Gabriel Dubois is back to Stolen Space gallery after having taking part earlier this year to a group show – read about it here and his new works for his debut solo show – Kykkeliky are bold, this is the least you can tell about them.
German-Canadian artist, Gabriel Dubois grew up in the streets of Vancouver and started to drop graffiti on urban spaces of the Chinatown area. However what I was seeing all around me were far away from it: large wooden panels with bright coloured lines that seem to run at each other or from each other while meeting a multitude of geometric shapes on the way. Such works can quickly turn into a big mess but Gabriel Dubois succeeds in keeping some harmony of this buzzing gathering of elements.
Gabriel Dubois’ visual language is rich like the colours palette used. His pieces are vibrant and complex it seems but looking at it a bit longer and you may see some logical juxtaposition of those lines next to that series of circles.
Gabriel Dubois is a big fan of turning discard objects of modern culture into art and here into something alive. This is why you will find stuck into one of his pieces a cut-out of an old magazine representing a car. His abstract approach inspired from his numerous travels to places like Sri Lanka, India or Japan is the expression of his keen interest of hand painted signs he picked up at a very early age.
You will also notice that wooden (his surface of choice) structure standing at the entrance of the gallery (see pic below) which is another angle to Gabriel Dubois’ art practices.
Related link
> Sculpture and paintings by Gabriel Dubois on Boom
We are surrounded by coded communications. The artists of This ‘Me’ of Mine present an interesting insight into the difference gender makes to interacting with these coded communications. Curiously, I became aware of this difference by posting snippets, sometimes almost cryptic messages, from some of the artists’ bios on Twitter. A few weeks ago I made these four tweets:
11 Sept 2012
@HarrisonHayley“a lover of objects and stories, not necessarily…historical sense but the bits that are not said. ”
12 Sept 2012
‘a set of anecdotes where meaning is levelled by celebrating the beautiful and grotesque,’ Mel Titmuss on her work
13 Sept 2012
@Captainpye on her work, ‘…a complex mixture of scientific observation and a girlish enthusiasm…’ @ThisMeofMine
14 Sept 2012
‘fascination w/passage of time…contrast between permanence of objects & fragility of human existence’ @katemurdochart
At the time, I remarked that when read together they presented a compelling view of the female point of view in art. Arguably so, yes. But then I realised something more, each of the artists in This ‘Me’ of Mine are working with, perhaps struggling with, this coded communication and there is a fascinating difference between the way the women artists explore this and the way the male artists explore it. The women speak of emptying out of memories, permanence of objects, invisible stories of objects, things left unsaid, equalizing meaning through comparison of opposites, fascination, obsession, fictions and mythologies, voyeurism, vulnerability and body language. The men speak of the limits of communicating meaning, uniforms and meaning, surprise and fear, answers just out of reach, hiding complexities within and stimulus triggering a response.
Before I go further, I want to point out there are many commonalities in the female and male views, such as removing things from context to challenge meaning, the insecurities of home, the influence of space, experience and the passage of time. So while I am not trying to create a gender-biased argument here, I was struck by the differences nonetheless.
Untitled 30-5-11 (c)2011 Darren Nixon
It could be said the struggle to self-identify is the struggle to decipher coded communication. The way we go about that as males and females is indicative in the topics of importance to each group of artists. What does this say about us? Little girls are taught to believe in fairy-tales, romance and dream-come-true scenarios, encouraged to believe in the perfection of a future life, whether that is with Mr Right or more recently that we can do and have it all. Little boys are taught to believe in the importance of belonging to groups and the status which comes with that belonging, hiding their emotions, fears and all visible signs of weakness, encouraged to become providers and bread-winners. Both sexes have been taught to be competitive, in ways suitable to their sex. But if these things are to be challenged, is it really through gender wars? Wouldn’t it be more productive to realize the truth that living is hard no matter what your personal circumstances, there are no guaranteed outcomes and all you can do is the best you can in any given situation. Would prejudice and utopias disappear if we taught those simple realities to our children?
Saturday 26 November I made way to Degree Art’s gallery on Vyner Street to view the works of Helen Gorrill on show in the solo exhibition titled DEICIDE. The gallery is not so far away from Bethnal Green as people might think and a fair pace will get you to the gallery in 10 minutes.
Upon arrival to the gallery I chatted with gallery manager (and all round arts, culture & fashion voice) Ryan Lanji who gave me a few pointers about the show, which I had not picked up on from my brief musings online. The first of which being the portrait of a Pope which was attached to the floor at the entrance of the gallery; meaning that everyone that enters walks over the Pope – a sign of the conflict with sexuality and religion which appears a central aspect in Helen’s work.
Degree Art Gallery Manager, Ryan Lanji
After which Ryan explained about the Confession Chamber which was the interactive element of Helen’s work; a look at the notion of confession, who to and why. Within the chamber, which has been meticulously created to represent a real confession box, are confessions from every body that has entered, along with some well know confessors from the art world. Some of which have been stitched into the fabric of the inside, some written in chalk on the walls and some placed in envelopes on the wall. Everybody was encouraged to enter there own confessions…
The last point we covered, which really was not apparent with the online material was the sheer size of Helen’s work. I had imagined them to be water colour pieces which would look great in a plain white frame and would be of reasonable size to go above the fire place, hang in the dining room or be a centre piece for the spare room. I did not for one minute imagine them to be the slightly oversized real life height that they are!
The reason for this as I found out when talking with Helen is intertwined within the whole body of work. The role reversal; the woman in charge, the woman in power, the woman imposing in height standing above the crouched, submissive man.
