Ewan McNeil, A Bright and Shiny Future, n.d. Latex on board. Courtesy the artist.
Ewan McNeil: Peripheral Topographics
November 5, 2010 – February 18, 2011
Teck Gallery
Ewan McNeil’s painting probes the nature of selected southern British Columbia interstitial spaces and structures, each endemically characteristic of this region as well as part of the process of “globalization”. McNeil transforms everyday places and spaces into film noir settings though his use of monochrome, with the result, as in cinema, that this series is not only peripheral but is also redolent with premonitions, where ‘something is about to happen,’ if it hasn’t already.
The disconcerting strangeness of this localized world-view results from a complex set of factors working in tandem. The choice of subject, the re-imagining of it in black and white, and the weirdness of the everyday all contrive to re-educate our eyes in relation to the conventional wisdom about “Beautiful British Columbia”. The “best place on earth” resembles here a stage set for a “strange place on earth”—as if the best is still yet to come. In addition, McNeil’s project is part of the global artistic exploration of the links between painting, photography, and cinema–here given yet another twist, adding another layer of meaning to the term “new topographics”.
Curated by Bill Jeffries.
Events
Opening Reception
Thursday, November 4, 2010, 7–9pm
This exhibition is timed to coincide with the Robert Adams show at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Edge of Town exhibition at the Equinox Gallery (ending on November 13).