Brand Ø

Dates: February 19th - March 27th

Brand Ø, an artist statement

Art still matters. I hope.

How we handle larger issues such as the ongoing degrading of our

natural environment, the evolving digital/AI revolution or the widening gap

between rich and poor (which too often reflects the separation between

the patron and the artist) will determine the future for generations.

The events now unfolding are unprecedented in our lifetimes. The

breakdown of our rules-based society is well underway. It has become

more difficult to separate fake news from factual reporting. The lie now

distorts reality. Postrealism has arrived. The lie is the active virus infecting

our social, political and cultural spaces. Artists—and all the rest of us—are

at a crossroads. Do we embrace AI or do we resist?

I created the lime green butterfly piece in 1986. It was the catalyst for

this show. I had hoped to lean into a renewed optimism—without being too

serious. But by the time the last pieces happened, the world had become

darker—as you can see in the Borderlines triptych and InFuture piece.

That said, each piece is an object rather than a picture. The expanses

of colour invite Zen mediation. A tree or stripe acts as a locus for the eye,

to help hold the viewer’s attention within the space. The large areas of flat

colour are meant to be viewed in ever-changing natural light, where the

shifting shadows and dancing sunbeams are essential contributors to the

experience. The titles invite the viewer to form other narratives.

With the viewer’s input these simple pieces become subversive in a

collapsing postmodern environment rapidly reconfiguring into a new, and

chaotic postreal world. So yes, I’d say art still matters.

Looking back, my roots are deeply embedded in modernism. Then

along came postmodernism, filling the space with eclectic narrative. From

escaping the tyranny of the lens we’ve run headlong into the tyranny of AI

and the postreal. Most of the public, of course, could not care less about

these terms. We either like the art or don’t. That’s all there is to it.

As to Holding Space, how you interpret and think and feel about these

pieces is entirely up to you.

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