Arts Department in particular, your selfless dedication to the success of this exhibition has been invaluable; thank you. Lastly, to all the individuals, including family and friends, whose expertise is manifested in many aspects of this exhibition, we wholeheartedly express our gratitude for your unwavering support.
— BFA Grad Committee
.................................................. Best Buy (David Collier) The Cheaper Show CIVL Radio Chilliwack Arts Council Chilliwack Cultural Centre Everything Wine BC Pest Control (Grace Van) Greendale Pottery Meadow Gardens (Frank Asin) Mission Springs Brewing Company Opus Framing & Art Supplies (Langley) Scott Meadus -The Huber Meadus Group Safeway (Ocean Park) Schellenberg Pottery Starbucks (Clearbrook Town Centre) UFV Facilities
UFV Graphics Class: Concepts & Systems in Communication Design ABC Restaurant (Langley) Cheryl Dahl Alex Duff David Evans Deb Greenfield Vicki Manz, Personal Chef Michael Laver Michelle Stubbe Minter Gardens Aaron Moran Pat Taddy Tyler Lanz Otto Nurseryman & Landscaper Ltd. Paul Brammer Revolution Cigars and Fine Gifts
catalogue design : vijit keomisy
notes
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