ART + ACTIVISM
2016 August 31-November 26
Poster design by Danyon Reeves, CARFAC
Vestige 61x46 cm 24”x 18” oil on canvas 2016
ART & ACTIVISM
Mary Joyce 2016, July-August
I am very pleased to be part of “ART & ACTIVISM,” Chris W. Carson’s idea, with Paula Kirman and Juan Lopezdabdoub. It makes the forth time I have been able to exhibit my “red” work, twice in Edmonton, once in Montreal, and recently in France. As a senior female artist active in Edmonton for 30 years, my thematic concerns have returned now to where they were at the origin of my career, for peace and rights for all.
My red work, both the site and the product of citizen engagement in the mobilization of knowledge, celebrates movements of the people, past and present, intermingling in time and space. Their signs and symbols contribute to ideas and politics. Like the simple red square, art can stimulate and mobilize. It can even pose a challenge to the point where it gives power to thought, sensory experience and emotion. “Red” is both art and politics as far as research of the mass movements of the citizens are concerned. The artistic display generates reflection, discussion and future mobilization.
Embarking on “red” in 2012, intuitively I searched for means to embody all the meanings of this hue that I had not used before. With an extensive history of printmaking, I desired certain gestures: hand swiping, scribing, squeegeeing, collage-embedding, cutting, drilling, tying, rolling up with a brayer. With research, I came upon new methods allowing me to abandon brushes that for me produced boring marks. Yet I immerse myself in the sensuous qualities of oil paint: thickness, luscious colour, translucence, depth, rough and shiny surfaces. When the paint’s movement embodies the picture content, then I am happy.
Paraskeva Clark painted street actions of the 1930’s. Those and her strong words concerning Canadian painters who run into the woods in a crisis inspire me; I admire Françoise Sullivan’s red paintings; the accomplished handling of crowds in Molly Lamb Bobak and Janet Mitchell and of figure groupings in Sheila Butler’s works. Both Kandinsky and Malevich recognized, in abstraction, how well, for whatever reasons, red is within the square. Joseph Beuys’ crusading uses of felt and fat as symbols for humanizing love, model my own use of felt and safety pins – to celebrate and promote street symbols of struggle for the rights of all.
Responding to the question of whether art can produce social change, I know many examples of it. Right now I am most impressed by the way the brave people who take to the streets incorporate art of many kinds in actions producing social change and inspiring, in turn, even more art.
Mary Joyce 2016, July-August
I am very pleased to be part of “ART & ACTIVISM,” Chris W. Carson’s idea, with Paula Kirman and Juan Lopezdabdoub. It makes the forth time I have been able to exhibit my “red” work, twice in Edmonton, once in Montreal, and recently in France. As a senior female artist active in Edmonton for 30 years, my thematic concerns have returned now to where they were at the origin of my career, for peace and rights for all.
My red work, both the site and the product of citizen engagement in the mobilization of knowledge, celebrates movements of the people, past and present, intermingling in time and space. Their signs and symbols contribute to ideas and politics. Like the simple red square, art can stimulate and mobilize. It can even pose a challenge to the point where it gives power to thought, sensory experience and emotion. “Red” is both art and politics as far as research of the mass movements of the citizens are concerned. The artistic display generates reflection, discussion and future mobilization.
Embarking on “red” in 2012, intuitively I searched for means to embody all the meanings of this hue that I had not used before. With an extensive history of printmaking, I desired certain gestures: hand swiping, scribing, squeegeeing, collage-embedding, cutting, drilling, tying, rolling up with a brayer. With research, I came upon new methods allowing me to abandon brushes that for me produced boring marks. Yet I immerse myself in the sensuous qualities of oil paint: thickness, luscious colour, translucence, depth, rough and shiny surfaces. When the paint’s movement embodies the picture content, then I am happy.
Paraskeva Clark painted street actions of the 1930’s. Those and her strong words concerning Canadian painters who run into the woods in a crisis inspire me; I admire Françoise Sullivan’s red paintings; the accomplished handling of crowds in Molly Lamb Bobak and Janet Mitchell and of figure groupings in Sheila Butler’s works. Both Kandinsky and Malevich recognized, in abstraction, how well, for whatever reasons, red is within the square. Joseph Beuys’ crusading uses of felt and fat as symbols for humanizing love, model my own use of felt and safety pins – to celebrate and promote street symbols of struggle for the rights of all.
Responding to the question of whether art can produce social change, I know many examples of it. Right now I am most impressed by the way the brave people who take to the streets incorporate art of many kinds in actions producing social change and inspiring, in turn, even more art.
