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 January 8 – February 13, 2010
Jennifer Chan and Jericho Tan, Rare, 2009. See more on Fresh Meet
Featuring work by Alysha Alexandroff-Appleton, Jennifer Chan, Claro Cosco, Jacquelin Heichert, Mani Mazinani, Jolene McKillop, Dan Epstein and Brian Sasaki, Margio Rana, Alexandra Sandison, Jericho Tan, and Jessica Vallentin. Curated by Maria Campos.
As I put together the exhibition, the exploratory journey into our identification with nature took some unexpected routes. The original idea of “humans as transforming agents of nature” went beyond the polarized discourse of the organic versus the processed or the mediated versus the directly experienced and became the creation in itself, encapsulated into a hologram or simply desire without hunger – like for example in the struggle of Jennifer Chan who plays at reaching for forbidden succulent grapes (Rare).
The responses to the originally stated theme of “breathing in, feeding on and drinking of the world” are as distant as one can imagine from those Seventeenth Century Hollanders who so much liked to paint food and drinks. Furthermore, there are also no images that can be remotely related to the fine luncheons or dinners celebrating uncomplicated domesticity such as in the works of the postimpressionists Pierre Bonnard and Paul Cezanne.
The “breathing” comes from Claro Cosco’s Mouth that, due to its large scale can be taken for the caves of a mysterious mountain with an organic character. Meanwhile, if we try to understand whether we use food for communion or domination, the responses collected here suggest neither exclusively. There is not one artwork that evokes the feeling of communion with nature. Domination is evoked by Chan’s work, portraying the male gaze or presence as the obstacle that prevents the female from reaching her object of desire. Rather than communion or domination, there is an alternative reality shaped by the fruits of a still life hologram by Dan Epstein and Brian Sasaki.
Metaphors about eating seem to be used to talk about how we consume things, how we live. Picking fruits at the market in a Torontonian grayish day (Margio Rana) functions to show the boundaries of our communion with nature, let’s say nature in an urban setting.
The gaze is framed by the lens of a camera or by the computer monitor, a substitute for nature while still making use of the shape of a banana, a pear, or a piece of orange (Dan Epstein and Brian Sasaki). The material of food and drink are transformed into an ephemeral ‘light snack’ (Mani Mazinani) or cocktail drinks (Alysha Alexandroff-Appleton), constructing a reality that becomes purely instrumental.
If it is through art that we can make sense of our relationship with nature and define the character of a certain historical moment, this exhibition makes evident that the virtual interwoven with the concrete and the real construct new levels of experiences and ultimately transforms what is lived and perceived of our surroundings. In order to identify and feel this transformed perception of nature we need to give ourselves time, offering to each of the displayed artworks qualitative attention to connect the pieces as a whole and build our own judgment. After all, this show is about food and drink and should be tasted as such, even if just to re-define your own “palate” in art terms. The material being exhibited is as fresh as vegetables just picked from the gardens. The content has that kind of sincerity and drive only found in young artists totally dedicated to finding the right way to express their most intense thoughts and feelings.
~Maria Campos, Curator
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