Zones of Exclusion

I just finished reading Ryan Flavelle's "The Patrol". Over the years I've read any number of military memoirs, as I'm sure Ryan has. Also over the years, they start to meld together (though that might be mostly due to my aging sieve of a  brain). As much as I enjoyed Siegfried Sassoon's "Memoir of an Infantry Officer", the only passage that still stands out is where Sassoon is given a concoction by the MD that solidifies his diarrhea, making his bowels stable enough for open warfare.

But what I wanted to say is this, "The Patrol' stands out for me due to its emphasis on the stratification within military culture. Specifically, how Flavelle fits into the world of the grunt even though he's a lowly signaler (at least he wasn't in the navy).

For a visual artist, author, journalist, poet or any other cultural producer, without some level of acceptance, any military project will have a barrier in its way. And while the same can be said for any socially centred project, the military, the army, the combat arms and the infantry (in that order) are some of the hardest sub-cultures to break into. Like not being born in Prince Edward County or Cape Cod, if you weren't born there, haven't shared suffering, you'll always be an outsider. But then, even if you're a grunt and from a different reg. (Chicken Fucker, Picklie etc.) or come from the reserves (as Flavelle did) there's another barrier that has to be worked away at.

Flavelle's openness with the reader about his desire to be accepted by the "Hard as fuck" guys from 2VP, and more importantly "meet himself" is what gives the book its agency. And for myself, that acceptance hangs around my neck when I'm back with the Battalion as well as in the studio. "Once a Patricia, Always a Patricia" may be true, but it don't mean you can just walk back in the door.

Meeting your true self, the one that only surfaces under the extremes of duress, is a need that asserts itself only in some people. And, amongst many qualities both good and bad, it's one you'll find in soldiers who have chosen combat.

"The War Profession"

Working on demos for my summer drawing course at York tonight. Teaching has taken over my life for a few weeks but I can at least spend time doing quick drawings for the class.

With that in mind, here's a collage featuring the late Tim Hetherington and the eulogy from Sebastian Junger.

If you live in Toronto there's currently an installation of Hetherington's Sleeping Soldiers series on billboards at College and Lansdowne. They are part of the Contact photo festival.

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In a couple of weeks I'm cycling out to Nova Scotia, so all production will grind to a halt. Come July and August though, it's back to full speed.

The fall will be busy with many things including the launch of Heritage House's "Embedded on the Homefront" for which I have an essay as well as the cover. The cover image is below.

As it's May 24 and I'm stuck in the city I'm now gonna head over to Dufferin Grove Park with a beer and Ryan Flavelle's "The Patrol".

Thanks Guys

Just a quick and hearty shout out to The Canada Council who've seen fit to fund this project.

I'm really looking forward to getting some fancy-ass (AKA, not shoe-string) stuff done for RotoZero.

Thanks!

Public Lecture at OCAD

If you find yourself interested and local, I'll be giving a talk about my practice with an emphasis on this project. It's this Friday, April 20th. 2:00-3:00 pm -100 McCaul St., Room 284. C'mon down!

The Mongolians, The Canadians

Here they are. in non-oblique shots.

Diversionary Tactics

Two solid days in the studio, new headphones and a painting that requires plenty of concentration (as it turns out AWOLNation are a really good option for this task).

I'm working on a diptych called "Cautionary Tale" but tonight I'm drinking a cheap kingcan and working on some support stuff for a large group show called 60Painters.

This show will be my first chance to exhibit some of the RotoZero paintings so if you're in the GTA between mid-May and early June, consider heading out to Long Branch (Etobicoke).

Also though, here are a couple of quick comicesque drawings from Camps Phoenix and Blackhorse.

It's a Comprehensive Investigation/Stew

Self-doubt, as I've read, is part of being an artist, but so perhaps is going down in flames.

As the paintings get painted, the words get laid out and the photos sorted through I inevitably start to worry about this might turn into a pack rat compilation of modes, styles and mediums, all masquerading as a project

Painting on plywood

Paintings on canvas

Text on gloss paper

Photography

Patches and coins

A book.

Those are the elements of RotoZero that need to be assembled into cohesive, narrative exhibitions. Subject matter also changes: Dudes, clouds, caves, tracer fire, mod buildings, hands. Well, yeah, I'm bouncing around. But when I get to worrying I think of Paterson Ewen and Gerhard Richter, not Leon Golub and Jenny Saville. Richter's hop-scotching around the worlds of paint is intended (partially and perhaps) to demonstrate the medium's versatility and he seems to do okay.

The notion of starting something and seeing it through for years or decades has maintained a contradictory place in my practice. When I was in first year of undergrad David MacWilliam came and gave a visiting artist lecture (my first ever) and at the time the dude had been focusing almost exclusively pyramidal and cornucopic shapes. Those early assertions backed up by droning legion of art history slides said "Stick with one thing". My third year painting prof (you know who you are G.P.) gave me the lowest mark in the class (the legally blind woman topped us all) because he thought I wasn't taking the class seriously, jumping around as I was.

My constants have been social themes, not visual cues and while I've made these decisions with eyes open and far apart, I still harbour concerns. But when it comes to themes I feel like I'm hell-bent to stick in the ghetto of fraternity, the aesthetics of violence and utopic desires. In that sense, I'm very much aligned with Golub and (at least the aesthetics of violence) Saville. So let's just call this post therapeutic hand-wringing and end with a few studio shots and mockups of works complete, nearly complete, potentially so and clearly not. You can decide what falls into what.

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Oh shit, here's the other main thing: If you're trying to operate as a "contemporary painter" there's little escaping the dual streams of inquiry. Object and Subject. This is old news perhaps, but my subject (militaria) means that I'm essentially ghettoizing myself,  investigating and committed to a less than widely accepted field of interest. At the same time "contemporary" still means acknowledging the limits/strengths of paint as a medium (Ya know, the Object). And that hobbling/emancipation at the hands of critics and historians is why the project is visually eclectic. Sometimes there's little point in using paint, sometimes painting is too subjective, and sometimes there nothing that could possibly serve the goal at hand other than painting. Again, you can decide what's what.