Dick Averns: Illuminating Language

VERNON PUBLIC ART GALLERY VERNON, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA www.vernonpublicartgallery.com

DICK AVERNS ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE

ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE DICK AVERNS

Vernon Public Art Gallery October 5 - December 20, 2023

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 - 31st Avenue, Vernon, British Columbia, V1T 2H3, Canada October 5 - December 20, 2023 Production: Vernon Public Art Gallery Editor: Lubos Culen Layout and graphic design: Vernon Public Art Gallery Front cover: Lookout (West Bank), detail, 2009, archival digital print flush mounted on aluminum, 24 x 36 in Printing: Get Colour Copies, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada ISBN 978-1-927407-80-6 Copyright © 2023 Vernon Public Art Gallery All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Requests for permission to use these images should be addressed in writing to the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 31st Avenue, Vernon BC, V1T 2H3, Canada. Telephone: 250.545.3173, website: www. vernonpublicartgallery.com.

The Vernon Public Art Gallery is a registered not-for-profit society. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee/RDNO, the Province of BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, British Columbia Arts Council, the Government of Canada, corporate donors, sponsors, general donations and memberships. Charitable Organization # 108113358RR. This exhibition is sponsored in part by:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Executive Director’s Foreword · Dauna Kennedy

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Illuminating Language - Introduction · Lubos Culen

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Ambivalent Sensations · Wayne Baerwaldt

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Artist Statement · Dick Averns

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Ambivalence Blvd · Images

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Recognition... Validation... Reassurance... · Images

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War Art Now · Images

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Illuminating Language · Images

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Position Indicators · Images

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Curriculum Vitae · Dick Averns

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Acknowledgements

ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE - FOREWORD

I’d like to welcome back to the Vernon Public Art Gallery, Calgary based Artist Dick Averns. His exhibition, Illuminating Language, is a 25-year survey exhibition exploring language and light through Averns’ textbased art. This exhibition touches on topics of mental wellness, social justice and conflict through the use of humour and gentle nudging for the viewer to explore new ideas.

Guest writer – Wayne Baerwaldt - is an independent visual arts curator and producer based in Canada and has contributed a thoughtful interpretation of Averns’ work that is included in this publication.

I’d like to acknowledge Lubos Culen, Curator for the Vernon Public Art Gallery, for his passion in bringing thought provoking exhibitions to the residents and visitors of the North Okanagan.

Funders such as the Province of BC, BC Arts Council and the Regional District of the North Okanagan are critical to the work we do and ensure the VPAG is able to pursue its mandate for the people of the North Okanagan. Our donors, members and sponsors also contribute to the success of our programming and we are grateful for their support.

See you at the gallery, Dauna Kennedy Executive Director Vernon Public Art Gallery

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DICK AVERNS: ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE - INTRODUCTION

Illuminating Language is a survey exhibition of artwork produced over three decades by Calgary-based artist Dick Averns. He has been producing challenging artwork addressing a wide range of topics relating to politicized public spaces in the context of social justice, conflict, community wellness, and natural resources.

His multi-faceted artmaking has been realized in the form of public art, video, photography, sculpture, and performance.

Averns’ prolific practice has been recognized with numerous awards and grants including the City of Calgary Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Award, University of Calgary Teaching Excellence Award, inaugural City of Calgary Social Practice Public Art Award, and multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Calgary Arts Development, to name a few.

A notable aspect of Averns’ career was his selection as an official war artist for the Canadian Forces Artist Program in 2008. He was then deployed to the Middle East in 2009, to capture the realities of war through his artwork.

Throughout his prolific career, Averns’ artwork addresses the issues of social existence, mental health, and the politics of everyday. In his cross-disciplinary artistic practice, he targets larger audiences, often accidental passersby, by staging performances beyond gallery spaces. A recurring theme in Averns’ work is the ambivalence of the general public and politicians alike towards serious issues stemming from everchanging geo-political situations. His work broaches issues of post-colonialism and the resulting conflicts and wars. Generally, Averns’ work aims to unsettle the status quo in favor of trying to find new ways of understanding politics and societal being.

Illuminating Language consists of multiple bodies of work developed over twenty-five years of Averns’ studio practice. The oldest artwork is an ongoing performance art and video project titled Ambivalence Blvd, embodying Averns’ performances at various sites, gatherings, and political rallies in the United Kingdom, the USA, and Canada.

Videos capture Averns promenading a custom-manufactured street sign, Ambivalence Blvd, at sites of political and cultural contestation including Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, Parliament Square, US embassy, and National Gallery in the United Kingdom. In Canada, Averns’ performances include venues such

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as the Prime Minister’s residence at 24 Sussex Drive, Houses of Parliament, National Gallery of Canada, US embassy, World Exchange Plaza, opening of the Canadian War Museum, and a Calgary rally held by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Alberta Conservative leader Jason Kenney.

For the G8 summit in 2010, Averns’ staged performances in rural Muskoka, Ontario, amid a heavily militarized zone. He executed similar performances in 2016 during the political campaigns leading to US Presidential elections. He promenaded the same street sign at rallies held by Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Averns’ notes that “navigating access with multiple levels of state security and militia apparatus, in theatres where signs are often banned, is key to maintaining the value of art as a means of aestheticized negotiation.”

The exhibition also contains a series of mid-sized photographs from the body of art titled War Art Now for which the full scope includes video art, sculptures, photography, and scholarly articles. War Art Now stems from Averns’ deployment as an official war artist in Middle East where he participated in the daily life of Canadian Forces personnel at an international military base, as well as civilian life in conflict zones. Averns’ first-hand experience of the harsh conditions and related landscapes marked by war enabled him to produce a body of work with a focus on new means of engaging with the realities of the War on Terror.

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, a neon sculpture included in the survey exhibition, is a pivotal artwork accompanying Averns’ major social practice public art project focused on community mental health and wellness (2017-2019). Averns created the signature artwork as part of an art-based research project (run with research ethics board approval) addressing the question, “How do you create a framework for mental wellness?”

Members of the public were invited to participate in workshops and created artwork and text to foster selfexpression, for the benefit of both themselves and the broader community. Subsequently, the communitygenerated artworks were installed in pop-up exhibitions over the course of a year, following which 40 artworks were selected for widespread distribution on billboards, City buses and trains and transit stops.1 Dick Averns’ text-based neon sculptures have been exhibited at numerous venues in the US and Canada since 1999, and in 2023 have been exhibited in three different provinces in eastern, central and western Canada. The neon sculptures Illuminating Language, first produced in 1999, and Endless, first produced in 2009, conceptually reference aspects of historical craft underpinning advertising.

