Week of January 29, 2009, Issue #693
ARTS
The Advantaged: In search of a Curator
Advantaged’s lack of focus fails its intent
Adam Waldron-Blain / adamwb@vueweekly.com
According to the curatorial text of The Advantaged, the works being displayed at The ARTery “will provide the viewer with insight into what it means to be a contemporary artist in urban Alberta right now.” If this is the case, things seem to be bleak—but there is reason to hope, because the show does very little to address its topic, with little significant discussion of this idea or the others outlined in the statement. Despite the good ideas it’s based on and the unassailable impulse to put it together, The Advantaged is crippled by a lack of curatorial rigor and defined by its loudest works as trite, gimmicky and lacking in depth. With most of the participating artists alloted only a single work, the pieces fail to engage one another and create collective meaning or value.
The show, with work by a large and allegedly diverse group of Calgary and Edmonton artists, is crying out in need of some strong editorial decisions. With the work of 22 artists up in the ARTery, the decisions behind the exhibition need to be questioned: while the best ideas are isolated, why are two of the least relevant artists given more space than anyone else? In particular, Ian Mulder has two large, flat and uninteresting canvasses made with a combination of spray-stencil and acrylic techniques, displayed at opposite ends of the room with nothing related near them. In the center is an untitled series of painted dresses by Suzanne Piechotta hanging from the ceiling columns. Perhaps she’s attempting to recall maps with some of the painted patterns, but they lie awkwardly between painting and garment, too heavy and ugly to seem like clothing, and of questionable significance to The Advantaged, with a stronger resemblance to cake icing.
The most visible pieces in the show aim for conceptual humor and spectacle, but end up seeming trite and empty, without depth or reward for close viewing. Beau Lark’s “A Golden Man” exists to make one joke about a clichéd idea of Albertan self-image, hardly justifying its ostentatious nature. The cheap-looking styrofoam construction and cartoonish image do not appear to be aimed at a specific purpose, but the lump of fake gold compares unfavourably with David Cerny’s recent newsworthy depiction of Luxembourg in “Entropa,” his satirical gift to the EU. Mark Gervais and Mark Hamilton’s “Move Away, Travel Lots” is in the same category, this time without the help of scale, presented as unexciting take-away business cards printed with the titular phrases, and it also fails to justify its presence.
Things are not all bad, and it seems entirely possible that these works might even be rescued by an environment where they could resonate more with their surroundings, but their selection seems arbitrary. There are stronger works, but even they struggle with crises both internal and external. Wendy Wan and Drew Ng-How-Tseung’s “Nathan Fillion & Elisha Cuthbert” and Grant Hutchinson’s “Trail” are more successful aesthetically, although underdeveloped and isolated, both being essentially one-note pieces similar to the joke works. The subtle images are trapped: there are humble and well-made drawings by Dara Huminski, Lisa Rezansoff and Smokey and mixed-media pieces by Tandie MacLeod and Genevieve Savard on display, and they are unjustly associated with worse work.
There is one way in which The Advantaged manages to create resonance between the works. Troublingly, it is in the cynical or sarcastic tone found in some of even the best work, like Huminski’s drawings of pollution, Rezansoff’s “Captialism” and obviously in Smokey’s “Dead (Frozen Bum).” One may wonder at its origin, since these artists and certainly the curators are happy enough to call Alberta home, but it is emphasized by the joking attitude taken by the unsuccessful works, and in the long run, perhaps its lack of seriousness is related to the curatorial strategy that birthed it. V
Until Sat, Feb 12
Wed 4 pm - 8 pm; Sat 11 am - 3 pm
The Advantaged
Works by emerging Alberta artists
Curated by Amelia Schultz-Mcpherson, Anna Coe
The ARTery (9535 Jasper Ave)
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