May 6th - June 17th
Stephen Fisher (NS)
Strange events in the invisible strata
Nicolas Fleming (QC)
seeking scapes
May 6th Stephen Fisher artist talk 3-4pm and opening reception 4-6pm
May 27th Nicolas Fleming artist talk 3-4pm and opening reception 4-6pm.
seeking scapes
During his stay in St. John's, Nicolas Fleming intends on presenting a few unannounced, brief, and physically demanding, exploratory performative acts in unknown territory which will be determined by his guide. The suit he wears to perform these acts is conceived to block his eyesight. While seeking the scapes, Fleming will be collecting information by touch and by hearing, all the while creating a mental image of his whereabouts. Based on this exploration, he will then attempt to recreate the landscape he roamed through painting. Later, the canvas-made suit he wore, a video documentation and the painting resulting form the act will be presented as an installation at Eastern Edge Gallery.
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Fleming's current body of work is driven by a desire to investigate drawing and painting as performative acts. He situate the acts of markmaking within the contemporary dialogues of other disciplines, such as performance, in order to examine how painterly practices have evolved in a performative sense since action painting.
The main line of inquiry in his work is the notion of interdisciplinary practice as it relates to the established traditions of both performance and painting. Fleming is interested in examining the balance, or lack of balance, that occurs when he integrates performance with the practice of markmaking. Though as a painter he is primarily concerned with the form and aesthetics of the painting itself, he finds the emphasis in his current work rests firmly on the performance of markmaking, and less on the final art object.
Strange events in the invisible strata
The purpose of this exhibition of paintings is to make visible, the invisible events that have taken place, do take place, and will take place over the surface of the Earth. These paintings are mainly concerned with the amalgamation and compilation of various events such as weather patterns, animal migration, geological events and formations, human made boudaries and broadcasting ranges that exist only in diagrammatic form.
These New, Strange Event Scapes that are created when all this information is layered on a painting surface describe a new "scape". This represents the past, present and future of an area, thus creating what Fisher calls a visual "super event". He is interested in possible political, cultural, and environmental conversations that may arise from viewing these events all in one continuous space. The simultaneous availability of these events as new layered (land)scapes may raise questions about how we interact with the environmental activities around us. We can see our patterns of activity over-laid with animal, geological, and environmental activity.
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