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Gallery Atsui / Paper Trail: Serial Material
Curated by Allison Collins, Shaun Dacey and Sarah Todd
May 1st- May 30th 2009
Featuring: Ruth Beale (London, UK) - Gretchen Bennett (Seattle) - Michael Comeau (Toronto) - Jesjit Gill (Toronto) - Paige Gratland (Toronto) - Packard Jennings (San Francisco) Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed (Portland)
Paper Trail offers a variety of works from an international selection of artists addressing ideas of contemporary print culture. A vibrant array of multiples, collections, accumulations and one-offs, Paper Trail presents practices of dissemination and distribution that extend beyond the gallery walls. This is not the endless chains of ubiquitous virtual information exchange, but an exploration of forms that can be held in your hand, put in your pocket, hung on your wall or pinned on your person; Paper Trail is rooted in the material world.
The lines between art and design, marketing and art multiple are blurred by Michael Comeau’s frenetic party posters, acting as a promotional tool, relic and art object. This DIY promotional strategy is playfully taken up in Jesjit Gill’s wild and weird gig posters and collaborative Free Drawings zine, a free newspaper available throughout the exhibition. In a new work that lies between promoting a party and raising awareness Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed will launch a Lesbian Confetti Party campaign through a set of free limited edition posters and interactive pamphlets.
Works by Ruth Beale and Packard Jennings point to forgotten and unlikely channels of information distribution and the romance, humor, and futility in activism. Jennings sixteen-page Business Reply Pamphlet produced to be put inside the postage paid business reply envelope provides fantastical instruction for mailroom employees to launch their own raucous office overthrow. In contrast, Beale offers beautifully rendered, contemplative watercolor portraits of her collection of vintage political pamphlet covers, privileging their aesthetic pleasure over their activist content. Gretchen Bennett also provides a remembrance, in Dominos Sugar Factory (R.I.P) a collection of 1000 1- inch pin-back buttons depicting a fragmentary element of a disappearing landscape. The buttons are available to be taken until the pile has been completely dispersed. From scattering to collecting, Paige Gratland will display her collection of over 250 “tit pins” gathered from participants who are encouraged to make a, wear, trade, mix match tit pins, this collection functions as a spectacular souvenir of their exposure.
Gallery Atsui - 602 East Hastings, Vancouver BC