Last week July 6 and 7, I was honoured to be a
part of the exhibition opening for ‘Common Ground’ at Cambridge Galleries. I am one of 9 artists curated by Iga
Janik, invited to develop an artist interpretation of a mini-golf course in
various non-spaces throughout Cambridge, Ontario.
Although I have worked on installations and group
public sculptures in the past with the YPF, I have never designed anything sculptural on my own – this is my first experience of single handedly
figuring out a concept in three dimensions! It was really daunting when it came down to the engineering and
material logistics of the ramp… as a painter I never have to consider an oil on
canvas supporting human weight…. Anyway, I worked real hard and I’m glad
everything works. However, if it weren’t
for my brother Chris, who built the entire structure for me, I don’t know what
I would have done. I owe my bro bigtime.
The aim of my ramp is to celebrate the
intrinsically quaint artifice of mini-golf. I wanted to use it to address issues of agency, the politics
of otherness and the reclamation of clichés. I designed a miniature island, inspired by the step forms of
pyramids and ziggurats. The
structure features the reproduction of a mural drawing I made entitled
‘Projections of Idealism: Props to Tahitian Kids and Henry Darger’. I wanted this island to be bright and
beautifully synthetic, as one big stereotype, yet sincere, with plastic flowers
contrasting the romantic images of charcoal on paper. Plastic flowers are an attempt at resisting death, and my
drawing of the Tahitian kids was my attempt to resist the exoticism of Paul Gauguin. All with a grain of salt! As a spiral golf ramp, one could either
start at the bottom and hit the ball up the ramp, or begin at the top to allow
the ball to roll down. My feminine
composition, double dong ramp is also a conversation about the Freudian machismo
fantasy of golf- of getting it into the holes…
If you can, please check out the show and tell me
what you think. The exhibition
will run until September 30, 2012.
Here is a link to Common ground, and a review of the exhibition on Canadian Art.
