BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Matt Harley is a Candian artist who has produced thirty-three solo exhibitions to date, so far, and participated in an unknown, but only slightly larger, number group exhibitions.[1]
Stated in artspeak, his work consists of representational drawings, paintings, and installations encompassing contemporary and traditional materials, strategies, and concerns. In plain speech, he draws and paints and sometimes makes stuff. He also writes in various forms and plays the guitar
He has received eleven out of the fourteen grants he's applied for from various granting agencies.
To supplement his income from the sale of paintings, drawings, and hand-made prints, Mr Harley has worked as an illustrator, fabric designer, silkscreen printer, muralist, musician, and cartoonist.
His unsyndicated comic strip, Pablo da Vinci, initially seen as chalk drawings in various locations on Toronto sidewalks in the summer of 2001, first appeared in print in Wegway in 2002. It also appeared quarterly in The City of St Catharines Culture News (2006—2008), and subsequently with the same frequency but in a different format in On The Twelve, the Rodman Hall Art Centre newsletter (2010—2011).
He has been the installer for twelve different art galleries, in both the non-profit and private sectors, beginning with his part-time job at the highly influential A Space in Toronto, 1976--1978, most recently as the full-time preparator at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 2006—2011.
Mr Harley has lived in St Catharines since 2002, right next door to where he was also born in 1953.
Since 2002, he has mounted five solo shows and participated in three themed group exhibitions (indicated by ‡) at the Niagara Artists' Company and, after 2005, its successor the Niagara Artists Centre: 'Portrait Landscape Still-life' (2002); 'Lilli-Putting' (2003‡); 'Interference' (2004); 'The Johnny Canuck Niagara Ego Exhibition' (2004‡); 'Cartoonism' (2005); 'Amateur Celebrities' (2006); 'The Dirty Show' (2006‡); and 'Re-creation' (2010)
He was a member of the CRAM collective, 2009—2013, and had two shows at CRAM International; 'Werk Werk Werk' (2010), and '24 kt.' (2012)
EARLY CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Mr Harley graduated in 1978 from the Ontario College of Art, a.k.a. the O.C.A. (now called OCADU), a couple of years before the 'D' for 'design' was appended, and decades before the 'U' for 'university'.
While still a student, he worked as installer for two years—spring 1976 thru summer 1978—at the aforementioned influential A Space, one of the first three parallel galleries to open its doors in Canada (now referred to as 'artist-run centres').[2]
In December 1978, when a disgruntled artist cancelled their A Space show two weeks before its scheduled opening, he conceived and, with Tom Dean[3], co-curated the group exhibition, "Work", which consisted of works on paper by over fifty artists installed salon-style, conception, curation and installation all accomplished within a two-week window. As a cultural marker, that exhibition signalled the end of abstraction as the dominant experimental form and the reintroduction of representation, and especially figuration, into so-called "advanced" art; the soon-to-bloom seeds of neo-expressionism just over the cultural horizon.
According to Andy Fabo, the 'Work' show also "...foretold the coming of the giant, inclusive grass-roots exhibitions like 'Chromaliving', 'Monumenta', & 'New City of Sculpture' in Toronto.”[4]
In 1979, along with Kim Todd and George Whiteside, Matt Harley joined forces with David Clarkson (who soon came up with six other board members), and together they co-founded Toronto's second parallel gallery, YYZ Artists' Outlet. According to Marion Lewis[5], one of the four co-founders of A Space, this was the spark which set off the explosion of activity that followed along the so-called "Queen West strip", which gradually established an international reputation over the next few decades, culminating in Italian Vogue naming Queen Street, west of Spadina, as the single most vibrant neighborhood to be found in the world's most diverse city.
In July of the same year, with fellow artists Napoleon Brousseau, Brian Kipping (1953—2007), Geoff Stewart, and John Oswald, Matt Harley was lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the short-lived but long-remembered post-punk psychedelic band, Artboys.
Also in 1979, he had his first solo show as a professional artist at YYZ Artists' Outlet that September.
His second solo show, at Flavio Belli gallery in 1981, sold out entirely, and was reviewed in two nationally distributed art magazines, Vanguard and Canadian Art.
In late 1983 and early 1984 respectively, having applied with the same set of slides for both, he received simultaneous grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Canada Council, the former awarded to artists under 30 working with traditional media, handling, and subject matter, the latter to artists working on the so-called cutting edge.
