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Lauren Hall Sunsetting Shell in a Window Hearth 2010 Courtesy the artist |
Lauren Hall has attracted attention with work that plays off Canadiana imagery such as Lawren Harris’ mountains and icebergs. I was never sure how opportunistic it was, but to play to a provincial context is an opportunity missed in any case. In this show, she arranged pieces of styrofoam of decreasing size into an inward-turning spiral atop a base of sand. The resemblance to Robert Smithson is clear, and again, she will have to step up to that challenge. Certainly one’s time is better spent with Smithson than with Harris, and younger artists need to wake up to the fact that the artists they take as models set limits to their achievements. By their associations you will know them. In any case, Hall has thrown away her conceptual crutches and taken a chance on an object that thinks for itself.
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Patrick Cull Lamella No.8 2010 Courtesy the artist |
Hall has set course for an MFA, and Hobot works in public galleries; Patrick Cull probably has the least creatively damaging lifestyle—he works at an industrial job. He can use the CNC machines (computer-guided cutters) in his workplace to make his art. Here he shows mostly drawings of grids that have all become slightly shifted out of true, with the result that the intervening rectangles begin to tilt in space. Another piece, made with a CNC, is a painting on plastic that’s been cut into nested triangles. The piece hangs on a nail on the wall and the triangular segments sag because of the amount of material removed by the cut; the applied image then falls out of alignment with itself. While I find the work engaging, I must note that it revisits possibilities recognized years ago by Latins such as Waldemar Cordeiro, Hélio Oiticica and Gertrud Goldschmidt. That doesn’t eliminate Cull’s chance to make something fresh, but the fact that he is apparently not aware of his predecessors just might.
Today there are no excuses for not knowing. Information about art is easy to get. While I would never suggest that there is only one way to relate with the past, how can someone find their own approach if they don’t do the work necessary to understand what sets it apart? Some younger artists think that we should be less concerned with differentiating ourselves from our precursors and more celebratory of their achievements. This I have no argument with, but this healthier, less competitive attitude toward the past should not become an excuse for laziness. Boldness and confidence are required, along with curiosity and knowledge.
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Patrick Cull Lamella No.4 2010 Courtesy the artist |
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