Despite the history of neon signs, Averns appropriates the old craft for contemporary text-based art production.

The semantic reading of text in each sculpture is somewhat ambiguous, but it hints at the positive possibilities of human existence while maintaining the concept that whomsoever controls language exerts a position of influence.

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Since the early-mid 1990s Averns’ practice has regularly incorporated text-based art. His most recent body of work is his largest iteration of text-based sculptures, collectively titled Position Indicators, and is prominent in the survey exhibition Illuminating Language. Appropriating the displays above elevator cars, which inform travellers as to what floor the elevator car is located, Averns is conceptually re-locating audiences; as he comments “are you going up or down in a world that is constantly moving, and relocating you?” Produced in 2022, this major body of backlit sculpture, presented in short expressions, is similar to text-based artwork created by Barbara Kruger or Jenny Holzer.

While ambiguous and often obscure, the short captions relate to experiences of mental distress, uncertainty, and enigmatic emotional dispositions. Mental Health Iceberg and Longevity of Feelings are examples which potentially address what it is to be human. On the other side of the spectrum are affirmative messages: Reject Rejection, Accept Rejection, Fuck Self Sabotage…

As an internationally exhibited sculptor and award-winning artist, Dick Averns has established a vibrant, socially engaged art practice. The Illuminating Language exhibition at the Vernon Public Art Gallery attests to a wide breath of topics which Averns has been addressing for three decades of his studio practice. His artwork and performances challenge the status quo of public spaces in the context of social justice, conflict and war, mental wellness, and natural resources. His artwork carries messages of strong social justice overtones, advocacy for mental health wellness, and social activism.

Lubos Culen Curator Vernon Public Art Gallery Endnote 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df9UAz6I6tw; accessed September 15, 2023

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AMBIVALENT SENSATIONS By: Wayne Baerwaldt

The artwork of Calgary artist Dick Averns speaks to concepts of public and private space and the capacity for language to interpret and complicate arenas of discourse. As a form of process-oriented visual research and production, to elicit intersectional meanings, Averns examines the construction of shared contemporary spectacles and the body politic which informs each interpretation.

The artist’s process requires him to mine a unique sense of spatial perspective. As an investigative tool he uses image-text and assemblage techniques as a way for us to glimpse the world free from the filter of our expectations. His diverse and highly critical perspectives on contemporary public life coalesce to create new meanings and have come to refine his current and ongoing work in text-based neon signs and illuminating sculptures.

Averns has translated his aesthetic sensibility into photography, text, installation and solo performance art, that consistently appear as non sequitur propositions of a sort; they are cues to the allusions he makes in actions and other media, to power, beliefs, and values, both personal and societal. He exploits the potential of each medium to produce surprising and disorienting compositions from familiar sights and objects. Working with the facts around world events but remaking them, each medium he engages could be a subversive agent, acting to undermine viewers’ accustomed ways of seeing and thinking.

For example, the performative AMBIVALENCE BLVD (1999-ongoing)1 documented in photos and videos, reveals the body language of Averns holding a street sign in diverse public locations, some more politically sensitive or sensational than others. In videos he can be seen strolling casually through crowds or standing in place on a sidewalk in publicly accessible political gatherings that are symbolic stages for democratic forums (e.g., in Ottawa, Washington and other locations). It is not an act of dissent. It is a kind of cognitive perceptual primitivism, centred on the idea of contact with raw sensation.2 Over the past two decades AMBIVALENCE BLVD, as a peripatetic intervention, offered early warning signs of how power systems can supersede the rule of law in the guise of a populist demand for freedom (i.e., Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign). Contemporary ambivalence is increasingly the standard public response. Averns asserts that this is how we involuntarily frame an extreme situation. He makes clear there is “slippage within these systems of communication and control” for political power relations to become extremely elastic, verging on the theatre of the absurd with challenging and costly abuses of power by actors such as Donald Trump.

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An early photo-text body of work entitled Luxury Avenue (1998), identifies suburban monster homes as “de-civilized” spaces. Averns introduces the concept of moral imperatives and responsibilities tied to private design-and-build spaces. He depicts the crisis of living space in understated, bland photos of anonymous home building sites.

The duratrans photos are produced in a style of visual mark-making devoid of human presence. It is not a recipe for mannerist musing or perversity. Rather, it is his way to awaken viewers to an expanded sense of possibilities in the diverse ways of seeing the world. A single word or brief phrase beneath each framed image in Luxury Avenue includes “GULF ISLAND LOGGING ACCESS”, “FOOTPRINT”, “HUMAN OVERSPILL”, “CRITICALLY FRAMED”, “LUXURY AVENUE”.

Luxury Avenue is prescient. In 2023 there is consensus that affordable living space in Canada is in peril, and indeed it has become a luxury. To this challenge Averns offers specific moments of hope and social reorganization.

Averns’ oeuvre creates propositions to decipher and challenge our understanding of public and private space by isolating efficient lines of least resistance (via performances, photos and illuminated texts) to comprehend the fabrication of order in the western world. Curious images become raw data of the built environment to test our reasoning faculties before objects or situations constrain it and filter it into familiar learned patterns of comprehension. By doing so Averns accelerates the process of comprehension with myriad combinations of evocative and interlocking parts, forms and diverse textures to suggest that contested space is shaped by one’s personal understanding of systems of power, social practices and the body politic.

In the process of attempting to peel back the veils of obscurity around systems of power, he remains mindful of modernist artworld ideals of progress, equity, equality and fraternity, all increasingly open to abuse as evidenced repeatedly in AMBIVALENCE BLVD. I want to draw attention to Averns’ recent body of work in neon and his metal Position Indicator signs which highlight language to negotiate new territory in the form of elegant shapes, illuminated and linked in formal and often surprisingly awkward arrangements.

