Or Gallery “Science Fiction 01″

Science Fiction 01
Brady Cranfield, Robert Filliou, Mark Nakamura, Nicole+Ryan, Håvard Pedersen, Kate Sansom, Holly Ward

Or Gallery
June 27 – August 1, 2009
Opening Friday, June 26, 8PM

Downplaying many of the technological associations with the science fiction literary and cinematic genres, Science Fiction 01 focuses on works dealing with more subtly speculative and social aspects of science fiction – projections on what might or could be in the future, as well as considerations of idealized and dystopic space.

In keeping with the theme of speculation, a number of the works in the exhibition exist in their proposal stage or as works in progress, not to take their final form until some possible later date. For Kate Sansom’s Nothing Is Free In Waterworld, the artist transforms part of the gallery into a working office space with the aim of acquiring the now-derelict floating McDonald’s restaurant from Vancouver’s Expo 86 world fair, intending to put the structure to some productive use. Artists Nicole+Ryan, Håvard Pedersen, and Mark Nakamura similarly make proposals that to varying degrees implicate the gallery in the process. Nakamura’s Back In Five promises the return of someone, likely a gallery staff member, perpetually five minutes in the future.

Works by Brady Cranfield, Robert Filliou, and Holly Ward play on spacialized and historicized aspects of the genre, touching on future or alternative versions of the nation-state, revolution, and war. In Cranfield’s video Daydream Nation, two images of the artist are seen listening and contemplating the Sonic Youth double-album by the same name on a Sony Heavy Duty CD Radio, “(b)uilt with the workshop or jobsite in mind”. Filliou similarly uses a double image of himself – connoting some temporal rift by way of media – a video image of the artist barking instructions to his other-self. Filliou later muses, “The spirit of a nation is incomprehensible, but a spirit of a nation and a spirit of a nation is war, or what you will…” Ward touches on both the utopianism of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome patterns as well as HG Well’s somewhat foreboding 1933 chronicle, The Shape of Things to Come, a history of the world written from the perspective of 2106.

Science Fiction 01 is the first of roughly 88 science fiction-related exhibitions planned for the Or Gallery over the course of the next 260 years.

Click here to read the Canadian Art review.
Click here to read the Artforum review.

Signage

Back In Five
Coloured Pencil on Paper
8.5″ x 11″

From the detail shots it is easier to notice that the paper is thicker than it should be and the lines on the paper are all hand drawn.

Lamda Lamda Lamda & Omega Mu Projects

I was invited to take part in an exhibition by a recent Emily Carr University MFA graduate, Håvard Pedersen. He had been using a window display to exhibit a curatorial project entitled, “Lamda Lamda Lamda & Omega Mu,” which he explained was based on the film, “Revenge of the Nerds.” The idea was to have a call for submissions to exhibit artwork and accept all entries, no matter the quality of the proposals and art. He was working with a limited time frame to use the space he was given and he asked me to participate with approximately a week’s notice. At my request, I was given the last slot to exhibit.

As much as possible, I tried to work with the circumstances and context and produced three paintings and vinyl text. I put up the red vinyl text that uses the name of Håvard’s exhibition project in a way that comes across as the name of the gallery. The watercolours relate to my interest in making promises of forthcoming activities/events, which are also an end in and of themselves. They are just simple jokes about the use-value versus art-value of the objects. The day after it was put up on the entrance door to the building, the painting, “Sorry We’re Closed (I Will Be Back In Five Minutes),” was taken down by the business next door. I was hoping that instead of taking it down, they would post a sign of their own to explain that contrary to my sign, their business is still open. Unfortunately, this was not the case, but it led to another drawing that I have since posted in the window display. It says the following:

Håvard,

If you’re reading this letter, you already know. The drawing on the door to the building has been removed. I found it taped to the gallery door with a tear along the bottom. I left it in the window with the damage clearly visible, so that I can shame the person responsible (from next door).

Anyway, I thought we were supposed to meet today. I’ve been waiting for close to an hour, but I am hungry so I’m going home. I wanted to talk to you about the press release draft that you totally messed up. I thought I was clear when I said that this work is dead serious.

If you absolutely must write about humour, then I want you to take it more seriously. You should explain in exhaustive detail what’s so damn funny.

Call me when you get this message. You better have a good excuse for yourself.

Mark

I will post the photos of this note soon. The text is neatly drawn out on nice paper and affixed to the inside of the window.

Mark Nakamura: Installation in Progress
Watercolour on paper

Coming Soon!
Watercolour on paper

Sorry We’re Closed (I Will Be Back In Five Minutes)
Watercolour on paper

Album cover for my friend’s band, Los Mediaticos

It’s a bit dark, but I think the album title is funny. The font is meant to be inappropriate for the image. It’s more subtle than the original idea my friend sent me, where he is smiling and posing next to a tombstone. Anyway, here’s Los Mediaticos. Enjoy.

