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ANDRÉ LAPOINTE PM40020854/R471313 MIKE GOUGH GRAEME PATTERSON JOHN DEVLIN visual 36 arts nVOLumee 36 Numberw 1 Summers 2014 8 COntENts Decoding Graeme Patterson 2 Feature by Audrey Nicoll The Nostalgia Issue 2 5 E ditorial by Lizzy Hill 6 m ike Gough’s RE t R aCE 24 R eview by Jennifer m cV ei gh 31 m a gi c a n d r ea l i s m E 8 ssay by Aaron Weldon r ose Adams: Survival, 15 death and remembering 6 Feature by Tila Kellman 17 e xhibition Listings 24 r evisiting rebellion 40 Feature by Hilary b ea u mont A conversation 26 with John Devlin 37 Q& A by e r y n Fos t er Natural Fake: André Lapointe 31 Feature by m i k e L a n d r y s o me whe r e s u n ea s y 33 impermanence R ev i ew by leonard paul macpherson 36 M elanie Colosimo’s M i d p o i nt 26 R eview by Katie b el ch er 33 nichola feldman-kiss’ 37 embedded art 15 Q&A by Veronica Simmonds Tamara Huxtable on coming clean 40 Atlantic Spotlight by Daniel Higham Visual Arts News is published three times a year in may ContributorS (Summer), September (Fall) and January (Spring) by Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS), a non-profit charitable associa- editor: Lizzy Hill tion. Charitable registration number 11906 3618 rP001. ISSN 004-0512. © 2013. All rights reserved. reproduction Art Director: Bob Williams without permission of publisher is strictly forbidden. Views Advertising Sales expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily manager: Janet Doble those of individuals connected to Visual Arts News or VANS. 902.455.6960 [email protected] Not responsible for unsolicited material. Publications mail fax: 902-446-0299 Agreement No. 40020854. registration Number 471313. return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Visual Arts Print manager: Peter Fennell News, 1113 marginal road, Halifax, NS Canada B3H 4P7. Editorial Committee: Katie Belcher email: [email protected] Kathleen Higgins Daniel Higham Subscription rates for one year including HST: Individual in Audrey Nicoll Canada $15. International $30. Institutional $32. Publisher: Briony Carros Visual Arts News is a member of the magazines Canada. Web site: visualartsnews.ca VANS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, and Heritage. Subscription and Cover image: editorial enquiries: Visual Arts News, André Lapointe, 1113 marginal road, Laminaires, 2010. Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada B3H 4P7 902.423.4694 [email protected] S u m m e r 2014 Visual Arts News 1 SuspendeD memory Decoding Graeme Patterson AUDREY NICOLL nter into the imaginary world of Graeme Patterson’s Secret own childhood adventures and turning points as we assume the ECitadel, where memory, invention and fantasy collide to provoke role of one or the other of the characters. a multifaceted narrative of childhood friendship, rights of passage Although natural enemies in the wild, this unlikely pair and adult isolation. Conveying a much more personal psychology form the binding link between the four sculptures, which allude than the social resonance of his iconic Woodrow (2007)—a to four pivotal scenes in their relationship. The bison and cougar multimedia installation inspired by his family’s Saskatchewan appear in various incarnations throughout, from lifeless costume homestead—Patterson’s Secret Citadel reveals the breadth of his hides suspended mid-air to bouncing animated video projections. creativity and the complexity of his imagination. It is an ambitious These two characters begin as whimsical compatriots and end exhibition that integrates sculpture, animation, robotics, music and as somewhat maudlin loners; their transformation underscores video projections with humour, insight and melancholy. the vagaries of a life and implies a rather pessimistic depiction of Patterson admits the subjective nature of this work as growing up and becoming an adult. an incarnation of his memories and imaginings of a lost Patterson’s trademark model making skills are as fastidious in childhood friendship and male friendships in general; and he their detail as his earlier work, but there is a noticeable difference in chooses two animal avatars, a sprightly blue bison as himself their materiality and tone. Almost a boyish creativity is evident in and an energetic orange cougar as his childhood friend Yuki, paperclip hinges, toothpick furniture and blanket fort mountains, to guide our way through his tale. The transmutable nature of which evoke childhood and adolescent pastimes. Except for in his these avatars invites the viewer to imagine or remember our Player Piano Waltz (2013), which retains a detached coolness and Graeme Patterson, Camp Wakonda, 1.8m H x 3m W x 2.1m L. Wood fabric, mixed material, video/audio components. Installation view from Secret Citadel, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, February 1 to May 30, 2014. 