Words and phrases such as “ENDLESS”, “TESTING RELATIONSHIPS”, “COVID PANTING”, “ANY DAY NOW”, “MENTAL HEALTH ICEBERG”, “APPROACH ANXIETY” hint at a stylistic strategy with language that is expansive and inclusive. Viewers may “finish” or “complete” the sign’s “message” not only in their retinas, but in their

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heads, like editing a video on a computer. One is free to add, subtract, reverse, slow motion, speed up, insert words, imagine a broken narrative and so forth.

Averns generously gifts viewers a late modernist take-away or cue. He creates an open visual signature in the form of building blocks and has the foresight to imagine how viewers might reassign forms, language and even colour to his neon sign works, as if to request viewers invest in the shared history of art making.

Each word or fragmented phrase, regardless of its origins, either from early work (i.e., Luxury Avenue, 1998) or freely integrated as stylistic elements, offers a lesson in making. Averns insists on the freedom to revisit his stylistic paths without being bound to a chronology, using language to move forward and backwards, with the freedom to move laterally.

Averns’ various applications of fragmented language and its repetition (in the form of timed, rhythmic, onoff neon illumination), challenges the drive to a modernist absolute of simplicity, certainty or negation of form. His capacity to elicit such absolutisms is there, in each work, but I think his play with the particularity of language, hidden orders of the practice of mark-making in neon and metal, and the changing context of uses is much more notable.

Early and current works share Averns’ highly experiential, relational exploration, always extending the parameters of language within a modernist practice of critique. Each gesture, meaningless as it may appear over time, plays a recognizable role and often can be traced to aesthetic and stylistic influences from beyond his studio practice and current trends.

Meaning and the meaningless form are produced relationally, in tandem, not in isolation. His dedicated studio production is part of something much grander and Averns is hyper conscious of it. His work integrates a compressed history of language in art inclusive of image, colour, surface, process of making, language and even GPS location of origin.

In his highly original placement of text, form and neon colour in a gallery, we can begin to recognize his capacity to address the history of modernist critique as an exercise in a personal dialogue between artists (3), while also acting as something of a modernist’s revolt against materialism. His activity is purposely located within a context for failure or resistance of the political self within an increasingly tenuous sense of democracy. While serious in their intent to, the text pieces enact a sense of amusement in their visual correspondence with artists.

Precedents abound. Notice the peripheral presence of text-based art by Victor Burgin, Joseph Kosuth, Jenny Holzer or Ken Lum . Or perhaps an unconscious wink at Bruce Nauman’s aggressive neon text works.

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“ENDLESS”, “APPROACH ANXIETY”, “ANY DAY NOW”, “ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE” are illuminated language pieces as visual cues to a form of messaging that artists exchange over time and rely upon to propose and announce a new and fresh context for their own work.

Averns would be the first to suggest art is a conscious form of making based on accumulated experiences.

Stylistic cues from the past and present coalesce, often in tension, to inform meaning via abstract and figurative images. Refined forms and sensibilities are personified and woven into contemporary myth. It’s the way that informed art of our generation will continue to resonate into the future.

In many ways the resonant neon texts and Position Indicators offer a visual filter like no other. His use of illuminated language offers a renewed access to objective truth, not by showing things as we know they are, but by countering our ways of knowing. Averns appears to be saying we, as viewers, are prone to processing the world falsely, according to conventional ways of seeing to which we have become so accustomed that they are invisible and preconscious.

Ultimately his use of language in the form of pulsating on-off-on-again neon and metal signs will act as an imaginary bridge between historic traditions and convoluted meaning to find new ways to speak to us in the 21st century.

Endnotes 1 See catalogue titles: Dick Averns: Ambivalence Blvd, Vernon, BC: Vernon Public Art Gallery, 2009; Calgary, AB: Art Gallery of Calgary, 2006; Abbotsford, BC: The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford, 2018.

2 See Ernst Mach, Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations, University of Michigan: Open Court Publ. Co., 1887 3 See Illuminating Language, Burnaby, BC:Visual Arts Burnaby, 2000

Wayne Baerwaldt is an independent visual arts curator and producer based in Canada. Recent projects and publications include If I May Digress: Richard Boulet and Collaborators, The Shadow of the Sun: Ross Bleckner and Zachari Logan (with Leah Taylor and Jennifer McGregor), Thierry Marceau: The Great One’s Back for Nuit Blanche Edmonton at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and Meeting for Teas: On the Road to Decolonization (with Jennifer Crane, Kimisoo Goodtrack, Bryan Mulvihill, Qiming Sun, Xiao Han and others). He is the guest editor for Issue #62 of PUBLIC, The Gender-Diverse Lens, and conducts ongoing research in social justice issues and questions of representation as a Michele Sereda Artist in Residence for Socially Engaged Practice at the University of Regina (MAP and Hill/Levine Business Schools). He is a board member of the Hnatyshyn Foundation, Ottawa and a member of the Advisory Committee of participant, inc., New York City.

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FROM THE ARTIST

Reflecting on a quarter-century of one’s own art creation and production—spanning mid-late twentieth century influences, 9/11, and into the digitally monopolized, artificial intelligence-directed twenty-first century— calls for deep thinking and hyper-conscious self-reflexivity.

The content of my multi-disciplinary, socially engaged art practice, recalibrates the commodification of space: probing how mental and physical spaces are valued, bought, sold, exchanged, or even fought over.

Language, identity and media convergence –arbiters of spatial control– are wrought through a range of art objects spanning sculpture, text-based art, photography, video, installation, and performance, often as public art.

From a standpoint of topicality, I have invariably broached subjects that are relevant to community cohesion, and therefore politically charged: the war on terror, mental health, natural resources such as water and gasoline, and access to the commons i.e. shared resources or access to public spaces, or what is now sometimes referred to as “the tragedy of the commons.”

As someone that believes in the critical value of art, for instance offering new ways of seeing the world around us or catalysing potential affect for audiences, as well as being able to confront difficult-to-address topics through aestheticized and at times nuanced means, conceptual heft is always top-of-mind.

Although some people will argue that Conceptual Art and post-Conceptualism are historical tenets, this should in no way diminish the value of concepts in art, which I prefer to define as the way in which subjects are embodied in the art object(s).

In writing this passage to accompany my first survey exhibition, Illuminating Language, it is essential to note that language is power. My deployment of neon and LEDs to create text-based art is a tacit acknowledgment of the power of language, extending further to an embodiment that light is life. Together, these tenets create a basis through which the context of Illuminating Language may be located on a continuum bookended by light as life and language as power.

