Fall Winter 2012 Hamilton Arts and Letters magazine issue five.2

Every Prophet in Their House by Bart Gazzola 1

 

Every Prophet in Their House


by Bart Gazzola
 

Every prophet in their house: Beneath a Petroliferous Moon at the Mendel Art Gallery


Non-state actors are a more menacing and elusive threat.
1
 

..beneath a petroliferous moon,
 a subtle change of ministers in the capital, a whisper
 like an oil tide,
 and zap, you’ll see how Standard Oil’s letters shine above the clouds,
 above the seas, in your home,
 illuminating their dominions.2


The problem begins with naming: we’re faced with the government funded and endorsed spin where the acrimonious word “tar” is replaced with the economically hopeful “oil.” But naming is more than that: within names are aspects of history, aspects of hope, aspects of place. And that Beneath A Petroliferous Moon is “taking place” in Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, at the Mendel3 is one of those rare moments of focus. None of this is accidental, and none of it is without nuance, consideration or contradiction. I’m obsessed with sites of contested narratives: and I could hope for nothing better than this exhibition, with all of the baggage inherent and imported. 

But names are just the tip: after all, how something is named defines its uses, its intent, and in the case of public spaces, indicates if it gives voice or manufactures alibis. Before all the self-righteous artists out there get in a huff, remember that’s a dominant stream in art history as well. For every Goya speaking for the dissident, there is a Davidian sycophant making the emperor handsome. I thought a great deal about within which category to place Edward Burtynsky, who is perhaps the most famous artist in this show. His Alberta Oil Sands, Fort McMurray, Alberta series – and his own ambiguity – are a good jumping off point. His own words state: “In no way can one encompass the influence and extended landscape of this thing we call ‘oil’.”4

But let’s set the scene: at the opening of a show with artists from ‘here’ and ‘away’5. We had a Sask Party Minister asserting that the premier, and all of his fellow ideologues, value “Art” greatly, pimping Culture Days with glee. I truly had a Brigitte DePape moment, but lacked any offending sign to remind them of the ideologically motivated, financially suspect destruction of the Sask Film Tax Credit.6 This is probably for the best, lest I experience “a new prison camp for subversives”7. Perhaps it’s best if I confine myself to speaking about the works in the show: and there are many amazing pieces, beautiful and sad, engaging and enraging, in this exhibition. 



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1 Rev. Donald Heckman, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-donald-heckman/a-military-sons-christian_b_593775.html. Heckman is speaking of the new mode of non state centered war: I chose to use this to also speak to how the state is not the defining factor, so much as those corporations that act outside of, or actively co opt, nation states.
2 Pablo Neruda, Standard Oil Co, accessed at http://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2010/06/26/standard-oil-co-by-pablo-neruda-canto-general/
3 Dare I praise Cameco for donating greatly to the new art gallery? Dare I praise Areva for funding the Flatlanders exhibition? My biggest sin might be that I’ll take their money, thank you, as Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall funds sports teams instead of culture. With abdication of this role, my generation has little time or patience for those falsely concerned with misplaced notions of “purity”. We can argue that when the gallery is closed due to government neglect.
4 Edward Burtynsky, as cited by Jen Budney, didactic panels, Beneath A Petroliferous Moon.
 

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[Distillate © HA&L + Bart Gazzola  |  {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]

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