2014 97days catalog

NINETY-SEVEN DAYS

Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition April 11 - 13, 2014 Kwantlen Polytechnic University Cloverdale Campus Surrey, BC

Foreword “There are moments of existence when time and space are more profound, and the awareness of existence is immensely heightened”—these words written by nineteenth French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire form part of one of the most important manifestos in the history of art. At its surface, his is a call upon artists to observe and bring awareness to the modern world around them, to see half he argues is the eternal and immutable. Writing at a moment of cultural crossroads and urban transformation in capitalist modernity not dissimilar from the one we occupy today, the core of Baudelaire’s concern was how “time” was increasingly seen as a commodity—something to be divided up, standardized, rationalized, and exploited, ruthlessly reminding all of us of our limitations and perceived value in measurable terms. For him, the antidote to such evisceration of time was an art that brought awareness to the chance and ephemerality that rose up in face of the increasing rationalization and standardization of life’s moments. In this way, artists were called upon not only to produce work, but also to give new value to time.

It is in this spirit of critical inquiry that I invite you to view Ninety-Seven Days. At its most banal, the exhibition title describes the passage of time over a university semester that the assembled artists experienced together in collective duration.

It is a reminder of the pressure, the call to action, the reckoning, and institutional evaluation that will earn them their long awaited university credential. In short, it is a chronicle about the work of making art. But at its most profound and heightened, Ninety-Seven Days represents a dynamic engagement with time and ideas beyond measure and language that the audience will be called upon to recognize, glimpse, and re-value within themselves. Themes of ambiguity, isolation, meditative journeys, fading memories, mutations and lost stories, comingle with art that engages codes, space, reorientation, technology, nature, and the overcoming of tradition and obstacles. Indeed, if one of the jobs of art is to turn time into things and that we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use and highest level of awareness.

Dorothy Barenscott, Art Historian Fine Arts Department

Learning and experimenting in the fine arts program at Kwantlen has been a rewarding experience for all of us. A special thank you to the faculty members who have taught and mentored us throughout the BFA program. You have inspired us to continue working toward our career in the arts.

debbie ALEXANDER Over time my artistic practice has evolved into creating art that is ambiguous, yet meaningful at the same time. My work explores the human body and disease with my last body of work focusing on cancer. My current work addresses mental illness, in particular schizophrenia. My desire is to engage the audience in a discussion of the struggles

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Charis AU 3

In my artworks, I like to relate to the loneliness and isolation I feel from being part of two very distinct cultures. I put myself in formal elements of my pieces to show myself as the integration of the two cultures I was raised in, the Western and the Asian. The cultural struggle evident in my artworks is also a

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Roxanne CHARLES I am a multi-media artist of Coast Salish and European Ancestry in which we live in today while still maintaining a strong connection to the past. Through art, I have been given the opportunity to become a contemporary story teller that allows me to document the current and historical issues aboriginal people are facing.

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Cale GUY Decoding and reworking found images into a new theme is a cornerstone to my art practice. I am interested in codes, space, and orientation as concepts relating to images. In order to integrate those concepts and themes I create images based on events, either historical or imagined, and build the themes around the event.

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Derek LE BEAU

The themes I observe through my art practice tend to relate to popular culture and technology. I have to explore the possibilities of incorporating multiple, or moving, images into my art pieces. Using multiple projections, or manipulating a new narrative with found footage, is what drew me into experimental can create - particularly with familiar or iconic imagery.

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Celina LEE 11

My art captures moments of what I am going through in my life. I am inspired by obstacle that my life brings particularly the ones I’ve overcome; ones that allow me to question who I am as a person. I feel that my true self is always in motion and always changing. Whether it’s putting the past behind me or accepting a new state of mind, I’d like to say, “This is who I am.”

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Alison MacDonald 13

Our contemporary society is highly focused on the idea of having a career, and constantly striving to obtain more, in terms of education, wealth, and personal accomplishments. In all of this it seems that something that is very basic, and yet core to our survival and well-being, has been lost: family relationships. My work, through portraiture, uses the subject of the mother and child to bring back to light the importance of this relationship that commonly links us all.

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Hira Matharoo Being a traditional artist, my work has always been a continuous experimentation with drawing and painting. Most of the imagery in my works are inspired by my childhood memories, the places I have visited, and the dreams I have had. I take the art-making process as a meditative journey, which in turn becomes spiritual as well as a liberating experience.

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TESSA NICKEL I look to question who we are within our memories. Do we lose or gain parts of ourselves as our memories fade away in my life, I began this series of illustrations in an attempt to bring permanence to my memories. I blocked out small parts of the pieces in black and white to show the loss of that moment. The distortion displays what my mind would look like if it were to represent all of its memories, intact or lost.

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Shannon NIXON My artwork explores the relationship between the natural and the technological world.

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Rhea PAEZ into quiet sculptures and paintings. They also discuss themes surrounding social issues of the home, suburbia-“the North American Dream� and the environment. This work is a way for me to articulate things that sometimes cannot be communicated through language.

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Kirsten SEDORE Darwin’s theory of natural selection tells us that all life is related mutations’ have led us to our current state. In this installation I explore my identity within the complications of domesticated western life, and ask the question: have we doomed ourselves by creating a barrier between our ‘needs’ and the rest of the world?

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Alana WILLIAMS The subject matter of my art practice has always been ing itself in landscapes and animals. My work revolves consequently emerge as my inspiration. I know that my strong connection with nature has helped develop the my artwork in the future.

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SPONSORS

Special Thanks to: Wolf Nickel and Theresa Thom KPU Fine Arts Department Kwantlen Student Association Starbucks Coffee Company Shoppers Drug Mart

Artist Contact Information: Debbie ALEXANDER Charis AU Roxanne CHARLES Cale GUY Derek LE BEAU

debbielou.alexander@gmail.com http://www.charisau.com/ rcharles@live.ca caleguy@icloud.com derek.w.le.beau@gmail.com

Celina LEE

celina.m.lee@gmail.com

Alison MacDonald

alison_jane@icloud.com

Tessa NICKEL Hira MATHAROO Shannon NIXON Rhea PAEZ Kirsten SEDORE Alana WILLIAMS

tessa.e.nickel@gmail.com hiramatharoo@gmail.com x.shannon.nixon@gmail.com paez.rhea@gmail.com

alana.marie.artistry@gmail.com