Creating socially impactful art is at the core of my practice, often produced through projects in the public domain for a passing audience, to reach community members that may not visit art galleries. Examples

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include billboards exploring addictions, storefronts showcasing pithy language riddles, and public promenading with mobile sculptures at political rallies. Deploying the conceptual strategy of the body-assite is key to generating first-hand corporeal, and mindful experiences.

Artistic influences include Krzysztof Wodiczko, the Guerilla Girls, Alfredo Jaar, Tanya Bruguera, Francis Alÿs and Jenny Holzer, with theoretical interests rooted in social sculpture, relational practices and countermonuments.

Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome in adulthood, community collaborations also feature regularly in my art practice, for instance with the Fresh Start Recovery Centre, people awaiting trial in prison, the Organization for Bi-Polar Affective Disorders, and student groups in schools and post-secondary institutions. These avenues broach processes and methodologies including art as social practice, disability arts and cripping.

In sum, whether in public galleries, artist-run centres, the classroom or street, I strive to make art that fosters meaningful debate and critically challenges the status-quo.

Dick Averns September 21, 2023

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AMBIVALENCE BLVD

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United We Stand (NYC), 2002, digital print from transparency, dimensions vary

Making a Stand (Simon Fraser University), 2003, digital print from negative, dimension vary

Ambivalence Blvd (US Embassy in Ottawa), 2005, video still, dimensions vary

Global Stand (World Exchange Plaza), 2005, digital print from transparency, dimension vary

Ambivalence in the UK (Downing Street), 2007, video still, dimensions vary

Ambivalence in the UK (Flags, Buckingham Palace), 2007, video still, dimension vary

Ambivalence in the UK (US embassy), 2007, video still, dimensions vary

Ambivalence in the UK (constabulary conversation), 2007, video still, dimension vary

Ambivalence in the UK (Parliament Square), 2007, video still, dimension vary

Calgary Rally for visit by G.W Bush, 2009, video still, dimensions vary

Ambivalence at the G8, 2010. Digital print from DSLR. Dimensions vary. Performance art, police roadblock on Hwy 60, first day of G8 summit, Muskoka, Ontario. June 25, 2010. Camera: Lieann Koivukoski.

Ambivalence at the G8, 2010. Digital print from DSLR. Performance art at bush camp across from G8 summit, Muskoka, Ontario.

June 23, 2010. Reproduced on front page of the North Bay Nugget, June 25, 2010. Camera: Lieann Koivukoski.

Liberty Avenue… Ambivalence Blvd – Feel the Bern, 2016. Digital print from video still. Dimensions vary. Performance art at Bernie Sanders’ “A Future to Believe In” rally for NY Presidential Primary Election. Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. April 17, 2016. Videographer: Lewis Liski.

Ambivalence Blvd… Trump Road Show, 2016. Digital print from DSLR. Dimensions vary. Performance art outside “Trump Make America Great Again!” rally for NY Presidential Primary Election. Syracuse, NY. April 16, 2016. Camera: Lewis Liski.

Ambivalence Blvd… Wall Street Assignment, 2016. Digital Print from DSLR. 2/5. 23” x 35.” Collection of Alberta Foundation for the Arts # 2017.007.001. Camera: Lewis Liski.

Liberty Ave... Ambivalence Blvd: The Clintocrats, 2016. Digital print from video still. Dimensions vary. Performance art at “NYC Irish Americans for Hillary Pre-Primary Celebration,” for NY Presidential Primary Election. Wheeltapper Pub, Manhattan. NY. April 18, 2016. Videographer: Lewis Liski.

Hilary Clinton observing Dick Averns’ at Ambivalence Blvd performance, 2016. Digital print from DSLR. Dimensions vary. Performance art at “NYC Irish Americans for Hillary Pre-Primary Celebration” for NY Presidential Primary Election. Wheeltapper Pub, Manhattan. NY. April 18, 2016. Camera: Dick Averns.

Ambivalence Blvd: Donald and The Stormy Arraignment, 2023. Digital print from iPhone 7 photo. Dimensions vary. Public participation in performance art at front of courtroom line up on the eve of Donald Trump’s first arraignment. Opposite New York Criminal Courts Building, Centre St, NYC. April 3, 2023. Camera Dick Averns

Ambivalence Blvd: Donald and The Stormy Arraignment, 2023. Digital print from iPhone 7 photo. Dimensions vary. Performance art at gathering amidst anti-Trump crowd in Collect Pond Park on the day of Donald Trump’s first arraignment. Opposite New York Criminal Courts Building, Centre St, NYC. April 4, 2023. Camera: Garrett (bystander).

Ambivalence Blvd: Donald and The Stormy Arraignment, 2023. Digital print from iPhone 7 photo. Dimensions vary. Performance art with Don Folden AKA ‘The Truth Conductor’ at gathering amidst Trump supporters in Collect Pond Park on the day of Donald Trump’s first arraignment. Opposite New York Criminal Courts Building, Centre St, NYC. April 4, 2023. Camera: Bystander

Ambivalence Blvd: Donald and The Stormy Arraignment, 2023. Digital print from iPhone 7 photo. Dimensions vary. Performance art at the police corridor between factions gathering in Collect Pond Park on the day of Donald Trump’s first arraignment. Opposite New York Criminal Courts Building, Centre St, NYC. April 4, 2023. Camera: Bystander

Liberty Ave... Ambivalence Blvd: Midtown Stakeout, 2016. Digital print from video still: performance art on day of New York Presidential Primary election. Trump Tower, 5th Avenue, Manhattan, NY. April 19, 2016. Videographer: Lewis Liski.

Liberty Ave... Ambivalence Blvd: Midtown Stakeout, 2016. Digital print from video still: performance art on day of New York Presidential Primary election. Opposite Trump Tower, 5th Avenue, Manhattan, NY. April 19, 2016. Videographer: Lewis Liski.

RECOGNITION... VALIDATION... REASSURANCE...

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Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, (detail), 2017. Neon sculpture with custom flasher. 33 x 60 x 8 inches

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, (detail), 2017. Neon sculpture with custom flasher. 33 x 60 x 8 inches

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, (detail), 2017. Neon sculpture with custom flasher. 33 x 60 x 8 inches

Endless, 2017. Neon sculpture. 36 x 17 x 2 inches (incl. cables + transformer)

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, 2018, transit car installation view. Social practice public art project.

