2010. Mixed Media. 4" x 20" x 60".
The Building Materials® series formally investigates the contemporary relationship between artist, artwork, and audience. The enquiry began with an examination of some of the physical components of a two-dimensional artistic work (the figure, ground, substrate, and frame) and delved backward until it reached the other side.
2010. Wood, drywall, plastic vapour barrier, fibreglass. 4" x 20" x 60".
The self designed damask pattern is hand painted directly onto the drywall. The colours are the same as drywall sheathing and gypsum to reflect the penetrating nature of the series. In order to retain its real world use-value, the wall piece is built so it can be inserted into an existing wall and meet Canadian building code specifications. This function is supplanted by suspending the piece and the section becomes sculptural. The artistic transmutation is echoed by the direct screen printing of the trade markings on the plastic vapour barrier.
2010. Acrylic on canvas mounted on plywood. 4" x 20" x 60".
The back of the painting, which is typically concealed, becomes the front when viewed in relation to the other wall pieces. The craftsmanship of the interior structure is addressed in relation to the painted surface. The wood studs are painted to mimic Wall Piece #1. The fibreglass insulation is represented by a garish impressionistic brushstroke and my name and personal logo have been inserted into the trade markings.
2010. Stainless steel, glass, cast lead, 23k leaf, shredded paper. 4" x 20" 60"
Transcendental, bathetic, or possibly both, the piece has undergone a ridiculous alchemic transmutation beyond any original use value. The damask pattern is cast lead in relief, gilded in 23 karat gold leaf. To embody my idealistic, and inevitably futile, pursuit for transcendence through over satiation, behind glass and between mirrored stainless 2x4 s (that reflect a viewer s gaze), there is an inseparable tangle of shredded spiritual and theoretical texts (dark pink) and the text from Don Quixote (light pink).
2010. Mixed Media. Each piece 4" x 20" x 60". Installation: Emily Carr University.
2010. Mixed Media. Each piece 4" x 20" x 60". Installation: Emily Carr University.
2010. Mirrored stainless steel, and acrylic on 2x4". 36" x 3.5" x 1.5" ; 39.4" x 3.5" x 1.5"
Two similarly sized lengths, one in wood, the other mirrored stainless steel, are propped beside one another. The wood 2x4 is 39.4 inches one metre in length, the same as the stoppages from the work '3 Standard Stoppages' made by the iconoclastic artist who believed art should appeal to the intellect and not the senses, Marcel Duchamp. Essentially an assisted readymade, the 2x4 has been modified; the trade labels have been appropriated and refigured with my name and personal logo. Although the wooden length retains a traditional function as a useable building material, the steel piece does not. Arguably more precious in its commodifiable, fabricated and fetishistic shininess, it is without signature or immediately discernible functional value.
2009. Hand punched pinholes every 1/16” on paper. Size: 27" x 39".
Using the logical structure of a grid, a tenet of modernism, I meticulously poked a hole every one sixteenth of an inch using a sewing needle in order to create the 20 by 30 inch motif. For over forty hours, I remained painstakingly aware of every insertion to correctly accomplish the machine like perfection I yearned for, which ultimately erased any attestation of authorial presence. A form of punishment for my pride, in its 'perfection', I aimed to become invisible. A meditative undertaking, my repetitive act became a way to experience time, a seemingly logical albeit physically ungraspable abstract idea. Simultaneously, it was flagellation for my desire to make something pretty, which I related to a self serving act of ego inflation, and viewer pandering.
2009. Screenprinted iridescent varnish, size, & 23k leaf Size: 27" x 39".
The print is comprised of a high gloss damask pattern on matte black paper with hand appliquéd gold leaf. In the top left corner, the missing section is identical in shape to the gold spatter. Imperceptible from certain angles, because of the nature of reflected and refracted light, the entirety of the work is never viewable from one stationary viewpoint. Instead, a viewer must move in order to take in the whole of the print, allowing their imagination to fill in the gaps. Although the viewer controls their movement, the formal attributes of the work cause it. From one angle, the print is monochromatic, neither gold nor pattern are discernible.
2009. Metal paint cans, drywall, insulation, vapour barrier, inkjet on paper. 18" x 18" x 28.5"
2010. Acrylic and mica interference on canvas mounted on plywood. 39” x 39”.
Colour and shape disappear from bottom right to negative space at top left. The work cannot be fully seen from a stationary viewpoint and the effect is practically impossible to photogrpah.
2010. Acrylic on wall. 120" x 10". Installation: Emily Carr University.
2010. Screenprinted blood and xerographic on vellum. Each 20" x 30".