Graffiti
Curated by Monique Tobin
September 1st - October 5th, 2002, throughout St. John's beginning in March
Work by: J. Barry, Stephanie Barry, Greg Bennett, Tara Bryan, Will Gill, Jim Maunder, Mikiki, Elayne Noble, Undrea Norris, Jerry Ropson, Isabella St. John, Allyson Stuckless, Anonymous
"I don't want my art to be ....flotsam."
"If I can see it, it's mine." - a 'come from away' artist (ie not from Newfoundland) comments on the politics of marking artistic territory in landscape work.
The proposal is simple: artists confronting internally or externally imposed art conventions within the confines of public presentation in a gallery and without. And the Rogue Gallery - Eastern Edge Gallery's own dissident forum that subverts the whole exhibition selection process - is left bare, presented as an invitation for all to write on the walls. As curator, delineating a separate gallery space as public forum is important, symbolizing the very need for critical dialogue in the community.
 At the core, this exhibition asks artists about their individual artistic issues and demons. And the layers of subtext, of subversion are infinite, complex. So while some works provocatively solicit response from the viewer, other artists engage themselves in the act; documenting only the immediate self-absorption of creating art. Will Gill is interested in graffiti's rough physicality and its directness. He will construct a false gyprock wall in the gallery, then, at the exhibition's start, he will brand, tar, cut-away, scrape and hack into the wall. "The results can be intensely beautiful regardless of subject matter. Ironically aesthetics are rarely a concern of the person making the marks save elaborate tags in big cities. You are at the mercy of time and the tools you are working with." A few artists explore graffiti as mantra, others asking the viewer directly to confront public perceptions of art. Jim Maunder elevates the status of bathroom stall graffiti, recreating a homophobic dialogue in metal and neon, confusing it then with advertising. Graffiti becomes a metaphor for the position art assumes in a world where computerized graphic design and advertising dominates our visual culture. Other work is more unobtrusive, Mikiki's written literally on the body, his own performance art space. Outdoor installations involve both permissions sought from property owners and permissions granted passersby to deface the work. This expands the notion of graffiti, some works asking us to redefine the relationship between public space and the subversive or artistic voice, be they one and the same.
It seems fitting to me that, collectively, the works in this exhibition engage a kind of anonymous group dialogue about conventions in the creation and reception of art works in a town without a tradition of art criticism.
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