Mr Harley's show 'Dinosaurs' at The Cameron Public House in 1984, after being extended for the entire year due to popular demand, in 1985 travelled to The Art Gallery at the U of T's Erindale campus, curated by Nancy Hazelgrove, where it broke that gallery's previous attendance record held by the Group of Seven.
The shifting focus of the artworld saw his work go out of fashion in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. Mr Harley continued making a living with his brush, however: designing and executing both interior and exterior murals for bars and restaurants; sets, props, and backdrops for theatre and TV; specialty paint surfaces in private homes; and portable event décor for the likes of the Ashkenaz Festival and the Harborfront Centre.
He was a member of three bands during this period, the Slaves, the Coolies, and Us Not Them. With the last of these, his song 'One Hit Single', self-released on cassette by the band, achieved the equivalent of its own title by becoming the network's weekly "most requested song" one week on a short-lived college radio network which served seven university campuses across southern Ontario; in effect an esoteric #1 hit single.
NOTES:
[1] The number of group exhibitions mentioned does not include those exhibitions that functioned as previews for fundraisers, meaning they consisted of donated works meant to be sold, with little or no profit going to the artists, whether sold at auction, at a uniform price, or priced individually.
[2] The other two so-called 'parallel galleries' were the Western Front in Vancouver, and the Niagara Artists' Company in St Catharines, Ontario (now called the Niagara Artists Centre). Somewhat incredibly but true nonetheless, all three galleries were coincidently founded during the same two-week period in 1969, none of them aware of the others' activities.
[3] Tom Dean represented Canada at the 1999 Venice Bienale.
[4] From a talk delivered at the University of Toronto, part of a symposium on contemporary art.
The exhibitions listed were held in 1983, 1984, and 1985 respectively. The first two on the list also included works by Matt Harley. Together, those exhibitions defined the direction of the Toronto art scene well into the 90s.
'YYZ Monumenta' was organized by YYZ Artists' Outlet, curated by David Clarkson and Bernie Miller (and perhaps Stan Deniston?).
'ChromaLiving' was organized by the ChromaZone collective, curated by Tim Jocelyn (1952—1986), Andy Fabo, and Carla Garnet.
'New City of Sculpture' was organized by Mercer Union, curatorship unknown.
[5] From a telephone conversation with her on March 14th, 2023
Matt Harley is a Candian artist who has produced thirty-three solo exhibitions to date, so far, and participated in an unknown, but only slightly larger, number group exhibitions.[1]
Stated in artspeak, his work consists of representational drawings, paintings, and installations encompassing contemporary and traditional materials, strategies, and concerns. In plain speech, he draws and paints and sometimes makes stuff. He also writes in various forms and plays the guitar
He has received eleven out of the fourteen grants he's applied for from various granting agencies.
To supplement his income from the sale of paintings, drawings, and hand-made prints, Mr Harley has worked as an illustrator, fabric designer, silkscreen printer, muralist, musician, and cartoonist.
His unsyndicated comic strip, Pablo da Vinci, initially seen as chalk drawings in various locations on Toronto sidewalks in the summer of 2001, first appeared in print in Wegway in 2002. It also appeared quarterly in The City of St Catharines Culture News (2006—2008), and subsequently with the same frequency but in a different format in On The Twelve, the Rodman Hall Art Centre newsletter (2010—2011).
He has been the installer for twelve different art galleries, in both the non-profit and private sectors, beginning with his part-time job at the highly influential A Space in Toronto, 1976--1978, most recently as the full-time preparator at Rodman Hall Art Centre, 2006—2011.
Mr Harley has lived in St Catharines since 2002, right next door to where he was also born in 1953.
Since 2002, he has mounted five solo shows and participated in three themed group exhibitions (indicated by ‡) at the Niagara Artists' Company and, after 2005, its successor the Niagara Artists Centre: 'Portrait Landscape Still-life' (2002); 'Lilli-Putting' (2003‡); 'Interference' (2004); 'The Johnny Canuck Niagara Ego Exhibition' (2004‡); 'Cartoonism' (2005); 'Amateur Celebrities' (2006); 'The Dirty Show' (2006‡); and 'Re-creation' (2010)
He was a member of the CRAM collective, 2009—2013, and had two shows at CRAM International; 'Werk Werk Werk' (2010), and '24 kt.' (2012)
EARLY CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Mr Harley graduated in 1978 from the Ontario College of Art, a.k.a. the O.C.A. (now called OCADU), a couple of years before the 'D' for 'design' was appended, and decades before the 'U' for 'university'.
