Forward I was at a dinner party recently when the topic of BFAs came up. It was a story told by a doctor, no less, who began his tale during our meal of a hired hand on his father’s farm. The hired hand, after being in the employ of the family for many years, resigned to further his studies. He first completed a degree in Education but soon became disillusioned by the apathy of the students he was teaching. Our hero then decided to become an artist and pursued a degree in Fine Arts. The doctor’s story culminated at the point when some years later the former farmhand, jobless, was forced to return to the farm and resume his previous work after having hit the end of the line once completing his “Bachelor of Fuck All” (the doctor’s words). I bit my tongue and tried to take the high road. I don’t know what kind of response he was expecting, telling a story like that to a room full of artists and musicians. I can only hope that, after asking me soon afterward what my background was, the doctor felt sufficiently small. Although this particular doctor’s arrogance (and the wine) may have coloured the situation, his opinion is unfortunately all too common. Since the 19th century and the onslaught of modernity, a blind faith in progress has resulted in a world focused on streamlined productivity, profit and a mechanistic approach to living that has left very little space for the contemplative. If the purpose of an activity or object is not immediately apparent, its life may be all too short. The artists graduating from our program have spent four years looking for what perhaps could best be described in the words of the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant as “purposiveness without purpose”. In opposition to the move toward speed and immediate gratification, the Fine Arts program is dedicated to looking more closely, questioning everything, and taking an active role in creating varied experiences (be it visual, auditory, or physical). In a culture filled with the malaise of the immediate, these eleven artists are the perfect antidote to a sickness I don’t think the good doctor has a hope in hell of fixing.
Robert Gelineau Department of Fine Arts
In memory of Margaretta Bootsma 1953-2011 remembered as an expressive and intuitive artist and teacher
Grad Show & Open Studio & Thesis 4400
Fine Arts Grad Exhibition April 13 - 18, 2012 Kwanten Polytechnic University Cloverdale Campus Surrey BC
April 2012
Andres Salez poster design Emily Jae Young Han cover design Elizabeth Anderson editor & layout design
Heartfelt appreciation to all the teachers and tech assistants who were our guides, mentors and cheer leaders throughout our artistic journey. It is very exciting to be among the first graduates to earn our BFA at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Elizabeth Anderson
December 2011 BFA graduate
Fragments in Light capture single moments of memory. The theme is a passing through a life’s time, an archaeological dig revealing one past fragment at a time. Meaning is constructed by putting the pieces together and filling in the gaps. Personal memories frequently appear in random order and pop up sometimes without warning and can be triggered by sound, time, or taste. Memory tells a story in a non-linear fashion. The form and structure of this piece uses hard surfaces, fragile digital prints on tracing paper and coated with wax. Light shines through illuminating the images in each box. I am playing with the materials as a metaphor of how there is a desire to preserve certain memories whether personal or public archival collections as well as referencing early technical innovations in photography and film. While Fragments in Light refers to personal archive of memory Near Journey’s End is about coming to terms with mortality, integrating past with the present. It’s important that the video passes through the air in addition to the audio- my voice, a form of being present in the same space as the viewer.
Near Journey’s End, 2011 Video installation
http:wiredliz.blogspot.com
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Fragments in Light, 2011
Mixed Media: Waxed digital images in sheet metal light boxes,
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Kenny Chui
April 2012 BFA graduate
The Existence of Absence consists of two projection installations that play with the idea of presence and absence. I wanted to make an art piece that will only exist during the exhibition and then have it lose its meaning over time. I wanted it to become “nothing” after the exhibition is over. That is why I chose projection as my medium. By injecting myself into the artwork, it symbolizes the feelings I have at the moment. I am only “alive” when the projection is on; once the exhibition ends and the projectors are turned off, I will no longer “exist”.
Existence of Absence
Video installation and paper sculpture, 2011.