Ryan Lanji and Helen Gorrill
Helen’s work was hung from chains on the ceiling to allow for the full effect of the size to be felt. They covered the main walls of the gallery and in my opinion are hard to find fault with in terms of the concept. Secured to the floor were 3 images of men in submissive postions, all positioned under the images of the women. In addition to this there was Helen’s provocative installation pieces which are steeped in religious references as well as a swipe at the controlling nature of the Church.
Helen’s background is that of an interesting mix of religion and control. A Christian background, a marriage to a Policeman who was also a Jehovah’s Witness and a seeming questioning of the effect of male influence in her life and choices. One of Helen’s shows was censored; the male nudity was covered but the female nudity was not – a very interesting point, especially as it was censored by men. This also questions the influence that men have had over society and the extent of control over what social acceptances should be. Helen’s work was actually featured on a Vatican sponsored website for some time because they thought it was promoting the Confession – when they realised it was actually asking a few more questions it was promptly removed!
Listening to Helen reference sexuality, feminism and religion in her work was very compelling in considering whether this is just a result of Helen’s personal experience or is a genuine perception of the world which many of us overlook or choose to ignore. Helen was supported by Degree Art’s very own Chloe Lawrence who covered some points in
literature relating to the feminist cause and the response this drew from female artists. References to Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”, Carole Schneemann’s “Interior Scroll” and Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party” were all made. In addition we also heard from Kim Foxton who spoke about religion and the role of women through history and how this has changed.
Ryan Lanji, Helen Gorrill, Chloe Lawrence & Kim Foxton
Questions from the audience as well as Degree Art Founders Elinor Olisa & Isobel Beauchamp followed and this evolved to more personal discussions with the speakers accompanied with refreshments.
Overall a very well put together show which had important questions to state, as well as what I felt were aesthetically pleasing works. A great
environment to discuss the work and a well chosen line up of supporting speakers made a very enjoyable ‘art evening’.
Information
The provocative solo show ran from 3 November to 28 November 2011 with an evening in conversation with the artist on Saturday 26 November 2011.
ROA is an artist that we are very familiar with being that he was one of the first artists we followed while in the UK. We lived around his street works and would see some of his iconic pieces on a day to day basis. We even attended his first ever solo show at Pure Evil Gallery in London. So we were extremely excited to hear that he would be extending his tour to Australia.
The focus of ROA’s work of course is monochromatic animals of epic proportions that are typically inspired by the wildlife in the regions that he visits. Australia is home to an enormous amount of native animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, so you could imagine that there was plenty to inspire a unique body of work.
The show was hosted by Form Gallery, a large space in Perth CBD. The installations were designed to lead you through a specific path so that you could view and interact with all of the larger pieces. At the entrance to the gallery was a ten foot high Kangaroo with two rotating doors mounted in the piece that lead you into the main room where there was a series of smaller yet still impressively interactive works on offer.
Something that was unexpected was the second large installation at the rear of the gallery, a desert bone yard of sorts, featuring walls of and a floor of red dirt synonymous with Western Australia.
ROA must have been under an incredible amount of pressure putting together this show in only 3 weeks and creating all the original pieces of art on location in Perth. The collection of recycled materials used for the pieces was just another beautiful part of the show which we later found out were mostly harvested from old warehouses in the Midlands. Yes, this Belgian artist really connected with this space and Australian culture.
This show runs all the way through to January next year, so if you find yourself on the other side of Australia, go check it out.
I am now back from Barcelona where I had the chance to enjoy a warm winter sun, delicious tapas but also and above all eye-catching graffiti.
You can see quite a few scattered around the city and especially in the main avenues of the city but head down to the port, look for the maritime museum and you will definitely spot the Jardins de Walter Benjamin, a very formal name for what is a hotspot for so-called underground activity: graffiti.
A selection of best shots is below as well as a map where this spot is located.
We only recently heard from Plastic Jesus, a Los Angeles based artist, and while his motivation are clearly political and on that basis can be compared to other street artists such as Banksy, although Plastic Jesus seems to vary a little more his mediums and art forms by often making bold installations which he will spread around the city of LA.
We have included below some of his works.
Reading a bit more about the artist, I quickly realised that we are looking at a “modern” street artist –
1. Mass audience attention thanks to The Huffington Post in particular which listed two works by Plastic Jesus in the end of year round up of “The Best of Los Angeles Street art 2012”, one of them was “No more heroes” featuring disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong connected to an IV drip
2.Concerns about his work ethic and try to harm as little the environment. The artist will even send someone to remove his work should you not like it
3. Does art galleries show, sell prints of his street artworks and he is represented in the UK by Walton Fine Arts located in Knightsbridge
The last point will make cringe the purists street art heads out there.
I have no particular issue with the points above and like the messages Plastic Jesus tries to get accross, what do you reckon?
One more time, Stolen space has put together a remarkable show. Group shows are so rich in diversity by definition and therefore always please a large number of people.
This is amazing what you can produce with very little money, this video below only costs $80.
All the word to “Magnolia” (188) was handmade using cardboard (discarded from grocery stores), hot glue guns, and paint pens. Random people at over 65+ locations and a handful of friends were used as rappers throughout the video. The video was done completely practical (no CGI) and wound up costing a little under $80.
CREATED BY: Nik Harper and Jesse Lamar High
DIRECTED BY: LAMAR+NIK
ROA is an artist that we are very familiar with being that he was one of the first artists we followed while in the UK. We lived around his street works and would see some of his iconic pieces on a day to day basis. We even attended his first ever solo show at Pure Evil Gallery in London. So we were extremely excited to hear that he would be extending his tour to Australia.
