About the Exhibition

Exhibition curated, and Essay written, by Kim Huynh

In the focus of today’s Capitalism, where daily routines depend on time and place, our Consumer driven environment can be quickly changed by the impact of a social political event. As some present situations, economists are watching the USA election, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto ‘s assassination has disrupted the Middle East’s oil market, while in our own backyard, British Columbia is working out its municipal balance for the 2010 Olympic in hope for an improvement on the economy through tourism. As time and place constantly shift and events often concur with a social- political movement, our quality of life is blurred by the needs of communities and corporations, and no longer a focus of individualism. One of the pressures upon Canadian society is to “move along”, “blend in” or “be a part of a larger whole”. This slogan is also drummed into our emotional and intellectual selves. Who are we, and how do we relate to our loved ones at the end of the day?

In Jill Ho-You ‘s print- media, she cleverly situates a parallel paradigm where the duality of Violence vs. Civility is played out in contemporary life. Beautiful and delicate etchings of a colony of insects are developed through stages on rice paper; then, cut-out and carefully pinned onto the body of a supporting paper revealing various layers of the relief work. Parts of the paper have been beat up, ripped open and pounded into the body by a forceful act, which allow the contents of the stained newspaper to be identified. The juxtaposition of two acts questions its relationship by a same hand: a hand of caring and nurturing, and the same hand of anger and deconstruction. How do these human qualities co-exist in the same person, and how do they co- coincide in human interaction today, which remains a mystery of our continuing human development.

Another concern of human development in this exhibition is the series of Self-Portraiture by Melanie Wilmink. Intricate layers of drawings lay on top of one another with poetic mark-makings and abstractive provocation. A process that allows intuition of plays, work and re-work to occur within the same chance. The printmaking procedure of working with chemicals and pigments is set, but all conditions are shifted and free of interplay to challenge the locale of the self and the parameters of the self. In the process of developing identity, how far can we expand from the centre before we recognize it is too far from “the core”? Or, is any point in the process a collection of self and identity? Given the fact that the locale of the self rests on an ever -changing time and place, the process of understanding one’s identity is also not fixed. One could say that over time, one recognizes the pattern of behavior of self and the consistency of its patterns give clues to the understanding of an identity.

On the contrary, Alana Tyson ‘s focus is from outside in. The artist pursues the essence of Beauty by looking at the external social-cultural values played on an individual. The classic binary of external and internal Beauty is sometimes inter- changed due to conflicting messages in the society. The issue of Beauty has held a controversial place in the history of the West over the last two centuries, and has become ever more complicated in Consumerism today. Tyson provides examples of how virtues of a woman were viewed and conditioned in the West through 1 constructions of Gothic architectural designs, and etchings of women in various rituals over various times. Careful manipulation of material, symbolism and the ancient technique of printmaking to speak about the classic issues of the past and that continue to exist today. Intricate design of dark silver boxes (like metal) and architectural arches appear handsome and serious; however, a closer look at these containers reveals a light foamy plastic facade. The realization of the material shreds new light on the inner value and adds another layer of reading to the work. Juxtaposed with the use of the dark silver containers, inside, Tyson provides a contrasting material of red silk, images of altars and various Biblical figures as examples of virtues that a woman is supposed to hold in history.

Marigold Santos provides four pieces of print media, which address a divergence of Private vs. Public, Role Play at home, and its projection into the external world. Elegant drawings consist of a young girl in animal likeness and of three -dimensional stuffed animals personify human form. In place of a child as a protagonist, Santos’ beautiful manipulation of animal and human’s inter-change/play provides a narrative in between a fairy tale and a critique of contemporary literature. Viewers are drawn into the simple naïve suggestive element in pastel colors and are encouraged to make sense of them; however, there is no storyline. Each panel is like an adjective; the artist is carefully operating on the syntax of meaning without giving out the story. This playfulness constructed between author and readers demonstrates another essence in child’s play. Santos posits the concern of role-play between a young girl and two cats at home, and how they transcribe into future roles, and how far or near the relationship between animal and human? …All of which are possible readings to these works.

Although each work from these four artists provides a different issue in human values in an unstable environment, one certainty is that none of these concerns will rest on a fixed point in the journey of human development, since each quality of human value attaches to social-cultural symbolic significance. As members of a society, we can’t help but hold on to each duality of human characteristics in a unique division to provide security and comfort. Each shifting point in this human development transgresses through time and place, and the concerns in these art works reflect unsettled distinctions between order and chaos by presenting material and value continuity between these states of human transgression.

Artists: Jill Ho-You, Marigold Santos, Alana Tyson, Melanie Wilmink