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, 2018, Corsa: Soon the Light Will Burn Our Shade. Transit car installation view. Social practice public art project community participant collage. 12” x 36”.

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, 2018, Sandra Kadhim: If Only You Saw… Billboard. Social practice public art project, community participant collage.

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, 2018, Giles: Wish I Was… Billboard. Social practice public art project, community participant collage. Documentation photograph in collection of Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Digital print from DSLR on Epson Archival Paper Edition 1/5. 47 x 68 inches.

Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…, 2018, transit car installation view. Social practice public art project community participants’ collages. Each 12 x 36 inches..

WAR ART NOW

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Lookout (West Bank), 2009. Archival Digital Print with laminate on 1/8” Aircraft Grade Aluminum with cleats, 24 x 36 inches

Liberty Ave, 2009. Archival Digital Print with laminate on 1/8” Aircraft Grade Aluminum with cleats, 24 x 36 inches

Amnesty Ammunition Collection Point, 2009. Archival Digital Print with laminate on 1/8” Aircraft Grade Aluminum with cleats. Collection of Brian Flynn. 24 x 36 inches.

Force Protection Condition (MFO North Camp, Sinai), 2009. Archival Digital Print with laminate on 1/8” Aircraft Grade Aluminum with cleats, 24 x 36 inches

Observe Report Verify (MFO North Camp, Sinai), 2009. Archival Digital Print with laminate on 1/8” Aircraft Grade Aluminum with cleats, 24 x 36 inches

ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE

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Illuminating Language. 2000. Installation view (Third Avenue Gallery), 8 x 120 x 4 inches. Neon, chromed steel, transformers.

Illuminating Language, 2022, installation view - Herringer Kiss Gallery. Neon, chromed steel, wood, closed cell liner, transformers; Wall module 8 x 60 x 8 inches, floor module 18 x 72 x 12 inches.

Illuminating Language, 1999. 8 x 120 x 4 inches. Neon, chromed steel, transformers.

POSITION INDICATORS

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Position Indicators, 2022, laser-cut brushed stainless steel, milled acrylic, lamacoid, aluminum casing, lamp, 4.5 x 14 x 3.25 inches each

Position Indicators, 2022, laser-cut brushed stainless steel, milled acrylic, lamacoid, aluminum casing, lamp, 4.5 x 14 x 3.25 inches each

DICK AVERNS – ARTIST CV EDUCATION 2003 1996 1993 1990

University of British Columbia - Master of Fine Arts, (Fine Art Studio) Cheltenham & Gloucester College (UK) - B.F.A. Honours (Sculpture) Wimbledon School of Art, London, Diploma in Art & Design (with Merit) Parson’s School of Art and Design, New York, Summer School

SOLO SHOWS & PUBLIC ARTWORKS 2023 2022 2021 2020 2018 2017 2016 2015 2012 2010 2009 2007 2006 2003 2001

2000

Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC - Illuminating Language curated by Lubos Culen (catalogue) Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, AB – Illuminating Language Lougheed House, Calgary, AB – Place, Play & Pretense Snowbird festival, public sculpture, Water Meter SITE c PROJECTS, Calgary, AB – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…

The Reach Gallery, Abbotsford, BC – Ambivalence Blvd, curated by Adrienne Fast (catalogue) City of Calgary Public Art Social Practice Series – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…

City of Calgary Public Art Social Practice Series – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance…

Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB – Water Meter, public installation Esker Foundation Calgary, AB – Water Meter, public installation The Ledge Gallery, Epcor Centre, Calgary, AB – The 90kmh Economy Drive The Founders’ Gallery, Calgary, AB - War Art Now curated by Colleen Sharpe (catalogue) Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC - Ambivalence Blvd curated by Lubos Culen (catalogue) Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB – Ambivalence Blvd curated by Kirstin Evenden (catalogue) University Avenue, Toronto, ON - Ambivalence Blvd, public installation curated by Kym Pruesse Lunenburg waterfront, NS - Utopia Pkwy, public installation Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver - Illuminating Language Richmond Art Gallery - Exercising Desire curated by Corrine Corry Evergreen Cultural Ctr, Coquitlam, BC - Illuminating Language Gallery 83, Vancouver - Exercising Desire curated by Stacey Malysh Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, BC - Trading Time, curated by Michael Bjornson 911 Media Arts Ctr, Seattle - Illuminating Language, organised by Brad Thompson Stride Gallery, Calgary - Co-ordinating Plots, joint project with Glenbow Museum Gallery at Ceperley House, Burnaby, BC - Luxury Avenue, curated by Sarah Dobbs (catalogue)

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1999 1998 1997 1994 1993

Prince George Art Gallery, BC - Luxury Avenue Parkside Ctr, 100 Mile House, BC - Pursue Potential For Unintended Events, permanent installation Peace Gallery North, Fort St John, BC - Luxury Avenue Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Critically Framed: Luxury Avenue Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC - Luxury Avenue CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY - The Passed is Your Presence, transit-mounted public art Prema Arts Centre, UK - Open for Public Consumption, curated by Ken Lush Whitechapel High St, London, UK - Operation Indian, multi-site clandestine billboard installation Northern Line Tube Trains, London, UK - The Great Train Robbery, clandestine installation

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017

2016 2015 2014

Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, ON – Monumental Contemporary Calgary, Calgary AB – Look Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, ON – Confined, curated by Peter Flannery (catalogue) Calgary Public Library, Calgary, AB – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance… Art + Mental Wellness cSPACE, Calgary, AB – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance… Art + Mental Wellness Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, AB – Unchartered, curated by Ashley Shleming McMullen Gallery, Edmonton, AB – This Art Makes Me Feel Arts Illiana Gallery, Terre Haute, USA – The American Dream Diefenbunker (with Canadian War Museum) Ottawa – Group Seven, curated by Joanne Stober The Power Plant, Toronto – participant in DEMONSTRATION by Michael Landy Pumphouse Theatre, Calgary, AB – Ode to Music Indianapolis Art Centre, Indiana, USA, Charged: A Neon Exhibit, curated by Kyle Herrington.

Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB – Experiments in Public Art, curated by Lorenzo Fusi Arts Commons Lightbox Studio, Calgary, AB – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance Department of Art, University of Calgary, AB – Faculty Exhibition Department of Art, University of Calgary, AB – Us - Them – Us, curated by Jennifer Eiserman Department of Art, University of Calgary, AB – Faculty Exhibition Calgary Biennial, Calgary, AB – Atlas Sighed, curated by Steven Cottingham Department of Art, University of Calgary, AB – Faculty Exhibition Agnes Etherington Arts Centre, Kingston, ON – Terms of Engagement: Averns, feldman-kiss, Stimson, curated by Christine Conley (catalogue) The Esker Foundation, Calgary, AB – Terms of Engagement: Averns, feldman-kiss, Stimson Mount St Vincent Uni. Art Gallery, Halifax, NS – Terms of Engagement: Averns, feldman-kiss,

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2012 2011 2010

2009 2008 2006 2005

2004 2003

Stimson, The Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound, ON – If it Weren’t For The War, curated by Virginia Eichorn The Founders’ Gallery, Calgary, AB – Forging a Nation, curated by Lindsey Sharman (catalogue) University of Alberta Galleries, Edmonton, AB – Forging a Nation, curated by Lindsey Sharman Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB – Made in Calgary: 2000s, curated by Katherine Ylitalo (catalogue) Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB – The Heart of a Soldier, PPCLI 100th anniversary project Kassian Gallery, University of Calgary, AB – Neon: Audio Visual, curated by Jayda Karsten Brick + Mortar, International Video Art Festival, Greenfield, MA, USA – curated by Denise Markonish Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB – ACAD Faculty Exhibition Department of National Defence, Ottawa, ON – New works: Canadian Forces Artists Program 2008-9 Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB – ACAD Faculty Exhibition Alberta House, Vancouver BC – 2010 Olympic Exhibition, curated by Alberta Foundation for the Arts The Change You Want to See Gallery (New York), Ed Video (Guelph), Emmedia (Calgary), Thames Art Gallery (Chatham), WKP Kennedy Gallery (North Bay), Xpace Gallery (Toronto), Paved Art and New Media (Saskatoon), Niagara Artists Company (St. Catharines), Common Ground Gallery (Windsor), Factory (Hamilton) Agitprop 10, curated by Dermot Wilson Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB – ACAD Faculty Exhibition The Epcor Centre, Calgary, AB – Mayor’s Evening for Business and the Arts Exposure: Banff Calgary Photography Festival – Tenuous Balance Gallery One One One, Winnipeg, MB – Revolver, curated by Cliff Eyland Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB – Academy YYZ, Toronto, ON, Art and Activism, group show curated by Kym Pruesse (catalogue) Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo, ON - Neon, 2-person show curated by Virginia Eichorn Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Gallery artists Mountain Standard Time festival, Calgary, AB - Residual: Performance Art Relics and Ephemera The Banff Centre, AB - Banff Festival of the Arts - Open Studios SAW Gallery/Galerie SAW, Ottawa - Ambivalence Blvd, in conjunction with Alberta Scene Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB - ACAD Faculty Show Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courteny, BC - Invitational The Other Gallery, Banff Centre, AB - Where I Lay my Heart, informal architecture competition Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Gallery artists Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB - ACAD Faculty Show Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Belkin Invitational (catalogue)

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2002 2001 2000 1999 1996 1995 1994

Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Emergency Measures (catalogue) Artropolis, CBC studios, Vancouver, BC - The Armchair Terrorist, curated by Vjeko Sager (catalogue) Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB - ACAD Faculty Show Artropolis, CBC studios, Vancouver, BC - Position Indicators, curated by D Szoke (catalogue) Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, BC - Art Irritates Life, curated by Tony Martin Fine Art Gallery, UBC, Vancouver, BC - Principles of Occupation Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Draw, concept drawings Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC - Past Futures, with Byron Johnston’s Sorting/Packing Architectural Institute of BC, Vancouver, BC - Architectural Photography Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver, BC - Gallery artists Headbones Gallery, Vernon, BC - Exotic Erotic Parkside Ctr, 100 Mile House, BC - Pursue Potential For Unintended Events Vancouver Museum - City Lights: Neon in Vancouver Critical Mass Gallery, 100 Mile House, BC - Don’t Just Draw - Shoot CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY - Chambers of Enchantment, curated by Bob Hirsch Gloucester Docks, Gloucester, UK - Locations, public sculpture festival (catalogue) Axiom Arts Centre, Cheltenham, UK - A Bakers Dozen

SELECTED PERFORMANCES & SCREENINGS 2023 2020 2018 2016 2014 2012

2008 2007

New York City – Ambivalence Blvd, public performances for passing audience cSPACE, Calgary, AB – Recognition… Validation… Reassurance… video documentary premiere ACAD Film Festival, Globe Cinema, Calgary – Liberty Ave… Ambivalence Blvd, screening New York City – Liberty Ave… Ambivalence Blvd, public performances for passing audience The Military Museums, Calgary, AB. Recalibrating 9/11, documentary film screening Brick + Mortar International Video Art Festival, Ambivalence Blvd, solo performance Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival, Calgary, AB, 90kmh Economy Drive Particle + Wave festival, Calgary, AB. Performance Marked by Trading: A Trademarked Performance G8 Summit, Muskoka, ON - Ambivalence Blvd, solo performances Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival, Calgary, AB. Performing War Art Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC - Ambivalence Blvd, solo performance Arrata Opera Ctr, Calgary – BlowOut Festival, Ambivalence Blvd DVD screening University of Manitoba, MB - ©art Zone London, UK- Ambivalence Blvd public performances for passing audience

2006

Art Gallery of Calgary, AB - That Thing Between Us: An evening of screen-based dance installations

2010 2009

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2005

2004 2003 2002 1999 1996 1995 1993

New Music New Haven, Yale School of Music, CT - Ambivalence Blvd screening The Banff Centre - Benchmarks and Bookends, solo performance Alberta Scene, Ottawa - Ambivalence Blvd public performances for passing audience Mountain Standard Time festival, Calgary, AB - Ambivalence Blvd screening Alberta College of Art and Design - Live Action, armchairterrorist and tokyosexwhale Critical Art Ensemble defence fund benefit, Calgary - Feel the Heat & President’s Choice screening Scribes Club, Vancouver - President’s Choice: The Armchair Terrorist interviews George Bush Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC, Vancouver - Seats of Power - the Armchair Terrorist Vancouver Live: Biennial of Performance Art - Seats of Power - The Armchair Terrorist New York City - Ambivalence Blvd public performances for passing audience Banff, AB - Sketch of an Idea to Refocus Audience, public performance for passing audience Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, UK - Concentric Motion Dance Co Axiom Arts Centre, Cheltenham, UK - Concentric Motion Dance Co Prema Arts Centre, UK - It’s Alright to Feel, performance installation as part of Time Being festival Waterloo Station, London, UK - Down The Drain; Never the Same, supported by British Rail

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(peer-reviewed articles, book entries, art reviews and catalogue essays) 2022 “Not Kidding Any More: Political Revolution and Artistic Convolution… Reconciling the Troubles.” No Photos… No Recordings… No Notes… Brian Flynn Repainting the Troubles. Nickle Galleries.

