O'BORN CONTEMPORARY presents:

CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS,
a solo exhibition, featuring paintings, photographs and installation by KATE McQUILLEN.

NOVEMBER 12 – DECEMBER 23, 2011

www.oborncontemporary.com

© Kate McQuillen, Smoke Mountains, 22.25" x 30", smoke on arches, 2011

Exhibition Opening and Reception:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 6 – 9 p.m.
Artist will be in attendance.

Open Panel Discussion with Kate McQuillen and War Child's Alyson Rowe,
Moderated by Rachel Farquharson:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2 – 4 p.m.
RSVP required, info@oborncontemporary.com

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:

This year marks the official ten-year anniversary of the “global war on terror”: on October 7, 2001, the US and British forces began airstrikes on Taliban targets in the Middle East. Terrorism is by definition fueled by fear; it institutes uncertainty as an offensive tactic. In recent years, warfare has shifted from high tech operations to slipshod IEDs, shoe bombs, and suicide attacks. The ability to transform everyday objects into catastrophically dangerous weaponry has made the potential for war today ubiquitous.
 

Kate McQuillen offers a civilian viewpoint on war, filtered through the lens of a theoretical artist. Her work in Conventional Weapons does not concern a direct experience of combat, but rather the sublime notion of its possibility. With improvised mark-making techniques and sculptural assemblages, McQuillen implores the viewer to consider security concerns while delighting in the aesthetic beauty of the objects, themselves. This careful duality exposes the psychological implications of a culture governed by terror, and isolates the sublime aspects of improvised warfare in an effort to reveal its absurdity.

ABOUT THE OPEN PANEL DISCUSSION:

War Child’s Alyson Rowe will join Kate McQuillen in an open panel discussion moderated by Rachel Farquharson concerning both the direct and indirect implications of war on society. As Senior Manager of Community Development for War Child, Alyson Rowe’s humanitarian efforts have taken her to war-struck countries around the world, and her experiences with communities affected by war brings a dynamic facet to the conversation of McQuillen’s Conventional Weapons. Audience participation is encouraged in this open panel discussion, and RSVP is required for attendance. Please RSVP to info@oborncontemporary.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Kate McQuillen is a Chicago-based artist working in print, photography and installation. In 2009, she received her M.F.A. in Visual Arts from York University in Toronto. In the past three years, she attended residencies in the U.S. and abroad: Ox-Bow School of Art (Michigan), Open Studio Printmaking Center (Toronto), Frans Masereel Center (Belgium), and the Center for Books & Paper Arts (Chicago), and the Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL). For the next year, she will be the printmaking Artist-in-Residence at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago. Her current work examines makeshift weaponry and the destructive power inherent in seemingly mundane objects.


For media information:
Natalie MacNamara
T: 416.413.9555
E: Natalie@oborncontemporary.com

O'Born Contemporary
131 Ossington Avenue, Toronto.     
416. 413. 9555
info@oborncontemporary.com