ART + ACTIVISM
curatorial statement
by Chris W. Carson
Think of Goya’s The Third of May 1808, Picasso’s Guernica and the iconic photograph of the girl running from a napalm attack by Huynh Cong Ut of the Associated Press. Think of how these images changed all of us. The ideas presented in these political artworks can transform people that view them and it is people, as individuals and collectively, that modify the society.
ART + ACTIVISM features the artwork of three Edmonton based artists: Mary Joyce, Paula Kirman and Juan Lopezdabdoub. All three artists are political and make art to change people’s lives. All three artists accept that there is a social responsibility in being an artist and that responsibility is of paramount importance – there is no frivolous subject matter here. Instead, the works created by these artists are about ideas and in the words of Mary Joyce, “Ideas influence people and artists are well trained to communicate.”
Both Mary Joyce and Paula Kirman deal with the Art of Protest. With her camera, Kirman captures fleeting moments of people coming together for a cause. Kirman makes a conscious choice to document events that give voice to her own values, so she focuses her camera on issues (peace, the environment and human rights) that are progressive and where there is potential to change the world around us for the better. For Kirman, “protest is an outlet for art” with theatrics mixed with media spectacle. By photographing these staged events, Kirman is making her art out of the art of the protest.
With the tools of a labourer, Mary Joyce commemorates protest marches showing the courage and self-sacrifice of individuals coming together for a cause. Joyce refuses to show horror. Joyce views this period in our history (the new millennium) as one of the dirtiest. She does not want to depict the evil but rather focuses on “the fight against evil.” Joyce firmly believes that “paintings need to be seen.” By bringing these paintings out of the closet, “art will change people.”
Of the three artists, perhaps Juan Lopezdabdoub is the most narrative and didactic in his approach to artmaking. In his artist statement, Lopezdabdoub states clearly that his art is about “the impact of imperialistic politics on people’s lives.” Lopezdabdoub uses art historical references creating paintings with stories about imperialistic policies, the ludicrous nature of bureaucracy and cultural dislocation. Lopezdabdoub creates art to highlight the injustices that he sees around him.
For Joyce, Kirman and Lopezdabdoub, political art needs to be seen and experienced. That age old phrase “you shouldn’t talk about religion and politics,” simply does not apply to those artists that want to change our world for the better.
curatorial statement
by Chris W. Carson
Think of Goya’s The Third of May 1808, Picasso’s Guernica and the iconic photograph of the girl running from a napalm attack by Huynh Cong Ut of the Associated Press. Think of how these images changed all of us. The ideas presented in these political artworks can transform people that view them and it is people, as individuals and collectively, that modify the society.
ART + ACTIVISM features the artwork of three Edmonton based artists: Mary Joyce, Paula Kirman and Juan Lopezdabdoub. All three artists are political and make art to change people’s lives. All three artists accept that there is a social responsibility in being an artist and that responsibility is of paramount importance – there is no frivolous subject matter here. Instead, the works created by these artists are about ideas and in the words of Mary Joyce, “Ideas influence people and artists are well trained to communicate.”
Both Mary Joyce and Paula Kirman deal with the Art of Protest. With her camera, Kirman captures fleeting moments of people coming together for a cause. Kirman makes a conscious choice to document events that give voice to her own values, so she focuses her camera on issues (peace, the environment and human rights) that are progressive and where there is potential to change the world around us for the better. For Kirman, “protest is an outlet for art” with theatrics mixed with media spectacle. By photographing these staged events, Kirman is making her art out of the art of the protest.
With the tools of a labourer, Mary Joyce commemorates protest marches showing the courage and self-sacrifice of individuals coming together for a cause. Joyce refuses to show horror. Joyce views this period in our history (the new millennium) as one of the dirtiest. She does not want to depict the evil but rather focuses on “the fight against evil.” Joyce firmly believes that “paintings need to be seen.” By bringing these paintings out of the closet, “art will change people.”
Of the three artists, perhaps Juan Lopezdabdoub is the most narrative and didactic in his approach to artmaking. In his artist statement, Lopezdabdoub states clearly that his art is about “the impact of imperialistic politics on people’s lives.” Lopezdabdoub uses art historical references creating paintings with stories about imperialistic policies, the ludicrous nature of bureaucracy and cultural dislocation. Lopezdabdoub creates art to highlight the injustices that he sees around him.
For Joyce, Kirman and Lopezdabdoub, political art needs to be seen and experienced. That age old phrase “you shouldn’t talk about religion and politics,” simply does not apply to those artists that want to change our world for the better.