Jamie Tolagson
"Jamie Tolagson" by Aaron Peck, Winter 2008, pp. 122-26
Jamie Tolagson’s exhibition at Jeffrey Boone Gallery in Vancouver’s Gastown came as something of a surprise. Tolagson exhibited a series of black-and-white negative photographs, pointing toward a form—film—that is being phased out by digitization. Representing obsolete technology is nothing new in contemporary art and at its worst the strategy can be a little nostalgic, but it is a gutsy move on Tolagson’s part, reminiscent of Tacita Dean’s Kodak or Stan Douglas’s Overture—works that have considered such obsolescence explicitly.
The main subject of Tolagson’s work is 1960s idealism, or rather its fallout. So the theme of obsolescence is doubled, manifested in both presentation and subject. We see negative images of album covers (the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel), iconic books of the era (R. D. Laing’s Sanity, Madness, and the Family, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar) and photo documentation of a commune on which Tolagson grew up.
The power of Tolagson’s work lies in its ambiguity. The exhibition title—“New Work 1973–2008”—for example, is disingenuous. Although some pictures depict events that happened as far back as 1973, the work was produced over the past two years. Or take Commune 1973–1976 (2007), which depicts an abandoned building that was formerly the site of the commune: next to it appears Communal Album with Removed Photographs (2007–08), six photographs of a photo album with all the photographs removed. Only handwriting remains to identify who was depicted in the now-absent pictures: a haunting way of illustrating the disintegration of the commune.
In The Myth of Counterculture (2007) we see a reversed image of the back cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. This makes the text difficult to read, although those who know the album immediately recognize it. Placed near the album image is The Gull (2008), a still life of assorted objects on a kitchen table: CDs, a portable stereo, a copy of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, a teapot, cups, a BC Ferries pen, potted succulents and, above, a map of the Pacific Northwest. Amid these sundry items is a sprig of rosemary, which connects the image back to The Myth of Counterculture.
The works are an engaged and sustained look at the failings and legacy of the 1960s. It is a legacy that viewers born in the 1960s and 70s, themselves products of the era, are trying to make sense of.
Subscribe to Canadian Art today and save 30% off the newstand price.