ISBN10: 0-88953-466-7 “Interview with Richard Boulet and Marilyn Olson.” If I May Digress: Richard Boulet & Collaborators, Ed. Wayne Baerwaldt. 21C Curators Inc and Shurniak Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9958798-2-9 2021 “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me” – Artful Embodiments of Mental Flux.” Marion Nicoll Gallery.

Feb 28. <https://www.marionnicollgallery.ca/exposure2021> 2020 “The Virtual Class of 2020: Reconciling the Trope of Online Grad Shows.” Galleries West. Jun 29. Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/the-virtual-class-of-2020/> “Katie Ohe.” Galleries West, Feb 23, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/katie-ohe/> 2019 “Nova Scotia Artist Wins Public Art Appeal.” Canadian Art. Jan 3. Web. <https://canadianart.ca/news/nova-scotia-artist-wins-public-art-appeal/> “Black.” Galleries West, Feb 23, Web. < http://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/black/>

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“Against the Odds, Calgary’s Art Community Reboots.” Canadian Art. Mar 13. Web. <https://canadianart.ca/essays/against-the-odds-calgarys-art-community-reboots/?fbclid=IwAR2 3L96hXZmo2QGTVRXNC34qI9In5ftAx9Y8tvtLLrd1KVOvrevqkUjCALY> “These Things Happen.” Galleries West, Jun 3, Web. < https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/these-things-happen//> “Circumpolar Art.” Galleries West, June 18, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/ circumpolar-art/> “Conflicted Representations.” Galleries West, June 29, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/circumpolar-art/> “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching.” Galleries West, July 12, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/dance-like-nobody%E2%80%99s-watching/> “Kent Merriman Jr.” Galleries West, Aug 24, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/kent-merriman-jr/> “Teresa Posyniak: Ponderosa.” Galleries West, Oct 7, Web. < https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/teresa-posyniak-ponderosa/> “Nep Sidhu: a sublime interlude – if you’re open to the divine.” Galleries West, Oct 26, Web. <https://www.gallerieswest.ca/magazine/stories/nep-sidhu/> 2017 “Calibrating Official War Art and The War on Terror.” Canadian Military History. 2017. Vol 26, Issue 1, Article 16. ISSN: 1929-400X Online. <http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol26/iss1/16> “From There to Nowhere to Here and Knowing: Richard Boulet – R A G E H O P E.” Richard Boulet – R A G E H O P E. p 13 – 36. Nickle Galleries. ISBN 978-0-88953-405-6 “Artists Offer Ideas for Alternative Walls.” Galleries West. Aug 29, 2017. < http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/artists-offer-ideas-for-alternative-walls/ > “Earthlings, Esker Foundation.” Galleries West. Feb 10, 2017. <http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/earthlings-esker-foundation-calgaryjanuary-21-to-may-7-2017/> “Troubling use of taxpayer funding.” Edmonton Journal. Aug 11. Print and online < http://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/letters/fridays-letters-mlas-airbnb-rental-smacks-of- hypocrisy > 2016 “ ‘How to Lie About Canadian Art’: A Case Study in Art Criticism.” MOMUS. Feb 2, Web. <http://momus.ca/how-to-lie-about-canadian-art-a-case-study-in-art-criticism/> “MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture, Vancouver Art Gallery.” Galleries West, April 25, Web. <http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/mashup-the-birth-of-modern-culture- vancouver-art-gallery-feb/>

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“Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, Illingworth Kerr Gallery.” Galleries West. March 12, Web. <http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/arctic-adaptations-nunavut-at-15- illingworth-kerr-gallery-ca/> “Performing the Landscape,” Galleries West. Oct 31, Web. <http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art-reviews/exhibitions/performing-the-landscape-illingworth-kerr- gallery-contempora/> 2015 “Oh, Canada. Contemporary Art from North North America.” Galleries West. Spring 2015, 22. Print.

“Gone in 90 seconds: a conversation with Dick Averns.” (co-authored with Steven Cottingham). Atlas Sighed – The Calgary Biennial. Jan 10. Web <http://calgarybiennial.ca/post/107717588913/gone-in-ninety-seconds-a-conversation-with- dick> 2014 “Scott Waters’ The Keeper of Nothingness: Navigating the Dark Side.” The Keeper of Nothingness.

Vernon Public Art Gallery. Print.

“Calibrating Official War Art and the War on Terror.” Terms of Engagement: Averns, Feldman-kiss, Stimson. <http://www.termsofengagement.ca/texts/.

2013 “9/11 Architectural Artefacts: questioning the ethics of nomenclature.” On Site Review. 2013. No. 30, 29-30.

ISSN 1481-8280 “War Art, the Group of Seven and Otto Dix, Transformed.” Canadian Art. http://www.canadianart.ca/ reviews/2013/09/30/transformations-glenbow/#sthash.rxAHvwsS.dpuf “From Vacant Lots to an Alternative Modern: 100 Years of Cultivated Public Art in Calgary.” Knock on Any Door: A Century of “Art and Social Engagement” in Calgary, Alberta. Print. ISBN 9-780986572814 “In Defence of Our Culture.” Calgary’s Arts Plan Visionary Articles. <http://artsplan.ca/content/defence- our-culture> “Chris Cran: Candidates and Citizens.” Galleries West. 15 May. < http://www.gallerieswest.ca/art- appreciation/reviews/chris-cran%3A-candidates-and-citizens--tr%C3%A9panierbaer-gallery,-/> 2012 “Case Study: Shell Smarter Driver Challenge.” Behind the Wheel: Opportunities for Canadians to drive less, reduce pollution and save money. Drayton Valley:The Pembina Inst. 23.ISBN 1-897390-35-1 “The Alberta New Contemporaries.” Galleries West. Fall, 2012. 23 – 24. Print “The Alberta New Contemporaries.” Galleries West. 7 Aug 2012 <http://www.gallerieswest.ca/reviews/ the-new-alberta-contemporaries--esker-foundation%2C-calgary---june-15---august-29%2C-2012> 2011 “A Brush With War: The Art of Conflict.” Canadian Art. 17 Mar 2011