2 Visual Arts News S u m m e r 2 0 1 4 finesse. Not surprisingly, Player Piano Waltz references the last animation integrates detailed homemade puppets and sets with scene, where the bison and cougar are solitary adults wandering sophisticated digital projections to create a quirky hybrid throw aimlessly through the rooms of a fading gentleman’s club. back to 1960s cartoons like Davey and Goliath or the Thunderbirds. Once again as in Woodrow, the model is meticulously The gymnasium stage for the animated wrestling match sits constructed and void of any three dimensional characters within the under and behind the bleachers, and includes two drawer-like space itself. Instead the set integrates the narrative through looped attachments of a locker room and washroom alongside a weight animated projections viewed through the external windowed walls room and coach’s office. It almost feels like a giant Barbie palace of the club. The viewer is held at bay, unless a coin is dropped into for boys that could be folded up and set up in your bedroom. the pay box to initiate the musical score of the player piano, which Despite the playful elements, competition is the focus of this high serves as the base for the sculpture. Patterson also wrote the lilting school match, where potential alpha status is declared and clique music reminiscent of early Tom Waits. alignments develop. Grudge Match severs the common bond of In the three other sculptures, Patterson moves away from the imaginative play and adventure evident in The Mountain (2013) and self-contained voyeuristic miniature style of Woodrow towards a Camp Wakonda (2013). more openly inviting physicality of space. Grudge Match (2013) Camp Wakonda (2013) is a haunting installation featuring two allows viewers to choose a team and sit on their side of wooden charred bunk beds as the platform for a reconstructed summer gymnasium bleachers to watch the animated high school wrestling camp and vehicular accident. It links the structured independence match projected onto the wall. Patterson’s style of stop-motion of camp with the freedom of a driver’s license as complex rites Graeme Patterson, Grudge Match, 3.4m H x 4m W x 6m L. Wood, mixed materials, video/audio components. Installation view from Secret Citadel, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, February 1 to May 30, 2014. S u m m e r 2014 Visual Arts News 3 of passage. Each rite carries its own inherent danger, but is an version of his “Fortress of Solitude”—where Superman would go essential step in personal character development. Manly adult to contemplate and rejuvenate after saving the world. Of all the skills such as archery and wood chopping are practiced and tested sculptural works, The Mountain is the most joyful, perhaps because in projected animations onto the top bunks’ replicas of the open it reflects the artist’s studio practice—A practice that is connected framed camp buildings—while the lower bunks’ projections find to the creative abandon of childhood rather than the dismal our protagonists locked in a battle within, as the civilized avatar boredom of a gentleman’s club. fights off its wild counterpart. It is a layered and complicated Interspersed between these four works are wall projections that narrative that culminates in the final collision between childhood fill out the narrative of the bison and cougar. Patterson includes and adolescence portrayed in the flaming accident between school an array of technical styles. Some are live action models dressed in bus and family sedan. the bison or cougar costumes, and others involve his puppetry. All The story begins, however, with The Mountain (2012), a are relatively short loops that can be caught between viewing the massive sculptural installation with a white blanket covered sculptures to add another layer of insight and detail. But one must mountain cloaking the ideal artist’s studio within. Two suburban not miss the Secret Citadel (2013), a thirty-minute stop motion family homes straddle either side of mountain linked by telephone animation that tells the unabridged story of bison and cougar, and poles that stretch over the top of the mountain and a secret passage showcases Patterson’s considerable animation skills. It’s a visual tunnel that runs underneath the dining room table base. One house and aural delight. Patterson is an artist with a substantial range of has its furniture neatly stacked outside indicating either a move in technical accomplishment, but he seems to hold animation with a or out of the neighbourhood, simultaneously bringing the friends particular affection. together and tearing them apart. The mountain’s physical inference After watching Secret Citadel, the rest of the exhibition shifted to a blanket fort with imagined secret passageways connects the context.