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Existence of Absence
Video installation and paper sculpture, 2011
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Emily Jae Young Han
Grounded Ungroundedness 2012 6ft x 6ft, metal pipes and metal wires
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Kelsey Lacroix
April 2012 BFA graduate
My latest work is the result of an exploratory process, in which I created sculpture and drawings, on the theme of personal legends and life Journeys. The dome sculptures are made out of driftwood I collected from White Rock Beach where I go to contemplate. The domes are held together with PL200 and screws to keep them durable. I used willow charcoal on Stonehenge paper and transparent papers that have been mounted on the wall in chaotic layers. Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor who creates art from nature’s natural resources, influences the formal and sculptural qualities of my work. I was particularly swayed to build more permanent sculptures in similarity to Goldsworthy’s River and Tides, 2001, work where he built an enormous and impermanent dome out driftwood that he found on the side of the riverbank. I chose to work with driftwood because it is what I believe to be the perfect symbol as a metaphor representing life journeys. Each piece of driftwood is not only beautiful but is aesthetically individualized. Driftwood is like a person; each distinct feature shows the personal journey it has travelled. It reveals that is from an Island or another land across a body of water, is from a particular tree in possibly another climate and has fallen off a boat or somewhere else in the world to drift and land on the shore. I am interested in the theme of journeys because I question the journey that people travel in their life span of less than 100 years and am lost to where I may go in mine. I used the circular dome shape in representation of the circle of life. The drawing’s aggressive markings of charcoal and eraser is the physical release of my mental angst of being caught in a spiraling and continuing cycle of deciding where I plan to drift to next in my personal journey.
Kelsmozy.ar t@g mai l.com
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Drifted, 2011 Installation, driftwood, charcoal, chalk
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Debbie Langtry
April 2012 BFA graduate
Home isn’t necessarily the place you live, but the familiar space or idea you depart from. We often leave home to find a sense of individuality only to discover that we’ve either brought it with us, or are drawn to return to it. This concept inspired my current series of work called “Home Sick.” It explores the dynamics around conforming to cultural and familial expectations. As a woman, I find that no matter how much empowerment, individuality or progress I believe can be obtained, there is no escape from expectations that never allow me to stray too far from home. Sculpture is my main focus but I also create installations, paintings, drawings, ceramics, photography and video. Mixed media and experimentation are a large part of my creative process.
Muscle Memory, 2012, video installation,
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Camelion 2012 wax sculpture Camelion, 2012 detail, wax sculpture
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Cubation 2012 wax sculpture Home Sick detail 2012 wax sculpture
Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Chelsea Lawrick
April 2012 BFA graduate
This body of work is concerned with the relationship between humans and nonhuman animals. Using painting as a medium of expression where the space can be non-literal, the works contain images of taxidermy and non-taxidermy dead animals to represent the notions of the trophy, domination and animal identity. I am interested in the moment when the once living animal becomes an object of collection, display, memory and pride. We separate ourselves from our primitive instincts in the name of a civil society but still express it through hunting re-named sport. Concurrently, we show off the triumph of the kill through taxidermy and display, similar to the way a cat will bring a captured bird home to show their human owner.
Look What Father Brought Home 2011 Collecting Pride, 5’ x 5’ oil on canvas http://secret--places.blogspot.ca/ 18
4’ x 5’ , oil on canvas
April 13 - 18, 2012.
Look What the Cat Dragged In 2011 oil on wood panel The Housecat’s Trophy 2011 48”x30” oil on wood panel
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Yvonne Lee Overwhelming Modern is a video showing images of Richmond and manipulating them into something new, and something out of the ordinary. The piece symbolizes how little time we have with these landmarks and areas, because in a year or even months, it can all be destroyed to have something new built that takes up more space. Each video clip shows different sides of Richmond. The black and white represents the older Richmond, turning into something modern as the clip goes on. The top left frames represent the anxiety of having buildings continuing to grow and grow as the city begins to develop. The piece is done in Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, and uses stock images from the Richmond website. I wanted to use these images and play on how Richmond wants to advertise itself. With the amount of housing happening in Richmond lately, I wanted to use this as my theme. Open spaces are quickly being filled with new buildings such as apartment buildings, townhouses, condos, and houses. There is nothing unique or interesting about these new homes, because they are modelled after every other house in the lower mainland.
