Brock University Alumni Exhibition
Sarah Beattie, Candace Couse, Alicia Kuntze, Ben Mosher, Carrie Perreault, Bruce Thompson
Curated by Emma German
Tracing the histories of artistic practice, particularly those of emerging artists, can reveal the unexpected. In doing so, patterns emerge in the exploration to find similarities between gaps, and success within the haphazard. Coming to the realization of a conclusive body of work is an evolving process that shifts over the course of an artist’s career, as the world shifts around them. The uncertainties and anxieties of the world today compel artists to question the role of their practices and their roles as mediators. Shifting Practices, the inaugural visual arts exhibition at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts VISA Gallery, is a study of varying stages of artistic and professional practice amongst six alumni from the Department of Visual Arts: Ben Mosher (2015), Sarah Beattie (2012), Carrie Perreault (2012), Bruce Thompson (2011), Alicia Kuntze (2010), and Candace Couse (2008). In retrospect, this exhibition examines their practices chronologically, from the concepts that each explored in the Honours 4F06 course until the present.
Having graduated from the Visual Arts program in the spring of 2015, Ben Mosher is the most recent alumnus in the exhibition. He was actively present during the move of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts from the Brock University campus into downtown St. Catharines. Lines of Reference is a culmination of the artist’s ongoing investigation into the histories of the site throughout the duration of the move. The artist generated a barcode based on the letters “MIWSFPA” and referenced a series of colours from around the building.
Drawing on the past and present, the colours become visual codes for the site, and the verticality of the lines respond to the architecture of the building. Mosher’s practice has consistently explored the gaps between the digital and physical worlds, but this work takes a new approach to this practice in a renewed attempt to blur the translation between digital and analogue. These text-encoded lines were initially introduced to the wall using a projector, and then meticulously taped and painted by hand. Rendering the barcode by hand results in a slightly imperfect outcome, an element that was absent from the digital barcode. The result is a non-scannable code that exists in an alcove of the gallery, a space that is often overlooked.
Similar in its search for the handmade within the vast context of the digital age, Mosher’s Drift Assembled (01/09/15) explores the idea of storage, archiving, and the artist’s own memories of growing up in Nova Scotia. Using sentimental items and found wood lends the weight of the historical context that is embedded in these objects. Since their original display in the 2015 Honours exhibition, A Temporary Stay, at Rodman Hall Art Centre, the artist has manipulated and reworked these assemblages to create new possibilities.
– Student Monitor (https://visagallery.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/shifting-practices/)
