Michael McCormack and Jason Penney: Bric-a-Brac to the Future
Michael McCormack SAGSRI explores the Northern regions of Earth 2009 / photo Colin O’Connor
The future is now at Eastern Edge as it hosts a two-person exhibition focusing on the exploratory promise and disastrous potential of human development.
Opting for a tongue-in-cheek vision of the future is Halifax artist Michael McCormack’s Suitcase Art Gallery Space Research Institute (or SAGSRI), a nomadic, performance-based project started by McCormack in 2002 to bring Canadian artists’ work to unusual locations through suitcase-sized exhibitions. Since 2007, McCormack and SAGSRI have turned their attention to the “final frontier,” working on the first-ever attempt to launch a suitcase gallery into outer space. At Eastern Edge, related efforts are documented through a series of proposed flags for other planets, as well as a collection of photos from previous SAGSRI “base stations” located in remote parts of Canada. Though SAGSRI’s bid to “compete in the space race” might seem futile, its use of neglected earthly locations underscores the curious human preoccupation with the new, which often leaves everyday resources ignored.
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Jason Penney Afterblast (Survival purse and tent) 2010 Installation view Courtesy Eastern Edge Gallery |
Overlooked materials are likewise recuperated in St. John’s– and Edinburgh-based artist Jason Penney’s installation, Afterblast, which constructs a post-apocalyptic scenario through several automated sculptures and a series of “survival packs for drag queens and queers” that fashion temporary shelters out of reclaimed materials. Interested in the ways that we construct fantastical problems to address real-life cultural tensions, Penney’s presentation of these colourful, DIY-inspired tableaux prompts questions about the kinds of forces driving our future and, if the end is near, just what kind of end it will be. (72 Harbour Dr, St John’s NL)
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Michael McCormack SAGSRI, Flags of our solar system 2010 Installation view Courtesy Eastern Edge Gallery |
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