CONCURRENT - ANGELA GROSSMANN & DREW SHAFFER
Angela and Drew do such an excellent job at qualifying their relationship to art, each other, and the world.
Both artists share a special connection to working with found objects and ephemera. The two works featured in Concurrent abound with references to old and new, hot and cold, love lost and love found.
Angela Grossmann
I
first met Drew when I returned to Vancouver. He worked in an antique store
close to my studio and I began to drop by more and more just to chat. Since
then we've travelled together, cooked meals, read books, watched films, exchanged ideas and laughed
together long into many nights, but best of all, we've sat in great galleries
and cried in front of great paintings.
"The
best part of us is not what we see, it's what we feel. We are not what we look
at. We are not our eyeballs, we're our mind.” – Duane Michals
Angela Grossmann, Blue Girl Pink Ghost, 2011 |
Drew Shaffer
In his essay,
"Commodity and Fetishism", Marx posits the notion that mass-produced
items may become haunted by the spirits of the people who make them. It is with
this idea in mind that I look for narrative possibilities in objects that are
easily recognizable (in this case, a galvanized steel pail). Here, the pail
becomes at once a neglectful parent (or lover), as well as a stage on which its
miniature occupant can wallow in its loneliness,
and-- of
course-- the ever-present threat of being dumped out.
Angela and I
both utilize found objects and images as a
starting point, and this is certainly the strongest correlation between
our work. Familiar, mundane and forgotten things can become powerful messengers
when given the chance.
Drew Shaffer, If You Love Me This Much, Why Do I Feel So Lonely?, 2014 |
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