Los Mediaticos – “All My Friends Are Dead” (Colour Version)
Graphite on Paper (Colour Added in Photoshop)

Los Mediaticos – “All My Friends Are Dead”
Graphite on Paper

Work In Progress

The following works are an extension of the “Studio Work” project.* Rather than accumulating more text drawings, paintings, or sculptures for the purpose of display in Mark Nakamura’s studio to motivate himself, these new works are created as gifts to motivate others. They have been offered as gifts to friends and acquaintances working in a variety of professions in exchange for a photo that documents the gift in the recipient’s creative working space (and the rights to the photo). Thus far, motivational artworks have been shipped to a variety of international locations to an architect, a filmmaker, an art administrator, curators and artists. As stipulated in a contract between the artist and the recipient of the motivational artwork, the recipient is responsible for producing the photographic documentation of the gift in his/her given creative working space, which will become the artwork of Mark Nakamura. In some cases, there is an overlapping of art practices or blurring of boundaries created because of this project. For example, “Act Now,” was created for an artist who also works as a set designer working in the film industry. This artist has been working on a series of photographs where she documents the film sets that she works on. Therefore, it is possible that she may document the motivational text artwork on a film set, which will be representative of her own art practice but becomes absorbed into Mark’s artwork. This example also highlights that the result of these exchanges is an atypical collaborative effort where the artist has little direction over the final artworks. In another example, a friend will be including a motivational text artwork in an art exhibition he will be having at the end of an artist residency. Though the gallery will produce documentation of the exhibition, as stipulated in the contractual agreement, photographs that include the motivational text artwork are potentially artworks of Mark Nakamura and create questions about ownership and artistic rights.

* Please refer to the following entry for the project description for “Studio Work.”

Some Way Through This (The Black Ghosts)
Ink on Paper

Some Way Through This (The Black Ghosts) – Victoria’s Studio, TEST
Photo

Finish It (The Fountain), Version 2
Watercolour on Paper

Finish It (The Fountain)
Watercolour on Paper

Finish It (The Fountain) – Juan’s Apartment
Photo

Everything Is Alright (Four Tet), Version 2
Watercolour on Paper

Everything Is Alright (Four Tet)
Watercolour on Paper

Everything Is Alright (Four Tet) – Matt’s Bedroom
Photo

Great Job! (Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), Version 2
Watercolour on Paper

Great Job! (Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), Version 2, Detail
Watercolour on Paper

Great Job! (Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!)
Watercolour on Paper

Great Job! (Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) – Leonardo’s Exhibition (Spaces Gallery)
Photo

Great Job! (Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!) – Leonardo’s Exhibition, Detail
Watercolour on Paper

Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Human League)
Pencil on Paper

Things That Dreams Are Made Of (Human League) – Renna’s Room
Photo

Act Now
Gauche on Paper

Act Now – Renee’s Worksite (Film Set)
Photo

Yes We Can (Obama)
Watercolour on Paper

Yes We Can (Obama) – Cate’s Office (C.H. Scott Gallery)
Photo

Make It Happen (Playgroup), Top Left
Adhesives on Paper

Make It Happen (Playgroup), Top Right
Adhesives on Paper

Make It Happen (Playgroup), Bottom Left
Adhesives on Paper

Make It Happen (Playgroup), Bottom Right
Adhesives on Paper

Make It Happen (Playgroup) – Jonathan’s Work (Or Gallery)
Photo

Yes Yes Yes
1/3, Watercolour on Paper

Cheers To You (The Cheer Company)
Oil on Paper

The Start Of Something (Voxtrot)
Cut cardboard

The Start Of Something (Voxtrot), Version 2
Watercolour on Paper

Mission Accomplished (The War On Terror), TEST
Wire

Mission Accomplished (The War On Terror)
Wire

Emerge (Fischerspooner)
Cut Paper

Emerge (Fischerspooner), Version 2
Watercolour on Paper

It’s Not Over Yet (Klaxons)
Oil on Paper

Es Facil (Album)
Watercolour on Paper

You Can Have It All (Yo La Tengo)
Watercolour on Paper

GIVE’R (Fubar), TEST
Vinyl on Paper

GIVE’R (Fubar)
Watercolour on Paper

Studio Work, 2004 – Present (ongoing project)

“Studio Work” is an ongoing project that involves the production of a series of motivational text-based paintings that are displayed in the artist’s studio and used to encourage further studio-based art production. Beyond creating a superficial need for keeping a studio space, “Studio Work” examines the role of the studio and physical labour in creative production. The text works also reference motivational posters for workplaces and thereby draws a parallel between an office environment and an artist’s studio. The obvious and sad irony of “Studio Work” is that the meticulous and time-consuming hand-painted works being churned out in the artist’s small and pathetic studio does not go beyond the motivational, and therefore never results in the production of the kind of artwork that the texts refer to.

Studio Work, 2004
C-Print, 36″ x 36″

Studio Work, 2007
C-Print, 36″ x 36″

Studio Work (Or Gallery), 2009
C-Print, 36″ x 20″

Details of “Studio Work”

Ruben y Hanna, 2006

“Ruben y Hanna” is a collaborative project with artist, Leonardo Marz, which documents a fictional exhibition that took place at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MARCO), Monterrey, Mexico. Using documentation from a real wedding that Leonardo attended at MARCO, Mark produced exhibition ephemera to support the fiction including a press release, invitations, a catalogue, reviews, interviews, and magazine advertisements. Leonardo is working on inserting this project into the exhibition archive at MARCO to “realize” the work. A physical catalogue complete with exhibition essays is forthcoming.