Wayward at Winsor

by Maeve Hanna

Figures falling apart into pixelated existence.

Broken down.

Disintegrated.

Ed Spence and Dana Claxton embrace this technological way of digesting or reading, absorbing or even understanding the information held within images. Divided from their original context, in a way, images reverted to analog form illustrate more of a division than a unification of knowledge.

Put simply, the theme of “Wayward” at Winsor Gallery in Vancouver is the photograph, as well as the means of capturing images, from traditional to new-media based or experimental means. On a more complex level, the exhibition aims to critically examine the state of the photograph as a stayed or fixed image and the limitations or ability to breakdown the boundaries of these understandings.

By far a strong exhibition curated by Kimberly Phillips, Director/Curator of Access Gallery, “Wayward” features a roster of artists who explore the falling apart of information found in images and the images themselves. Wayward means difficult to control or predict, and given the variability of light — the means by which photographic images are traditionally made — the exhibition also refers to instability and unpredictability in image making.

Phillips cites the various beginnings of photography to define the apparent fixedness, or lack thereof, in the photograph. Notably she cites Kaja Silverman from her newest publication, The Miracle of Analogy or the History of Photography Part I (Stanford University Press, 2015), drawing forward the point that the photograph was understood to have its own intentionality; its own purpose for its presence in the world.

Ed Spence’s work They rotate slowly through space. Watch as they rotate; not yet fully rendered, approaches this notion of intentionality through painstaking, meticulous labour. Divided from the ease of image making in the digital age, Spence’s work disintegrates, tumbles apart, though not necessarily before our eyes. Rather, it is held in place in this newly fragmented state. While pixels technically hold small bites of information, Spence’s hand-made pixels destabilize this process. The only information these hand-cut squares hold becomes divorced swatches of colour that can no longer fall into place, can no longer intermingle to form a coherent image.

In Glama, Dana Claxton has pixelated a pinup, thus fragmenting this sexualized woman, making her visage unseeable and unseeing. Objectifying her is both amplified and diminished as the viewer is unable to make out the image, thus straining, starring and turning their gaze on the woman over and over. Simultaneously, the subject embodies a feminist perspective by deconstructing the female body, skewing the gaze and diminishing its impact through deliberate fragmentation.

Despite the strength of the works and thesis of “Wayward”, there seems to be something missing: perhaps it is a discussion that elaborates on the curatorial thesis, or perhaps the curatorial concept is falling apart in a more critical sense. Phillips notes that within Maggie Groat’s practice, along with Alexis Dirks’ and Lili Huston-Herterich’s, the overarching concern is with found imagery and its potential for new meaning as it is adopted into new contexts. While it is stated that Groat’s piece, 77 vision cards, which presents a collection of found images gathered from outdated natural history books, seeks to find new value for these forgotten and lost images, is somehow lacking. Whether it is the simplicity of the work or the images themselves, 77 vision cards does not render a dialogue with the concept of unfixedness to the same level as other works in the exhibition.

The same can be said of Lili Hutson-Herterich’s piece Shards (Fermentation of a Whole New Earth). Upon entering the space, the piece appears to hold great promise as the viewer encounters a veritable cornucopia of small found shards resembling broken pottery or sea glass affectionately collected at the shores of lakes and oceans. With sea glass in mind as a symbol of something that has fallen to pieces but then becomes something else, upon closer inspection, the piece was revealed as rough around the edges and lost this allegorical strength.

Alexis Dirks’ practice however, diverges from the failings of the above-mentioned works. Her found images of rocky landscapes — of which she has encountered many in the vast and foreboding topography of the Northwest Territories — are reincarnated here as floor and wall pieces. Repeating the imagery as well as changing the materiality of their final state of fixedness in photographic form, Dirks’ work is simultaneously fixed and shifting. Digital c-prints climb the walls and slither along the floor as a large swathe of crêpe de chine. Mimicking the very way we encounter geological formations in the wild, we move through Dirks’ installation, seeing her ability to question, topple, fix and dismantle something changeable through shifts in time, while being perhaps the most fixed of all: Mother Nature’s creation.

Finishing eloquently on the very immateriality and transformativeness of light is Brody Albert’s 10:59am to 11:59am in Apartment 12. A projection of light on the wall, Brody’s work is barely perceptible as the light of the day pours into the gallery from outside. We are literally within and experiencing what Brody is pointing to: the moving of light across a wall, slowly, and our immersion in this sensibility. In craning to view his work through the filtered light in the gallery space, we both inhabit and experience it. We are so attuned to the movement of light that we may be completely unaware of the simple beauty of its slow path as the sun moves across the sky, from morning to dusk.

“Wayward” curated by Kimberly Phillips, was exhibited at Winsor Gallery, Vancouver, from April 1 to May 2, 2015.

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Maeve Hanna is Assistant Curator at Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, BC. She holds a BFA Honours in Visual Art and Literature from York University and an MA in Art History from Université du Québec à Montréal. She has previously published with Canadian Art, C Magazine and esse.