About the Exhibition

Three Lines serves as an exploration of the de- and recontextualization of pop-culture nostalgia, in a visual arts medium that both elevates and denigrates seemingly meaningless ephemera. The artist’s background with cinema as both an academic and unabashed fanboy obsessive informs the monumentalizing of often unmemorable lines of dialogue from popular Hollywood cinema. By including references to these films, which epitomize postmodern pastiche, the work continues to reappropriate the reappropriated, furthering their postmodern status as well as fashioning them into a decontextualized piece of text to be taken at nearly face value. The work then serves as enigma to those lacking the nostalgic reference, and makes those who are so equipped complicit in the work and the cultural dialogue it strives to create.

Artist Bio: Paul Baker is an emerging artist based in Calgary, Alberta. He holds a BFA in Visual Studies from the University of Calgary. He is a printmaker at Burnt Toast Studio, also working in photography and music.