While still a student, he worked as installer for two years—spring 1976 thru summer 1978—at the aforementioned influential A Space, one of the first three parallel galleries to open its doors in Canada (now referred to as 'artist-run centres').[2]
In December 1978, when a disgruntled artist cancelled their A Space show two weeks before its scheduled opening, he conceived and, with Tom Dean[3], co-curated the group exhibition, "Work", which consisted of works on paper by over fifty artists installed salon-style, conception, curation and installation all accomplished within a two-week window. As a cultural marker, that exhibition signalled the end of abstraction as the dominant experimental form and the reintroduction of representation, and especially figuration, into so-called "advanced" art; the soon-to-bloom seeds of neo-expressionism just over the cultural horizon.
According to Andy Fabo, the 'Work' show also "...foretold the coming of the giant, inclusive grass-roots exhibitions like 'Chromaliving', 'Monumenta', & 'New City of Sculpture' in Toronto.”[4]
In 1979, along with Kim Todd and George Whiteside, Matt Harley joined forces with David Clarkson (who soon came up with six other board members), and together they co-founded Toronto's second parallel gallery, YYZ Artists' Outlet. According to Marion Lewis[5], one of the four co-founders of A Space, this was the spark which set off the explosion of activity that followed along the so-called "Queen West strip", which gradually established an international reputation over the next few decades, culminating in Italian Vogue naming Queen Street, west of Spadina, as the single most vibrant neighborhood to be found in the world's most diverse city.
In July of the same year, with fellow artists Napoleon Brousseau, Brian Kipping (1953—2007), Geoff Stewart, and John Oswald, Matt Harley was lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the short-lived but long-remembered post-punk psychedelic band, Artboys.
Also in 1979, he had his first solo show as a professional artist at YYZ Artists' Outlet that September.
His second solo show, at Flavio Belli gallery in 1981, sold out entirely, and was reviewed in two nationally distributed art magazines, Vanguard and Canadian Art.
In late 1983 and early 1984 respectively, having applied with the same set of slides for both, he received simultaneous grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Canada Council, the former awarded to artists under 30 working with traditional media, handling, and subject matter, the latter to artists working on the so-called cutting edge.
Mr Harley's show 'Dinosaurs' at The Cameron Public House in 1984, after being extended for the entire year due to popular demand, in 1985 travelled to The Art Gallery at the U of T's Erindale campus, curated by Nancy Hazelgrove, where it broke that gallery's previous attendance record held by the Group of Seven.
The shifting focus of the artworld saw his work go out of fashion in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. Mr Harley continued making a living with his brush, however: designing and executing both interior and exterior murals for bars and restaurants; sets, props, and backdrops for theatre and TV; specialty paint surfaces in private homes; and portable event décor for the likes of the Ashkenaz Festival and the Harborfront Centre.
He was a member of three bands during this period, the Slaves, the Coolies, and Us Not Them. With the last of these, his song 'One Hit Single', self-released on cassette by the band, achieved the equivalent of its own title by becoming the network's weekly "most requested song" one week on a short-lived college radio network which served seven university campuses across southern Ontario; in effect an esoteric #1 hit single.
NOTES:
[1] The number of group exhibitions mentioned does not include those exhibitions that functioned as previews for fundraisers, meaning they consisted of donated works meant to be sold, with little or no profit going to the artists, whether sold at auction, at a uniform price, or priced individually.
[2] The other two so-called 'parallel galleries' were the Western Front in Vancouver, and the Niagara Artists' Company in St Catharines, Ontario (now called the Niagara Artists Centre). Somewhat incredibly but true nonetheless, all three galleries were coincidently founded during the same two-week period in 1969, none of them aware of the others' activities.
[3] Tom Dean represented Canada at the 1999 Venice Bienale.
[4] From a talk delivered at the University of Toronto, part of a symposium on contemporary art.
The exhibitions listed were held in 1983, 1984, and 1985 respectively. The first two on the list also included works by Matt Harley. Together, those exhibitions defined the direction of the Toronto art scene well into the 90s.
'YYZ Monumenta' was organized by YYZ Artists' Outlet, curated by David Clarkson and Bernie Miller (and perhaps Stan Deniston?).
