Invite & vinyl lettering for Western Front. Typeface: “Klimax” by Ondrej Job.

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Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler
June 7 - July 11, 2008

Curated by Juan A. Gaitán

Abbas Akhavan, Arabella Campbell, Antonia Hirsch, Paul Kajander, Sarah Mameni, Ron Tran

Curated by Juan Gaitan

The title comes from a text from 1970 by Dore Ashton, art critic of the abstract expressionist moment and vehement opponent of minimalist and conceptualist practices. In her view, aesthetic criteria were abandoned as a result of these practices that succeeded the painterly abstraction of the 1950s. Today the skeletal aesthetics of minimalism and conceptual art provide the most prevalent source of art historical references that appear in contemporary art. But this referencing is a far cry from the modernist belief in an aesthetic program, and can be seen as polemically built into the works of art exhibited. One could say that the aesthetic and the subject matter are problems with a-parallel trajectories that are brought together in the artwork in order to illuminate each other. This exhibition explores this dual dialogue in which a range of subject matters (social, political, etc.) are inflected with art historical archetypes.

At last, everything is done and summer is here! Click here to see a quick time lapse of day 1 (of 3) of the setup at the grad show. Cam Dales on the right.

Curious to see if there were any stark similarities or contrasts within particular films, Pie aims to create an incredibly simple and concise baseline of comparison of films trough one particular trait: colour. This project was also the result of my first explorations into processing. The result is a number of triptychs comparing various films of particular trilogies, directors or genres. Click to see more.

An animated gif told in 80 pages. Original gif courtesy of the internet surfing club. Things, being school, are finally starting to slowly emerge towards an incredibly anticipated end in the near future. Graduation (and a sunny summer) is only three weeks away! The Emily Carr Grad show opens May 3, 2008 at 19h.

Yet more ongoing process/ephemera towards semester grad project, a group of flipbooks portraying digital events: An animated gif animating, copying a file, hourglass cursors, a webpage loading etc… Set of handbound books recreating these digital animations in an analog format.

More elements for degree project, a fully functioning paper ‘walkman’ (built with innards of a disassembled Sanyo tape player, cardboard, paper, scotch & masking tape and glue) which will be exhibited along with a variety of cassette albums where midi versions of albums have been dubbed over the original tapes.