La Vie Fantastique - Art Gallery of Alberta

La Vie Fantastique
Let us not mince words...the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is
beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.
Andre Breton
French writer and poet, 1896-1966
Supernatural transformations, mysterious settings and bizarre events have stirred
the imagination of humankind for eons and such ‘fancies’ have found expression in
the visual arts since the first cave drawings.
During the late 1800s, these concerns became of primary importance to a number
of artists working throughout Europe. Exploring an inner vision and personal
vocabulary of form derived from the darker, gothic side of Romanticism and the
theories of Sigmund Freud, these artists were opposed to the preoccupation of
the Realist and Impressionist artists with recording the exterior world. Instead of
focusing on nature or humble and ordinary themes, this group of artists believed
that art should represent absolute truths which could only be described indirectly.
Words such as ‘mystery’, ‘suggestion’ and ‘dream’ were often used to describe their
‘fantastic’ creations, expressed in what is known as Symbolist Art.
While symbolist ideas were of central concern in European art from the late 1800s
to early 1900s, and influenced such 20th century art movements as Dada and
Surrealism, Canadian art over the past century emphasised either representations
of the Canadian landscape or modernist abstraction. Despite the pre-eminence of
these modes of expression, however, a concern with the ‘inner eye’ has long existed
as a current in Canadian art and has found expression in the works of a number of
artists throughout the country. The exhibition La Vie Fantastique focuses on this
interest in the fantastical, mysterious and surreal as it is manifested in the works of
contemporary artists in Alberta.
The exhibition La Vie Fantastique features art works created by K. Gwen Frank, Paul
Freeman, Jude Griebel, Dana Holst and Brianna Hughes. Through their works these
artists invite the viewer to go beyond and beneath ordinary existence, shifting
perceptions of reality and encouraging us to question the ‘truths’ of everyday life.
The exhibition La Vie Fantastique was curated by Shane Golby and organized by
the Art Gallery of Alberta for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition
Program. The AFA Travelling Exhibition program is supported by the Alberta
Foundation for the Arts.
Front Cover Images
Left: Dana Holst, The Bridesmaids - June, 2011, Mixed
media, Collection of the artist
Top Right: Brianna Hughes, Still Life with Octopus, 2010,
Photograph, Collection of the artist
Middle Right: K. Gwen Frank, Thunder, 1997, Etching and
Acquatint, Collection of the artist
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program
Travelling Exhibition
2012-2014 Seasons
The Art Gallery of Alberta is pleased to present this travelling exhibition for the
2012-2014 seasons. Currently the Art Gallery of Alberta serves up to 50 venues
in approximately 35 communities. Exhibitions on tour from the Art Gallery of
Alberta easily adapt to space requirements of smaller venues: schools, libraries,
museums, health care centres and other community facilities. The exhibitions
are organized in such a manner as to make unpacking, packing, hanging and
shipping as easy as possible. Along with the exhibition, each venue receives an
Educational Interpretive Guide for the show. These materials enable teachers to
use the exhibition within the school curriculum.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection is the primary source of works
featured in the travelling exhibitions. Other sources for exhibitions may include
community partners, archives, private collections and loans from artists. Each
year we welcome new venues to enrich their community art through the Alberta
Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program.
Our Thanks
The Artists
K. Gwen Frank
Paul Freeman
Jude Griebel
Dana Holst
Brianna Hughes
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts
and to the many individuals, organizations and communities who
contibute to the success of the the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Travelling Exhibition Program each year.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Travelling Exhibition Program
Contact
La Vie Fantastique
Shane Golby, Manager/Curator
AFA Travelling Exhibition Program Region 2
Art Gallery of Alberta/CSF
10550-107 Street
Edmonton, AB T5H 2Y6
T: 780.428.3830
F: 780.421.0479
The world today doesn’t make sense,
so why should I paint pictures that do?
[email protected]
Pablo Picasso
Bottom Right: Jude Griebel, Far below the surface,
Acquatint etching, Collection of the artist
youraga.ca
Paul Freeman
Who is Right and Who is Left, 2008
Ink on paper
Collection of the artist
Explorations of identity are central to the work of Paul Freeman as seen in
the exhibition La Vie Fantastique. As expressed by the artist concerning his
practice in general, and the works in this exhibition in particular he says:
...we live in a pretty surrreal and bizarre world. The sense of what’s ‘real’ and
what really matters... is both strange and skewed. We’re so easily manipulated
and wisdom has become completely elusive and we can be led in so many
directions. My most recent work...is about how often we use mind control tricks
on each other and how we manipulate surroundings or perceived cause and
effect to alter behavior in others.
