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Perpetual Navigation

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Residency Exhibition

 

Deer Lake

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts

Burnaby BC, Canada

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2023

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Deer Lake Residency Period

August 6 - September 15, 2022

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Perpetual Navigation re-envisions traditional models of ceramics, materials and techniques, exploring the landscape as a subject of flux. The works exalt states of transformation, calling attention to the malleability of structures, porous and unstable surfaces. Trajectories of change and the allure of transience inform many of the assemblages and constructions, making connections between artistic process, impermanence and adaptability though transition.

 

Within the cyclical tension of Earth’s cycles of growth and decay, Perpetual Navigation seeks to expose that precarious balance and prompt reflection on notions of remembering, regeneration and reclamation.

 

 

Liminal Landscapes

Adapting to the new

At the edge of disappearance

Past leftovers of moments with unfixed futures

Reading between the lines

Filling the void

A rediscovery of spaces

Caught between states of transition

Perpetual Navigation

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NO  WHERE

NOW  HERE

 

Residency Exhibition

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ARE Holland

XPO, Enschede, Netherlands

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2018

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ARE Residency Period

Jan 1 - March 31, 2018

 

 

​​​liminal

ˈlɪmɪn(ə)l/

adjective

1. 
relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.




2. 
occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

3. liminal symbols of passage and transformation; doors, ladders, crossings, bridges, pallets.

 

 

Nowhere Now Here explores current issues of globalization and climate change through the lens of the liminal. Our cultural landscapes have been increasingly crisscrossed and blurred through shifting borders and boundaries, directly impacting the ways in which we all cohabitate with one another. Materials, images and objects  visually demonstrate transition and transformation - the visible and the invisible – the seen and unseen. In the exhibition the notion of 'space' and 'place' occurs in conjunction with ideas of the 'temporary' and 'permanent' creating a play between the real and the unreal - the Nowhere and the Now Here.

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NO  WHERE

NOW  HERE

 

Kimoto Gallery

Vancouver BC Canada

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2018

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Throughout this body of work, a feeling of absence and presence is reflected in voids and volumes visually demonstrating transition and transformation, the visible and the invisible, the seen and unseen.

 

Filling the void, adapting to the new, at the edge of disappearance, a rediscovery of spaces, suspended between states of perpetual navigation, Nowhere Now Here.

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The Day Job

 

(First excerpt, 2016)

Single channel video

06:56 min

2003 - Ongoing

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The Day Job started in 2003, this is the first excerpt from hundreds of hours of footage over the years. What started out as a day job has now become part of my routine, hiding art in hard to find places. To notice the unnoticeable, to look where no one does, like a quasi-archeological expedition of absurdity and truth, quixotic adventures of surprise and play. Remember, whatever you are looking at is just the surface layer. Peel it like an onion and see what you can find.

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Click Link to Vimeo page

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Notes - Self Portrait

 

Standard loose leaf paper, pen, pencil, ink,various media and found bits, stamps, tape, stickers, correction pen, found detritus

11" x 8.5"  each page (28cm x 21.5cm)

2001 - Ongoing

 

I have carried a piece of paper and pen on my person everyday without exception since the summer of 2001. I collect and doodle and record until the paper is full on both sides. Then I date the end and start of a new paper which I fold in half 3 times. 

Self Portrait

 

All of my parking tickets and collection letters, sewn into an empty wallet, thread

3.5” x 12.5” x 1”   (8.9cm x 31.8cm x 2.5cm)

2012

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Nomadic Recoils 

 

Residency Exhibition

Äkkigalleria, Jyväskylä Finland

2010

 

Residency Period

August 20 - September 2, 2010 

 

Most of the material for this residency was found and salvaged from the surrounding landscape in the streets, old abandoned houses, farms and barns and then drawn on, combined with or Re-coiled. This was a strategy to regard the disregarded, challenging common perceptions of visual representation.

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Hockey Night in Canada

 

Once Upon A Pond... pond hockey and global warming

Esplanade Art Gallery, Medicine Hat AB Canada Curated by Linda Sawchyn

2009

 

Also exhibited at Vancouver ArtWalk

during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC Canada, 2010

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Project Flyleaf

 

Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver BC Canada

2006

 

fly’leaf” n. 1, a blank leaf at the beginning or end of a book.  2, flyleaves often carry pen trials and inscriptions concerning provenance.  3, used for structural reinforcement to protect the text in the event of worming or damage to the binding.

 

Each work in this series started with a flyleaf and the marks that happened to live on it. The flyleaf is left to the unpredictable course and nature of the books next owner.  Things that were written may become crossed out, or added onto.  A dialogue of spontaneous and uncertain mark making begins over the course of a books life. Flyleaves ephemeral yet silent qualities draw on my obsession with opposites that simultaneously co-exist in perfect harmony.  

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Where I Lay My Head is Home

 

Site specific lay-downs around Earth

2006 − Ongoing

 

Click Link to view the entire series

 

This project started out in 2006 as a reaction and counter balance to the cliché “tourist photo” which has now become a cultural phenomenon known as the “Selfie”. Laying down on the ground in various locations around Earth reflects my ongoing curiosity with self-presentation in public and private spaces and the document of the here and now. There is a recurrent insistence to document the present while remembering the past, to keep a connection to tradition and a conservation of our social and cultural relationships to the landscape around us. This is how I remember.

