Hamilton
Ken Gregory and Story Time at the Art Gallery of Hamilton│TH&B at 270 Sherman
posted by Stephanie Vegh - April 28th, 2008.
The Art Gallery of Hamilton has some interesting contemporary shows on at the moment, but they might easily be missed due to the current furor being drummed up around Mihály Munkácsy’s Christ Before Pilate, recently returned from extended loan in Hungary and the subject of much local excitement. Not for any reasons particular to the craft of the painting itself, mind you, but because it’s literally huge, over four by six metres, if you missed the dimensions writ bold in the gallery’s online listing.
By comparison, Ken Gregory’s Cheap Meat Dreams and Acorns is a miracle of many small things. Organized by Winnipeg’s Plug In ICA, the exhibition features many – I would argue, perhaps too many – of Gregory’s electronic objects. The best of them are performative in nature, whether triggered by touch or mere proximity, and create a clash of intelligences between object and audience, and even between the objects themselves as they compete for attention in the echoing space. This discord is largely to their collective benefit, though I still question the inclusion of Gregory’s video Desire as part of this exhibition; its looping image of bees attracted to empty, sweating honey bottles has a sideways relation to the technologies at work here – consider, the notion of the drone – but otherwise the work seems strangely out of place and ultimately irrelevant.
Ken Gregory, 12 Motor Bells (detail), 2000, twelve fire alarm bells with motor and computer components
Given its own separate space to play, Gregory’s 12 Motor Bells is far more satisfying for its whimsical and unexpectedly delicate presentation. The alternating chimes of the reclaimed fire bells generate a sound somewhat evocative of childhood school bells, distanced by the caress of motorized steel brushes against their outer surfaces. The overall nostalgia of the experience places the work in a category far removed from the willful cacophony of the rest of the show.
Tony Scherman, Panda Bear: Callisto in Tuscany, 1993, encaustic on canvas
Story Time: Narrative in Contemporary Art is a fairly recent hang on the AGH’s second level. As a survey of storytelling approaches in twentieth century art, the exhibition contains some real gems, including the somewhat unnerving book pages of David Hockney’s Rapunzel and Tony Scherman’s encaustic paintings depicting The Rape of Callisto, with the nymph’s transformation into a panda bear presenting an unexpected conclusion to the myth. Other selections show their age less gracefully; Barbara Astman’s Visual Narrative Series and the surrealist dreamscapes of both Louis de Niverville and Esther Warkor remain firmly rooted in the aesthetics of the seventies and make for alienating, and sometimes even annoying, viewing in the here and now.
Foreground: Gareth Lichty, Range, 2008, garden hose.
Background: Ivan Jurakic, Fair Warning, 2008, excavated plywood, steel
For art that is far more contemporary and closer to home, you are better advised to look to the distinctly Hamiltonian flavour of TH&B. Housed in one of the vast factory floors of the Imperial Cotton Centre complex at 270 Sherman, TH&B is an sprawling group show that takes its name and loose curatorial mandate from the railway that once linked the geographical terrains of Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto. A fair number of the artists involved took the train’s implied transience as an explicit factor in their works. Liss Platt’s literal road trip video Somewhere Between Here and There springs to mind, as does the suitcase-and-sled installation of Susan Detwiler’s Park and Fly.
Foreground: Steve Mazza, The Factory Dreams, 2008, clay and foam
Background: Lesley Loksi Chan, I’m On Break, 2008, taffeta, cotton thread, polymer clay
For others, the factory setting itself held the greater allure and often produced the stronger work. A noteworthy case would be the visual mirroring of Steve Mazza’s The Factory Dreams and Lesley Loksi Chan’s I’m On Break, both of which suspend fanciful smog formations from the ceiling. Chan’s taffeta clouds reference the site’s history of clothing production and effectively distract the viewer from the surprise of tiny sewing machines running along the line of the factory’s hardwood floor – a darkly clever move, despite the miniatures’ unassuming sweetness. The imaginative longing of clouds is the endearing motive behind Mazza’s contribution as well, where the white clay formations spewing from a smokestack resemble sheep more than shameful pollution. In a show where a number of the works lay claim to conceptual aims that are higher than their objects can support, Mazza’s concise statement of “how a factory might dream of more productive times, when it was busy with the making of clouds rather than art” is both simple and stirring.
Tor Lukasik-Foss, This Next Song is Very Special, 2008, reclaimed lumber, mixed media
With so much illustration of concrete terms, the successes of TH&B also belong to those who create evocations of uncertain labours, as in Tor Lukasik-Foss’ towering wooden platform for performance, This Next Song is Very Special. On its own, the raw lumber structure surmounted by a simple stool and a suspended, enclosing box is vaguely threatening and ritualistic, anticipatory of an undescribed performance set to take place for the show’s closing evening on May 3. With further live actions planned for that night as well, TH&B promises to end on a high note in keeping with the ambitious spirit and scale of this vital exhibition.
Stephanie Vegh is a Hamilton-based artist and writer whose criticism has appeared in Scotland’s Map Magazine and various UK exhibition publications. She currently lives in Hamilton and serves on the Programming Committee for Hamilton Artists Inc.
Art Gallery of Hamilton: http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.on.ca/
See website for current exhibitions.
TH&B Collective: http://www.thbcollective.com/
TH&B continues until May 3.
Comments (newest first)
Add comment
« back