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< http://www.canadianart.ca/online/reviews/2011/03/17/brush_with_war/> “Art and Afghanistan: Recalibrating Cultural Buffer Zones.” Light Horse Tales. 2011. 2 - 4. (Catalogue) ISBN: 978-0-9868835-0-7 “True Colours.” Calgary Herald. 19 Sept 2011. 11. Print “True Colours.” Calgary Herald. 19 Sept 2011. Web <http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story. html?id=1057e8df-1d16-4677-9268-e1d13bfc5a20> 2010 “Minding the Gap.” Swerve. 26 Feb. 2010: 1, 5, 27-31, 38.

“War Art Now Part II – War and Peace in the Middle East.” Honour. (Magazine of the Military Museums).

Spring 2010. 3, 24-27.

2009 “War Art in the Face of The Project for The New American Century: A Postmodern Rake’s Progress.”

Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration, Convergence. Melbourne University: Miegunyah Press. 2009.

716-722. ISBN 9780522855005 “In Deference of a New Diabolique.” Diabolique. Regina: Dunlop Art Gallery. 2009. 44-55.

ISBN 978-1-894882-34-7 “War + Peace: Monument and Counter-Monument.” On Site Review. 2009. No. 22, 64-65.

ISSN 1481-8281 “Windy City: Reconciling The Weathermen and Barack Obama.” On Site Review. 2009. No. 21, 60-61.

ISSN 1481-8280 “From Luxury Avenue to Ambivalence Blvd and Beyond.” Ambivalence Blvd. 2009.26-28. Vernon: Vernon Public Art Gallery. ISBN 978-0-9812147-2-6 “Forces Variations.” Front. 2009. Vol XX, No 2.

“Painting Outside the Box: the Museal World of Jennifer Rae Forsyth.” Postscript. 2009. 14-16.

ISBN 978-0-9811500-0-0 2008 “The Big Gift in Review: Homefront Helpfulness,” Canadian Art. Sept 2008. <http://www.canadianart.ca/ online/reviews/2008/09/25/big-gift/>.

“Afterword? Epilogue? Postscript? Recycle the Word &c.” Current Projects. 2008. Vol 8, 15.

ISSN 19166761 “Veggie Victory,” Calgary Herald. Sept 20, 2008. 15.

2007 Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder, and Career Success. 2007. Calgary: Alberta College of Art & Design.

“The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics.” Canadian Art. 2007. Vol 24 No 3, 149-50.

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“MakeBelieve.” Canadian Art. 2007. Vol 24 No 1, 96-7.

“Official Acts & Unofficial Actions – War Art Today.” Ctr. for Contemporary Canadian Art. 2007. <http://www.ccca.ca/c/writing/a/averns/ave001t.html>.

“Mental Health, Career Choice & Achievement in the Workplace.” ACADFA Newsletter. 2007. Calgary: Alberta College of Art & Design Faculty Association.

“How do Tourette Syndrome and Co-morbidities Affect Career Choice and Achievement in the Workplace?” ACADFA Newsletter. 2007. Calgary: Alberta College of Art & Design Faculty Assoc.

“Foreword” Current Projects. 2007. Vol 7, 3.

2006 “The Vanguard War Art of William MacDonnell.” Canadian Art. 2006. Vol 23 No 3, 162-5.

“New Green: Evolution or Revolution,” New Green. 2006. Calgary: Art Gallery of Calgary.

“From Homes to America to the West Edmonton Mall: A Road Trip with Dan Graham.”

ACADFA Newsletter. 2006. Calgary: Alberta College of Art & Design Faculty Association.

“The Environment and You (Globe).” Norman’s Spectator. July 10, 2006. <http://www.members.shaw.ca/ nspector4/LETT.htm>.

2005 “CAMP(sites).” Canadian Art. 2005. Vol 22 No 4, 106.

2004 “Canada’s Art and Design Schools: A Critical Survey.” Artichoke. 2004. Vol 16 # 4.

“Invading Space.” Globe and Mail. Dec 6, 2004. 12.

“Art in the Face of The Project for a New American Century.” Front. Vol XV, No 2, 18-19.

2003 “Presentation House Gallery/Giclee Prints.” Artichoke. 2003. Vol 15 # 1.

2002 “The Armchair Terrorist,” Front. Vol XIII, No 4, 19-21, 38.

2000 Co-ordinating Plots. Stride Gallery, Calgary. ISBN 0-921132-35-2 Illuminating Language. Burnaby: Visual Arts Burnaby. ISBN 09686744-0-2

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The artist would like to acknowledge that he is an uninvited settler and pays tribute to the Indigenous peoples of Treaty 7 and Métis Region III, respecting the opportunity to live, work and create on their traditional lands.

Thanks go to curator Lubos Cullen and the staff, board and volunteers at the Vernon Public Art Gallery, and guest essay writer Wayne Baerwaldt.

Production work for Illuminating Language at the VPAG has been gratefully received from McKenna Killen (video editing), Hesam Rezaei (image editor Position Indicators), and Andrew Boucher and Eric Willis (studio assistance).

For a survey exhibition spanning twenty-five years, many arts agencies and funders have supported the research, creation and production of artworks in this exhibition, including: Canada Council for the Arts Alberta Foundation for the Arts Calgary Arts Development Canadian Forces Artists Program The Banff Centre Alberta University of the Arts University of Calgary Calgary Allied Arts Foundation Alberta Association of Artist Run Centres Near North Mobile Media Lab The support of family and friends is central to the wellbeing, inspiration, balancing act, and sacrifices involved in being an artist and making art. You know who you are: thank you.

Dick Averns is represented by the Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary. www.herringerkissgallery.com

VERNON PUBLIC ART GALLERY VERNON, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA www.vernonpublicartgallery.com

DICK AVERNS ILLUMINATING LANGUAGE