BRENDAN FLANAGAN : PRESET MISPRONOUNCED

As he rose to his feet he noticed that he was neither dripping nor panting for breath as anyone would expect after being under water. His clothes were perfectly dry. He was standing by the edge of a small pool—not more than ten feet from side to side... There were no birds, no insects, no animals, and no wind... The pool he had just got out of was not the only pool. There were dozens of others—a pool every few yards as far as his eyes could reach.

C.S Lewis, in his book The Magician's Nephew, goes on to explain how each pool leads to a different world.  It is this inter-dimensional gateway aspect of Brendan Flanagan's new work that we find so engaging.  He is not showing abstract paintings but rather entry points to the murky and often unnerving world found behind the computer screen.  In this regard the work could be viewed as landscape paintings, depicting an environment that to many people is closer than the wilderness of nature.

Intent on revealing the quirks of the computer programs that have become the ubiquitous mediators of images today, in his paintings, Flanagan plays up and tinkers with the structures that are concealed beneath virtual images. While some grids appear to lie on the surface, others seemingly rise from within the painting’s core, an effect simulating three-dimensional rendering in digital design. The result is a palpable tension between depth and flatness, illusion and abstraction, actual and virtual.

The implausible aspect of his work is felt in a physical way making it crucial to see this visceral work in person to appreciate the full effect. Flanagan's focus surrounds cultural preoccupations with the future, and by insisting on handmade components he undermines the digital processes that "clean up"and standardize contemporary production.

Preset Mispronounced is on view at Division Gallery, Toronto, until February 28, 2015.

NOEL MIDDLETON : ORDER OF OPERATIONS

Walking into Noel Middleton's Order of Operations at Narwhal Gallery brings me back to the hall of plaster casts at the V&A Museum in London.  He has filled the modest gallery with plaster sculptures evoking Roman statuary, columns and artifacts.  He is intentionally calling the viewer to think back to objects of antiquity through his presentation and yet the pieces are casts not of ancient carvings but rather the detritus from renovations that happened in the the very gallery he's situated them.  On closer inspection the statues can be seen as effigies to various trades associated with building; the plumber, the electrician and the framer.  Middleton even marks the passage of time through a tower of cast toilet rolls that evoke a measuring stick at an archaeological dig.

Like the previous renovations that Middleton peeled away, the work also can be viewed as many layered, referencing the demands and restraints that materials place on process, the restoration and appropriation of past cultures, and the importance of seeing the value in cast off and abandoned objects.

The show is absorbing and, like many museum displays of antiquities, overwhelming in content and volume.  The individual pieces each carry their own power and battle for attention and place.  The sublime texture of the plaster and majesty of the constructions contrast sharply with the textures of mundane materials found on closer inspection.  I was delighted to witness Middleton's veneration of tradespeople, having prayed and cursed to their earthly counterpoints time enough.

photos courtesy of Narwhal Gallery

CHAPTER IV : PAINTING WITH FIRE

Closing this Saturday is Naomi Yasui's solo exhibition at ESP Project Space:

Chapter IV: Painting with Fire is a collection of ceramic vessels and photographs produced during a residency in Skælskør, Denmark. These forms look to historical Japanese ceramics fired in atmospheric kilns. The firing process dictates the form, a means to capture the mysterious and erratic colours that emerge when unglazed clay meets fire. Elongated and bulbous forms were created to best capture the effects of firing and cooling with natural materials, while embracing the uncertainty of this method. Yasui’s conceptual practice revolves around process, form, and happenstance. The products of experimentation are exhibited as remains alongside finished pieces, allowing the viewer to glimpse and judge the artist’s edits. 

The title of this exhibition is borrowed from an instructional ceramic book titled Soda, Clay, Fire by Gail Nichols, a text Yasui referenced frequently while experimenting with atmospheric firing. Accompanying the sculptures are photographic works that explore traditional ceramic documentation and play with these aesthetic choices. When three-dimensional objects are flattened by photographs, the viewer is forced to observe them from only one perspective. This relationship between perception and reality again explores what the artist decides to reveal.

MORLEY SHAYUK : LOTUS

Viewing Morley Shayuk's evocative new exhibition Lotus at Paul Petro gallery, it's hard to pinpoint why everything looks so familiar and yet so strange.  He has created pieces rooted in age-old spiritual ideas, referencing sun worship and the changing seasons, and has executed them using the most mundane--even tacky--renovation materials.  You will recognize Durabond stucco, the building material used to cover styrofoam, a material that has become pervasive in exterior renovation and architecture today. There are strange glass shapes that if assembled would create a standard Home Depot door window pattern; there's also an ugly plastic vent, flimsy mouldings, and pressure-treated lumber.

Shayuk's rays of sunshine, organic symbols, and Egyptian-style reliefs have been manipulated, abstracted and hidden by these various building materials, yet their strength and original meaning comes through.  This new collection of works seem to question not just aesthetic beauty but the value of art, poetry, and spirituality in our contemporary age. The seemingly random placement of little bits of glass, stone, and ceramic draws the eye, forcing the viewer to look closer, looking for patterns and meaning and questioning what is precious.  Shayuk looks to our modern man-made landscape and computer-designed structures and asks how this infrastructure aligns with the human soul.

We were particularly intrigued by After Jay Isaac, a copy of a sculpture by the Toronto artist Jay Isaac. Shayuk has "renovated" Isaac's piece, originally made from found pieces of old trim, by recreating these wood elements out of styrofoam and covering them with stucco.  What was originally a raw expression of form and line has become a premeditated assembly. Through this "renovation," the piece becomes bloated and fake, bringing to mind Victorian-era buildings that have been "updated" by styrofoam facades, complete with false keystone and oversized moulding. The copy becomes a controlled cry for reality, whether in the environment around us or in the way we live.

There will be a closing reception at Paul Petro Gallery, 980 Queen W, for Lotus on Saturday October 4, from 2-5 pm, along with Shelagh Keeley's After Lucretius/de rerum naura.