Most of Freeman’s works in the exhibition are from a collection of ink
drawings collectively entitled Mind Control Tricks. These works investigate
what Freeman calls ‘the oldest human science’: the art of getting others to
do what you want either through force or mind control. The drawing Who
is Right and Who is Left, for example, examines this concern from a military
perspective. As stated by the artist (Edmonton Journal, December, 2011):
... fundamentally, what happens to people when they get involved in the whole
group-mind, buzz-cut, boot-camp scenario that’s very clearly mind control,
there’s also another kind of mind control that happens...that somehow that
‘other guy’ on the ‘other side’ doesn’t have a brain, doesn’t have feelings. Part
of this is a call to remember that the ‘other’ is the same.
Through his art, Freeman expresses a fundamental desire to disturb the
illusions many people are living with. There is a focus in his works, regardless
of the media used, between relationships - human and animal; man and
nature; humanity and its relationship to ‘the other’ - and such questions
as ‘ who am I?; what am I?; how do I relate to the world and others?’ While
Freeman wishes his work to be beautiful and seductive, at the same time he
believes it should be a little repellent and confusing and, when it confounds
presupposed notions, allow the viewer to get at more interesting ‘truths’.
Jude Griebel
Shadow Chair, 2008
Aquatint etching
Collection of the artist
Dana Holst
Wishing Well, 2011
Lithograph on paper
Collection of the artist
The exhibition La Vie Fantastique features the work of contemporary Albertan
artists who, despite differences in both subject matter and media, are united
in their intent to take the viewer beyond and beneath ordinary existence and to
question perceptions of ‘place’ and social relationships. Through the rendering
of supernatural transformations, mysterious settings and bizarre juxtapositions,
the works of these artists stir imagination and ‘shake’ our notions of reality.
For many of the artists in the exhibition the issues of identity and human
relationships are of paramount concern.
Like Paul Freeman, the intent of Edmonton artist Dana Holst is to create
somehting so beautiful and seductive that the viewer is drawn in to a work,
only to confront something ‘revolting’ or sinister. In order to fulfill this
intent Holst, like Jude Griebel, mines ficitional and biographical contexts
to examine issues of identity, interpersonal relationships and perceptions
of reality. In Holst’s works these aims are expressed through the use of
unusual juxtapositions, the creation of sinister scenarios and are told with
a dark sense of humour.
The use of the supernatural or paranormal to explore notions of identity is
central to the work of Jude Griebel. As expressed by the artist:
Holst’s art work focuses on depictions of young girls and deals with issues
of femininity and sexual stereotypes. She draws inspiration from her own
childhood where, while training as a ballerina and equestrian competitor,
she was exposed to a world of harsh competitiveness. As expressed by the
artist, what one must do to become ‘the best’ can lead to alot of neurosis.
My etchings focus on the negotiation of identity through images that are drawn from
both fictional and biographical contexts. I explore this theme through the depiction
of characters in allegorical and supernatural situations, navigating between factual
and imagined worlds.
Griebel’s work explores the convergence of corporeal and imaginary experience
through themes of memory, growth and mortality. His paintings and etchings
depict individuals in allegorical and supernatural situations, imbuing everyday
settings with otherworldly significance. Figures are typically depicted in states
of disappearing, suggesting escape and disengagement from the realities of life.
These explorations and artistic conventions are clearly expressed in the work
Shadow Chair. In this haunting image, the corporeal occupant of the rocking
chair has entirely disappeared, leaving behind only a shadow on the wall to
indicate what once was. According to some beliefs, objects are ‘porous’ and
the ‘energy’ or a ‘memory’ of an object’s owner, especially if the object was
valued, remains after the owner has departed. This may be the narrative behind
this particular work: the occupant of the chair has vacated the room, either
temporarily or permanently, yet their ‘presence’ remains tied to this favored
possession as indicated by the imagined shadow.
In an earlier series of drawings entitled ‘Prey’ she was interested in how
adults direct children to ‘do as I say, not as I do’, pointing out our human
nature as being full of pride and ego and not often thinking things through.
These concerns were expressed by portraying young girls in the traditional
male role of hunters. In a second series, entitled ‘Dancing Girls’, the artist
looked into the plight of the fantasy ballerina world where dressing in silky
tutus leads to dreams of beauty and perfection; a world which collides heavily
with reality as each girl is conditioned to society’s demands.
In the exhibition La Vie Fantastique, Dana Holst’s works focus on the concept
of competitiveness and how, contrary to perceptions, little girls can be ‘rather
nasty’. In Wishing Well, for example, a little girl shows off her acrobatic skills
by executing a hand-stand over a wishing well while another little girl, with a
‘twisted’ expression on her face, looks on. According to the artist this second
girl appears to want to push the other girl down the well, and this enviousness
is evidenced both by her expression and in the spotted pattern of her dress
which has a look of being diseased. The work Little Champ expresses a similar
idea. In this portrait the little girl, in her desire to become ‘the best’, has
taken on the look of a boy and her features have become rather unattractive.