Cover Series: Belfast Portraits / Rocks On
Brian Flynn and Sarah Joy Stoker at Eastern Edge Gallery
April 16th- May 21st, 2005
BRIAN FLYNN (AB/Ireland)
Opening reception April 16th, 3pm with artist in attendance
Cover Series: Belfast Portraits
 BRIAN FLYNN uses carpet underlay and his fingers to produce large format portraits of cover images of paramilitaries from murals photographed in Belfast's hot spots, newspapers, books and the Internet.
"While the faces are of real persons, their identity is deliberately swept under the carpet of assumptions." Dr. Slavka Sverakova, University of Ulster, Belfast.
These works were recently completed while Flynn was living in Belfast representing a culmination of two years of experiences. Informing his voice that aims at revealing the ambivalence of historical truths are his visits to Northern Ireland throughout his youth and his continuing visits to the family home there.
"I have chosen to use carpet underlay as the medium for my work because, like the images they depict, it is a material that is mass produced. As the carpet underlay is something that is intrinsically hidden underneath the carpet, it is almost always never seen and thus compliments the portraits of the people they depict Ð people who had specific political agendas in outlawed organizations in Northern Ireland. This relates to the current issues surrounding terrorism as they point to the potentially ominous power of an enemy that is anonymous and hard to identify." Brian Flynn
Wednesdays and Thursdays:
April 20th-21st and 27th-28th at Eastern Edge Gallery, 7:30 PM.
Conception, performance, installation and photography by Sarah Joy Stoker
Sound and projection collaborator - Lori Clarke
Projection collaborator - Monty Hall
Photographic collaborator - Stephanie Stoker
Putting emphasis on the human condition, how we affect others, our environments, and ourselves. Sarah Joy Stoker believes that genuine appeal; love and connectivity with all things that make up the world directly affect ones health and well-being. It is her wish to collectively experience reverence towards that which gives us life, through art. To her, art is an active force in life and therefore a vehicle for action in our communities.
Rocks On
 "This work is homage to the physical world and all of its inhabitants. It is as much mournful as celebratory. Meditative performance, installation and projection will couple images of birth and burial, creation and decomposition, life and death.
The planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction. International science experts say that within 100 years the majority of species on the planet will be extinct. This is the first mass extinction that is a direct result of human kind. We have caused more pollution, degradation and damage to the world's ecosystems in the past 50 years than we have the entirety of our history." S. J. Stoker
St. John's native Sarah Joy Stoker began her dance training as a child with Gail Innes, Sandra Blackmore and Kittiwake Dance Theatre. She graduated from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre's Professional Training Program in 1996, and then worked as an independent dance artist for Micheal Menegon, The Randy Glynn Dance Project, David Pressault Danse, Pigeons International and Lynda Gaudreau's compagnie de Brune, among others, performing throughout Canada, Europe, and in Brazil.
 In 2001, after returning to Newfoundland, she founded Gutsink Productions Inc., working as the company's artistic director to generate opportunities for creation, improvisation, experimentation and collaboration. Soon after, she founded Collective Gutsink, an interdisciplinary group made up of local artists, to further this work. Her solo work has been presented in St. John's, Halifax, Montreal, Mont Saint Hilaire and New York.
In 2003 Sarah helped to revive Neighbourhood Dance Works, acting as guest curator of the Festival of New Dance, then coordinator in 2004, and is now Artistic Liaison and member of the programming committee. Sarah sits on the Canada Council's Dance Advisory Committee, is a dance advisor to the Sound Symposium, and is a board member of The Association of Cultural Industries of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Rocks On is funded by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.
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