PRESS RELEASE:
COMMITTED – ART SHOW
Exhibiting: July 20th – 31st, VAV Gallery (1395 René Levesque O.)
Featured artists: Pippa Bartlett, Emily Comeau and Stewart Fanning
VERNISSAGE: 6-8PM, Tuesday July 21st, in the VAV Gallery and outdoor courtyard
Includes cheap drinks, free food and free live music by Jesse Dangerously (http://www.dangerously.ca/) and Gutstrings (http://www.myspace.com/gguuttssttrriinnggss)
THE SHOW:
Concordia’s VAV Gallery concludes its already impressive summer program with more talented artists and a rocking finale! Committed features new and innovative works by visual artists Pippa Bartlett, Emily Comeau and Stewart Fanning, and will kick things off with live performances by Canadian indie hiphopper Jesse Dangerously and local cello and electronics act Gutstrings.
Committed both showcases and explores ideas of compulsion, obsession, repetition and a dedication to artistic expression and production. Each artist’s work displays an exaggerated attention to detail, demonstrating a commitment to craft that could be said to border on the neurotic, skirting the fine line between committed and committable.
FEATURED ARTISTS:
Pippa Bartlett – Again and Again (textiles and soft sculpture)
When we hear the words again and again, they often bear a weight of monotony and frustration. We live in a culture that glorifies innovative products and ideas but clings to the comfort of tradition, seeing repetition and routine as both advantageous and detrimental. Again and Again seeks to capture this contradiction, pulling its inspiration in part from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem of the same name.
Emily Comeau – 2 Ply (textiles, papercraft and soft sculpture)
2 Ply is a commentary on disposable culture and our fascination with the handcrafted in a time in which nearly everything is manufactured and mass-produced. By exploring the patterns and form of toilet paper through the old-fashioned and time-intensive media of papermaking and traditional quilting, this work attempts not only to examine the place of the handmade in post-industrial society, but also to highlight the surprising beauty in everyday objects we tend to overlook.
Stewart Fanning – Untitled (drawings)
Fanning holds a BFA from NSCAD University and is involved in the Animation Program at Concordia University. His current drawing work is heavily inspired by nature as well as detailed, scientific representations of the natural world such as topographical maps and study drawings of aquatic organisms.
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MUSICAL GUESTS:
JESSE DANGEROUSLY
“In the world of rap, you could say I’m hoeing a lonely road,
‘cause I’ve got respect for women and hate religion and homophobes.”
-Jesse Dangerously
Self-proclaimed Halifax rap legend Jesse Dangerously is a perfect fit for this particular art show, as he also displays a fierce dedication to craft in his impossibly long and impossibly fast multisyllabic rhymes. His music is also involved in reconciling seemingly incongruous elements, such as his passionate love of hiphop (past and present) and his socially conscious politics, or his desire to make tracks that are deeply personal and eye-opening and his equally strong desire to make them fun as hell. Both fans of rap and skeptics alike should be impressed by the sheer talent, heart and wit Dangerously brings to the stage.
GUTSTRINGS
In keeping with the show’s motifs of meticulous skill and unlikely combinations, Gutstrings seamlessly blends classically trained cello with quirky indie pop vocals and hiphop-inspired beats, looping and sampling. The result is both beautiful and bouncy, danceable and entrancing.
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Emily Comeau 