Overwhelming Modern. 2012 video, drawing
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Shelly Leroux
June 2012 BFA graduate
Wreckage utilizes natural elements and found materials excavated from Crescent Beach, Surrey, BC. Found materials are very suggestive to me as they can trigger memories and associations of a larger cycle of existence. These discovered articles are both natural elements that contribute to the cycle of life within the beach environment, and the debris left behind from human activities. This is important because it is the definition of the so called ‘man-made’ and the ‘natural’ that underpins my investigation. Through this combination of materials, the work aims to evoke a tension between the recognizable and the abstract. This collection of natural materials mixed with human debris touches on the disturbing fact of over consumption and waste that characterizes our world. The manner in which I have displayed the work references formalist, abstract sculpture while echoing the randomness of the objects as seen in the original beach environment. The ephemerality and its reflection in the natural world greatly impact me. Environmental artists such as Tony Cragg, Andy Goldsworthy, and Robert Smithson, have greatly influenced my practice. It is their exploration of the environment, innovative use of materials and display, and their desire to intersect art with everyday life that inspires me.
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Wreckage 2012
Scupture installation, found objects and glycerine soap
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Wei Heng Liu
June 2012 BFA graduate
My work questions excessive desire for beauty, identity, and value. I search for subjects from advertising and fashion industries that tend to sell ideal images to the audience. I use face images from fashion magazines as my references because their flawlessness drives my desire to pursue the same appearance. I depict my close-up lips and eye in a similar way which they are magnified in advertising images. My canvases are like my mirror that reflects how I observe my face. Using painting as my medium to convey my idea is essential because I can construct and change my appearance completely. The transformation from advertising images to own art shows my struggle to resist my obsession with beauty. Living in the material world, I feel many things around me are attractive, yet unnecessary and artificial. Most of us are in the consume-purchase cycle. In a way, we are constructed by what we buy. Therefore, I want to question what beauty is, what kind of role women represent in our society, and who we want to be.
Observation, 2012, 10� x 10� oil on canvas.
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
Obsession #3, 2012, 48’’ x 36’’ oil on canvas. Obsession #5, 2012, 34” x 48” oil on canvas
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Kimberly Roseweir
Class of Fall 2012
My art reflects a sentimental connection to my birthplace, South Africa. I want to expose the issues around hunting, poaching and the endangerment of these magnificent creatures. My collection of art is influenced by Nick Brandt’s magnificent photography that captures the atmosphere and environment of the isolation and intimacy of each animal. I create my paintings to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye. I form another layer addressing ethical issues of endangerment and extinction that is rather unsettling and alarming. The colour palette reflects the earth through the browns and blacks, while the darkness refers to death and butchering of the animals, layers and glazes deepen the imagery and create an ethereal beauty. The reason I have chosen to do macro close up paintings that seem slightly abstract is for the viewer to realize what the image actually is, and then contemplate why it is this way. I want the viewer to look at the series as a whole and to realize that the sacredness of these beautiful animals is vanishing.
Endangered Animals Series, 2011 8 2’x3’, oil on canvases
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Andres Salaz My paintings are an amalgam of inner memories, of allegorical places, beings and atmospheres that now, exist. The interaction between the characters is not an established one since it is in constant change reflecting human interactions in the reality outside of the paintings. The use of paint allows the imagery to materialize, to exist, since painting has an essence and that essence is illusion. Only through painting can these fractured narratives mirror the echoing quality of the bombardment of information and one’s physicality in relationship to the surrounding space, both natural and artificial, and the transformation of this space in one’s psyche. The synthetic triumph of modernity is contained by the mysticism of the natural landscape, invented rituals and symbols. It is a work in which the characters portray dualities: the beautiful and the misunderstood, the natural and human-made, the conscious and the subconscious, hope and darkness.
...and so they became to be, 2011 48" x 60" oil on canvas
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April 13 - 18, 2012.
The Very Deniable Certainty of Existing Afflictions. 2011 two panels, 48" x 33" each, oil on wood
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Grad Show & Open Studio 4400
Congratulations Everyone!
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