'ChromaLiving' was organized by the ChromaZone collective, curated by Tim Jocelyn (1952—1986), Andy Fabo, and Carla Garnet.
'New City of Sculpture' was organized by Mercer Union, curatorship unknown.
[5] From a telephone conversation with her on March 14th, 2023
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2012, “24 kt.”, CRAM International
2010, “Werk, Werk, Werk”, CRAM International
2010, “Re-creation”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2007, “Flowering Trees”, Jordan Art Gallery
2006, “Amateur Celebrities”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2006, "Pages from the Old Master Coloring Book", Strega Café Art Under Glass
2005, “Cartoonism”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2003, “Interference”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2002, “Portrait, Landscape, Still-life”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company
2001, "Pablo da Vinci", comic strip performance in various locations on Toronto sidewalks
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2012-13, CT-International Print Bienalle, Taller Cultural “Luis Diaz Oduardo”, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
2012, Major Hill Park Canada Day Celebration, Ottawa, mural painting performance
2011, “This Is Paradise”, MoCCA, curated by Rae Johnson and Herb Tookey
2011, “Archiving the Eighties”, Toronto Free Gallery, curated by Henrjeta Mece
2008, “new!”, Rodman Hall Art Centre, curated by Marcie Bronson and Steve Remus
2008, “Manifesto”, Members’ Gallery, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2007, "James Street Night of Art", organized by the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council
2006, "James Street Night of Art", organized by the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council
2006, "Art to Ease Crappy Conversation", Loop Gallery
2006, "The Dirty Show", Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2005, "The Blood Must Continue to Flow", MoCCA, curated by Istvan Kantor
2005, "Jizos for Peace", various locations, Nagasaki, Japan, organized by Amidha Monastary, Portland, OR
2005, "Art Under Glass: Ritual at the Cafe", Strega Café , St. Catharines, ON
2005, "Garden City", St. Catharines City Hall, St. Catharines, ON
2004, “The Johnny Canuck Niagara Ego Exhibition”, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2003, “Lilli-Putting”, Niagara Artists’ Company, St. Catharines, ON
2002, “Small Works”, The Jordan Gallery, Jordan, ON
2002, “Regional Artists”, The Pumphouse Gallery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
2001, "The $7 Portrait Show", Penny Arcade
2001, "Buskerfest", Nathan Phillips Square, portait painting performance
2000, “The Green Show”, Money House
1999, "Canadian Painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries", Grimsby Public Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON
Artist's Statement to accompany the exhibition, Werk Werk Werk*, at CRAM International, October 2010
*Goethe's three-word answer to the art student who asked him what the secret to success in the artworld was.
The Life Artistic in Seven Blurbs & One Footnote
Matt Harley’s paintings and drawings combine traditional materials and subjects with contemporary strategies and concerns. Approximately one third of his artistic practice currently seeks meaningful ways to reconfigure painting and drawing as pseudo-Duchampian, site-specific/site-variable installations.
The son of a freelance cartoonist, Matt Harley is understandably drawn to the cartoon world. His first art lesson (at age two-and-a-half, delivered by his brother, aged four) was nothing less than a wall-sized explanation of human visual perception in the phenomenal world, realized with a single black crayon on a white wall, and described in terms of three-point perspective and the observable properties of light acting in relation to the mathematically predictable yet spontaneously sublime Daffy Duck Hotel.[1]
Matt Harley does not like the term “artistic practice” preferring to think that he practiced during his art college years and now simply makes stuff that may or may not be art.
Although he knew at age three that he would one day attend the Ontario College of Art (1975-78), Matt Harley has always disliked getting paint on his fingers; a foible that, shortly after the beginning of Kindergarten and his first finger-painting session(1958), led to the first of countless moments of doubt regarding the probability of actually learning anything useful at school.
Matt Harley failed grade 12 Art, even though his assignments received consistent A’s and A+’s. The reason given: finishing most of the projects at home on the weekend. As further punishment for this diligence, his teacher then confiscated the completed projects, only to put them on permanent display in the art room for years afterward as sterling examples of how best to complete the assignments.
Despite daily efforts to come to terms with whether art is now a branch of philosophy or the other way around, Matt Harley’s dreams and aspirations still include several variations on the theme of climbing to the ultimate pinnacle of the art-world pyramid (as well as somehow getting his studio to begin to resemble those seen occasionally in celebrity-culture magazines).
