[art] SCATALOGUE
: SHITTY ART AT OTTAWA'S GALERIE SAW GALLERY
BLOCKBUSTER EXHIBITION ON SHIT OPENS THIS SUMMER IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TITLE: SCATALOGUE: 30 Years of Crap in Contemporary Art / 30 ans de merde en art contemporain
ARTISTS: Yuri A (Vancouver), Laetitia Bourget (Paris), Eric Cameron (Calgary), Corinne Clapham (Ottawa), Steven Cohen (Johannesburg), Julie-Renée de Cortet (Halifax), Wim Delvoye (Brussels), David Diviney (Lethbridge), Mario Doucette (Moncton), Pat Durr (Ottawa), Karen Finley (New York), General Idea (Toronto / New York), Gilbert & George (London), Adad Hannah (Montréal), Ursula Hodel (New York), Gary Kibbins (Kingston), Mike Hoolboom (Toronto), Kurt Kren (Vienna), Paul McCarthy (Los Angeles), Lucie
McGraw (Moncton), Mikiki (Calgary), Ron Noganosh (New Edinburgh), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Milan), Richard Purdy (Trois-Rivières), Don Simmons (Calgary), Howie Tsui (Ottawa) + John Waters (Baltimore).
CURATORS: Jason St-Laurent & Stefan St-Laurent (Ottawa)
DATES: June 19 - July 26, 2003
OPENING: Thursday, June 19 at 8PM (Free Admission & Cash Bar)
Featuring more than 25 Canadian and international artists, SCATALOGUE's subject is one that has never been the focus of an exhibition in Canada. The objective of this focus is to give viewers an opportunity to connect with new, unseen or even so-called contentious art. SCATALOGUE is a critique of the conservatism affecting most galleries in the country. It assails the bourgeois art world as well, in a time when the commodification of contemporary art is simply out of control. An example of this is Wim Delvoye's sold-out edition of sealed shit (a copy is included in this exhibition), purchased by collectors at 1,500 US$ a piece.
Excrement is a common anthropological subject/object in historical museums; however, it remains controversial in the art world, in some cases igniting mass protests against artistic freedom (one remembers the recent furor brought upon the Bronx Museum for showing Chris Ofili's painting The Holy Virgin Mary, adorned with colored elephant dung). Ironically, shit has been a persistent metaphor and medium since the beginnings of Modernism, inspiring the imagination of many influential thinkers and artists. This subject has been an important, tenacious counter-voice to the institutionalization of art, beguiling artists such as Duchamp, the Viennese Actionists, Manzoni and Hammons.
The works selected in SCATALOGUE allude to important historical moments of the last 30 years, the same amount of time that Galerie SAW Gallery has been in existence. Fascism, anti-semitism, sexism, homophobia, racism, consumerism and globalization are issues tackled by some of the artists. The ideas are conveyed through painting, sculpture, photography, multiples, book works, film, video, performance and creative writing.
The exhibition SCATALOGUE (the title is morphed from the words scatology and catalogue) takes shape as a living, interactive archive of contemporary art with many of the objects on view intended to be handled and manipulated by the public, thus playing on Western notions of sanitation and proper didactic presentation. Part interpretative exhibition, part survey show, SCATALOGUE is an experiment in thematic curating, designed to present to a wide audience art that is not normally supported by institutions in Canada.
Although the exhibition's subtitle makes blatant reference to the popular perception that contemporary art is futile, or just plain crap, SCATALOGUE is meant to reverse this misconception by presenting an array of work that affirms art's potential for social and political change. Indeed, it should become radically clear to the inquisitive viewer that this exhibition is not literally about shit, but rather about shit's potency as a metaphor for all things abject, hopefully engaging us with a fundamental inquiry about the human condition.
SAW Gallery acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, The City of Ottawa, The Ontario Arts Council, The Trillium Foundation, its members and patrons.
Galerie SAW Gallery
67, rue Nicholas Street
Ottawa (Ontario)
CANADA K1N 7B9
T: 613.236.6181
F: 613.238.4617
sawgallery@artengine.ca
www.artengine.ca/saw
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