David Brace: (Definitely) Maybe
Exhibition Announcement
Gallery on 4
Hamilton Central Library, 55 York Blvd., Hamilton, ON
March, 2010
It's for you, Matt (2005-2006)
watercolour, oil, plaster, drywall, wood, glass, pvc pipe, phonejack, coin
Five Hundred Years on Myrna Avenue (2005-2008)
watercolour, oil, plaster, drywall, wood, tile, electrical outlet, nightlight
Work from 2004-2008
I am a painter at heart.
However, starting around 1999 I began to explore relief and sculpture. I
enjoyed the narrative possibilities offered by industrial materials. Wood,
concrete, metal, plaster and spray paint became roads, sidewalks, and man-hole
covers. Soon the painted elements in this work (the municipal spray painting
you see on streets and sidewalks that indicate water, power, and gas lines)
began to hint at mystery stories involving people and urban infrastructure.
This new interest led me to
this body of work. Painting on walls is as old as humanity. From the Egyptians,
Romans, or the Italian Renaissance to contemporary muralists and taggers, we
need to leave our mark. In these pieces I chose to quote famous art works from
history and using changes in scale, time, and geography leave evidence of
larger, absurd stories.
Take, for instance
Renovation. It depicts portions of
the back wall of the Sistine Chapel. A fire exit has been installed, but
the scale of the door and wall are incongruous. The real fresco is 44 feet
high. This contrast has me
imagining a Johnathan Swift story involving tiny Florentines needing to house
their Gulliver, but of course local fire code requirements must be heeded.
When I was a child my
grandparents house was an endless source of amusement and mystery. I did not
have a lot of experience with older homes; the coal chute, tiny milk delivery
door, and 1940’s appliances were alien to me. And of course Grandma was
immortal. She could have told me that Incan gold was inside those walls and I
would have believed it. Five Hundred Years on Myrna Avenue is an exploration of
the possibilities of a child’s imagination and the discovery of an alternate
reality at work in Grandma’s house.
My goal for these works is
that they will spark the same question in the viewer that I had reading Kurt
Vonnegut Jr., Phillip K. Dick, or Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (whose novel
Definitely Maybe inspired the title of this exhibition); what if? David Brace
[Distillate © HA&L ] |