Matt Harley is a Montrealer who just never had the opportunity of living in Montreal.
[1] This life altering, early childhood ‘art lesson’ is also notable for having included his older brother’s demonstrations of several specific lighting effects applied to a cross-corporate assortment of seven iconic, animated-cartoon characters. Fifty-five years later, Matt Harley clearly recalls this cartoon pantheon as being: Walter Lanz’s Chilly Willy; MGM’s Tom (without Jerry) & Droopy Dog (dutifully operating the hotel elevator); Walt Disney’s Goofy, Donald Duck, & Daisy Duck; and of course Warner Bros.’ Daffy Duck. Paired in his brother’s mural with Daisy Duck for whatever reason, Matt Harley also clearly recalls thinking at the time how, as an artistic decision, the ‘unusual’ pairing of Daisy with Daffy, instead of Donald, was strangely unsettling leaving an unexplainably scandalous impression.
*Goethe's three-word answer to the art student who asked him what the secret to success in the artworld was.
The Life Artistic in Seven Blurbs & One Footnote
Matt Harley’s paintings and drawings combine traditional materials and subjects with contemporary strategies and concerns. Approximately one third of his artistic practice currently seeks meaningful ways to reconfigure painting and drawing as pseudo-Duchampian, site-specific/site-variable installations.
The son of a freelance cartoonist, Matt Harley is understandably drawn to the cartoon world. His first art lesson (at age two-and-a-half, delivered by his brother, aged four) was nothing less than a wall-sized explanation of human visual perception in the phenomenal world, realized with a single black crayon on a white wall, and described in terms of three-point perspective and the observable properties of light acting in relation to the mathematically predictable yet spontaneously sublime Daffy Duck Hotel.[1]
Matt Harley does not like the term “artistic practice” preferring to think that he practiced during his art college years and now simply makes stuff that may or may not be art.
Although he knew at age three that he would one day attend the Ontario College of Art (1975-78), Matt Harley has always disliked getting paint on his fingers; a foible that, shortly after the beginning of Kindergarten and his first finger-painting session(1958), led to the first of countless moments of doubt regarding the probability of actually learning anything useful at school.
Matt Harley failed grade 12 Art, even though his assignments received consistent A’s and A+’s. The reason given: finishing most of the projects at home on the weekend. As further punishment for this diligence, his teacher then confiscated the completed projects, only to put them on permanent display in the art room for years afterward as sterling examples of how best to complete the assignments.
Despite daily efforts to come to terms with whether art is now a branch of philosophy or the other way around, Matt Harley’s dreams and aspirations still include several variations on the theme of climbing to the ultimate pinnacle of the art-world pyramid (as well as somehow getting his studio to begin to resemble those seen occasionally in celebrity-culture magazines).
Matt Harley is a Montrealer who just never had the opportunity of living in Montreal.
[1] This life altering, early childhood ‘art lesson’ is also notable for having included his older brother’s demonstrations of several specific lighting effects applied to a cross-corporate assortment of seven iconic, animated-cartoon characters. Fifty-five years later, Matt Harley clearly recalls this cartoon pantheon as being: Walter Lanz’s Chilly Willy; MGM’s Tom (without Jerry) & Droopy Dog (dutifully operating the hotel elevator); Walt Disney’s Goofy, Donald Duck, & Daisy Duck; and of course Warner Bros.’ Daffy Duck. Paired in his brother’s mural with Daisy Duck for whatever reason, Matt Harley also clearly recalls thinking at the time how, as an artistic decision, the ‘unusual’ pairing of Daisy with Daffy, instead of Donald, was strangely unsettling leaving an unexplainably scandalous impression.
Artist's Statement to accompany the exhibition, Re-creation, at the Niagara Artists Centre, October 2010
Re: Re-creation
There is a room in my apartment, no doubt intended as the dining room, which I like to call the drawing room. The room that has been re-created in the gallery is a fairly accurate representation of the room as it exists. Beyond the door, the flat planes have been faithfully reproduced, but the artworks beyond the door usually live near or in the drawing room itself.
The action of hanging artworks on an essentially muralized surface references an archaic sense of the verb ‘paint’ (hanging tapestries in a room was said to be ‘painting the room’). Included amongst the artworks that I’ve hung are two pieces by my late friends, Dennis Lukas, and Lisa Brown. The closet in which their work will be found has been left intentionally unfinished in honour of their untimely deaths. There are also two works by anonymous artists; a paint-by-number purchased at a flea market in 1982 and a Hindu religious icon purchased in 1994. All other artworks, both finished and unfinished, are by myself from various points in my career, past, present, and future.
