Brian Jungen at the Vancouver Art Gallery
Last Tuesday night, Jody and I treated ourselves to an evening of culture at the VAG. I was dying to see Brian Jungen's work for a while now, and a rainy night was as good an excuse as any to visit our Art Gallery. His use of modern matertials to recreate native artifacts is awesome. I was having an experience - communing with art and history... Jungen's use of everyday items like plastic chairs and sneakers to create objects that reminisce about history, art and native culture is nothing short of amazing.
In the main foyer of the Gallery, you are greeted with a huge white sculpture reminiscent of a Dinosaur skeletons hanging high above you, made from plastic lawn chairs. There are a few of these sculptures, all paleontological in reference though the creatures look more and more mythical.
The other things that caught my attention were the native masks made from Michael Jordan Nike sneakers. The craftsmanship is exceptional and
simple at the same time - some of the sneakers had been altered so little to look like a Haida mask that it really makes you think... or the two storey Tepee made of Italian black leather couches...The whole exhibit is very thought provoking. The juxtaposition of materials and products charges these items with a meaning that transcends their conventions. When you consider that the dinosaurs who ruled the world 300+ million years before humans were on the planet, are now nothing more than bones and fossils of which plastic chairs are made by the millions which in turn will survive humans for another 300 million years ...Wow!
There are a few ways of approaching Jungen's art, there is no shortage of meaning that can be ascribed to it, which is what makes his work great art.
I think it was Jean Luc Goddard who once said (Art is the process by which objects acquire humanity. I don't think he was thinking of A.I, but rather that old idea that the physical world has its limitations in which people transcend when they are effected by love, music, compassion, spirituality - a la Plato and Wittgenstein.
Hope you can see this exhibit - it's worth it.
More on the greatness of life and the insignificance of being later as we visit Saturn
In the main foyer of the Gallery, you are greeted with a huge white sculpture reminiscent of a Dinosaur skeletons hanging high above you, made from plastic lawn chairs. There are a few of these sculptures, all paleontological in reference though the creatures look more and more mythical.The other things that caught my attention were the native masks made from Michael Jordan Nike sneakers. The craftsmanship is exceptional and
simple at the same time - some of the sneakers had been altered so little to look like a Haida mask that it really makes you think... or the two storey Tepee made of Italian black leather couches...The whole exhibit is very thought provoking. The juxtaposition of materials and products charges these items with a meaning that transcends their conventions. When you consider that the dinosaurs who ruled the world 300+ million years before humans were on the planet, are now nothing more than bones and fossils of which plastic chairs are made by the millions which in turn will survive humans for another 300 million years ...Wow!There are a few ways of approaching Jungen's art, there is no shortage of meaning that can be ascribed to it, which is what makes his work great art.
I think it was Jean Luc Goddard who once said (Art is the process by which objects acquire humanity. I don't think he was thinking of A.I, but rather that old idea that the physical world has its limitations in which people transcend when they are effected by love, music, compassion, spirituality - a la Plato and Wittgenstein.
Hope you can see this exhibit - it's worth it.
More on the greatness of life and the insignificance of being later as we visit Saturn
posted by Viken's word @ 4:11 p.m.
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