 

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(un)common (playing)ground

 

Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC Canada Curated by Linda Sawchyn

2004

 

Injecting the unusual into the familiar by turning sports objects inside out.

 

(un)common (playing)ground 1, a (play)ground without rules. 2, taking something common and making it (un)common. 3, unity of opposites. 4, (with)out rules.

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Self Portrait - Mailed Experiments

 

Variable Media and Dimensions

2004 - 2007

 

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Birdhouse Intervention

 

I saw an unfinished birdhouse on my neighbours firewood pile. So I stole it and finished what I thought was the intended design. 5 months later I put it back on the firewood pile.  The hole drilled on the front measures the correct diameter for a sparrow.

 

January - June 2002

Performance
 
Site Specific Interventions
 
Collaborations
 
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Studies in Amplification

 

Amplified objects - (ladder, axe, tennis racket, tank, ice skates, fly, bridge), guitar pick-ups, piezo mics, cello and violin pick-ups, RP-50 effect pedals, mini amplifiers, 1/4 jacks, batteries, tape, leather, thread, fabric

Variable Dimensions

1999 - Ongoing

 

Link

Self Portrait                                                             



Oil pastel, pencil, ink, graphite, crayon, pen, thread, white-out, found detritus paper, tape, various glue, blood, stitches, hair, plastic, fabric, linseed oil, correction pen, flyleaf pages

7" x 4.5" each (approx.)  (17.8cm x 11.4cm)

1999 - Ongoing



I make two or three more every year, and will continue until my death.

Hitchhiker with a Chair

Waiting, trying to move, while sitting.

Systematic confusion



 

On July 15, 2000 at 9:10 AM I headed out from Kelowna BC hitchhiking with a wooded chair across Canada to Laval Quebec.  It took 147 hours 2 minutes and a total of 23 rides.  I had everyone who picked me up sign the chair and leave their mark.

Once the public took the risk to stop, pick me up and transport the chair and I to another destination they ultimately became the performer for the duration of the ride.

 

A sound diary of the events that transpired was recorded with a tape recorder and all the participants were asked if hitchhiking with a chair is art.

Click Link to listen to the Sound Diary:

 

 

Documented with 35mm photographs, Polaroid photographs, a tape recorder, sketch book and the people who happened to drive by and see it.



This performance was part of an exchange between the Alternator Gallery in Kelowna BC and Gallerie Verticale in Laval Quebec.  It was exhibited in the exhibition "Unstable Motion" at the Gallerie Verticale Aug 3 - Sept 10, 2000. Curated by Marcel Saint-Pierre.

 

Sound design: Matieu St.Arnaud, Christian Nicolay and Martin Lord

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts

 

 

Behind the harmless appearance of a week’s trip hitchhiking from British Columbia to Quebec lies a strategy of direct interaction with the spectator, of making people aware of art in practice.  By drawing the drivers attention to the nature and particular conditions of his artistic approach, Nicolay involves him in the final product, makes his participation a vital component of the work-as-action. Nicolay’s desire to involve art in daily life led to this performance of which was exhibited at Galerie Verticale in Laval Quebec, presenting all of the things he collected, photographed, tape recordings of the drivers who picked him up, drawings made on the road and visual debris. The trip’s purpose is made clear through a documentary restitution, in the gallery, of moves and waits, atmospheres and circumstances, silences and words exchanged.

 

-Marcel St.Pierre

 

 

 

 

ATLANTIS 

Various media

2001 - Ongoing

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Nations rise and fall; their symbols endure even as their promises fracture. The cyclical tension of creation and destruction is exposed through materials and forms, questioning the durability of the stories nations tell in times of crisis.

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ATLANTIS deconstructs American flags and reconstructs them into art objects as a vehicle for political discourse.

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ATLANTIS draws attention to the pitfalls of globalization, the instability of the international markets and corrupt financial institutions.

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ATLANTIS combines ubiquitous and mundane materials making a commentary on national self-image and its inherent fragility.



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Deconstructing the American Flag and sewing it into a life preserver creates a complex metaphor filled with contrasting interpretations. The Stars and Stripes are an iconic and ubiquitous symbol of Americas self image. Life preservers are a life saving device and symbolize protection. The USA is, and has been the lifesaver, the all mighty nation of safety and preservation. On the other hand is the USA in need of a life preserver and ultimately sinking by abusing its power? Have they gone too far creating global safeguards for its quest of Freedom?

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Of prominent note:

When I started this project I received a bulk order of American flags in the mail off eBay, I noticed that each flag (that was wrapped in plastic) had a prominent “made in China” label attached to its corner. I thought, “Here it is” hidden in plain sight. An American company having their own flag production outsourced and manufactured in China. If the American dream is made in China, the Chinese dream is made from America. So when I deconstructed the flags and sewed them into life preservers - I attached the made in China labels back into the corners of each preserver.

 

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