In the course of this project, I definitely experienced “I’ll just…” syndrome. This syndrome is common when people discuss the timeframe involved with the tasks that comprise other people’s jobs. As in: “I’ll just build a room in the gallery using drywall and metal studs, and then I’ll just reproduce all of the woodwork using plywood, and then I’ll just paint the whole thing in tromp l'eoil...”
In this way, it is possible to waltz, unsuspecting, into a variety of Herculean tasks.
It makes sense at this point to thank, in the order that the debts were incurred: Susan Kyle, for ferrying me about before she fell ill (you’re better! yay!); Rich Hart, for service above and beyond, etc. (thanks man); the staff at NAC, for their extreme patience (sorry guys); and Shirley Madill, for the loan of some materials and the days off to deploy them. (this project totally would not have happened without you) Finally, I would also like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for assisting with the exhibition.
The exhibition is composed of three artworks. Beside the water cooler, is the second version of The Delphic Oracle’s Last Words. The first version (the fire version) is on display at CRAM. For those who can’t decipher either version, the text reads as follows: ‘Tell the world, the glorious temple has fallen. Apollo’s springs are dry. The world no longer has a prophet.’
For the second piece, I offer a sculptural representation of ‘Aum’, said to be the four-element sound; ‘ah’, the beginning, ‘ooh’, the sustaining and ‘mm’, the passing away. Of course, these three are underpinned by silence, thus making the four elements.
And finally, the eponymous installation work: Re-creation; 2010; dimensions variable; metal studs, drywall, plywood, screws, paint, wood, t-shirts, silk, and artworks.
Re: Re-creation
There is a room in my apartment, no doubt intended as the dining room, which I like to call the drawing room. The room that has been re-created in the gallery is a fairly accurate representation of the room as it exists. Beyond the door, the flat planes have been faithfully reproduced, but the artworks beyond the door usually live near or in the drawing room itself.
The action of hanging artworks on an essentially muralized surface references an archaic sense of the verb ‘paint’ (hanging tapestries in a room was said to be ‘painting the room’). Included amongst the artworks that I’ve hung are two pieces by my late friends, Dennis Lukas, and Lisa Brown. The closet in which their work will be found has been left intentionally unfinished in honour of their untimely deaths. There are also two works by anonymous artists; a paint-by-number purchased at a flea market in 1982 and a Hindu religious icon purchased in 1994. All other artworks, both finished and unfinished, are by myself from various points in my career, past, present, and future.
In the course of this project, I definitely experienced “I’ll just…” syndrome. This syndrome is common when people discuss the timeframe involved with the tasks that comprise other people’s jobs. As in: “I’ll just build a room in the gallery using drywall and metal studs, and then I’ll just reproduce all of the woodwork using plywood, and then I’ll just paint the whole thing in tromp l'eoil...”
In this way, it is possible to waltz, unsuspecting, into a variety of Herculean tasks.
It makes sense at this point to thank, in the order that the debts were incurred: Susan Kyle, for ferrying me about before she fell ill (you’re better! yay!); Rich Hart, for service above and beyond, etc. (thanks man); the staff at NAC, for their extreme patience (sorry guys); and Shirley Madill, for the loan of some materials and the days off to deploy them. (this project totally would not have happened without you) Finally, I would also like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for assisting with the exhibition.
The exhibition is composed of three artworks. Beside the water cooler, is the second version of The Delphic Oracle’s Last Words. The first version (the fire version) is on display at CRAM. For those who can’t decipher either version, the text reads as follows: ‘Tell the world, the glorious temple has fallen. Apollo’s springs are dry. The world no longer has a prophet.’
For the second piece, I offer a sculptural representation of ‘Aum’, said to be the four-element sound; ‘ah’, the beginning, ‘ooh’, the sustaining and ‘mm’, the passing away. Of course, these three are underpinned by silence, thus making the four elements.
And finally, the eponymous installation work: Re-creation; 2010; dimensions variable; metal studs, drywall, plywood, screws, paint, wood, t-shirts, silk, and artworks.
My Manufesto; 2008; ink on paper, digitally assembled; 43.2 x 27.9 cm (17 x 11 inches); exhibited, 2008, Niagara Artists’ Company
