Drywall Planetarium : Où est rendu l’art?

I like to think of artistic expression as a manifestation of a world view, steeped in philosophical and spiritual considerations of contemporary life. It’s a statement that seems utterly obvious, and yet risks coming across as completely out of place, since philosophy seems to have been dumbed-down to a facile, consumerist’s relativism, and spirituality is at odds with the much-vaunted secular paradigm that characterises modern progress.

So bear with me as I get a little philosophical on you.

With Drywall Planetarium : Où est rendu l’art? I have built a static planetarium centered on the here and now: The room is the Montreal night sky in April, 2012. It’s a snapshot of the heavens, rendered in the very materiality of our surroundings.

I should start with the question, Why stars?

… Because I have always been attracted to the stars. Who isn’t? They are innately profound and mysterious; they have a potent symbolic power related to: mythology, astrology, navigation, astronomy, scientific revolution, age of reason, myth of progress, modern disenchantment. This last point is where I begin, holding up the proverbial mirror.

The contemporary context sets up a historically unique relationship to the stars: 80% urban, the global industrial experience of the 21st century (ie. now) we see but a fraction of the stars that our grandparents and their forefathers would have known. We may “know” more about stars now than any other culture in history through the eye of Hubble and by way of the media. In turn, scientific theory provides us with a profound understanding of what the cosmos can tell us about the origins of the universe… And yet the stars themselves have dropped out of our daily lives, since only the very brightest of them can cut through the industrial glare of our cities. As for the historical traditions related to the cosmos, most are marginalised and excluded from day-to-day experience. Only newspaper astrology seems to be capable of breaking through the cultural pollution of spectacle on a daily basis. Like the glare of city lights, distractions and propaganda are rarely seen for what they are. Modern day disenchantment accepts this as normal.

If there’s something I believe in, it’s enchantment, especially through experience with Nature. In the absence of Nature, art plays a role. Drywall planetarium : Où est rendu l’art? is a question of finding the enchanting and the mysterious in the fabric of daily life, even when the so-called art (framed and canonised as it may be) has been taken away.

Expression of a world view

But of course there is still lots more to consider when looking to the stars, as suggested by the long list I mentioned above. Even if the stars have all but fallen from view, for most of us, they are in large measure responsible for getting modern society to where it is today. They play a significant role in the formulation of contemporary modes of thought beginning with global circumnavigation and the history of colonialism (proto-globalisation, as addressed by Gauguin’s questions).

It was Galileo et al who initiated the dream that made it possible, and of course the scientific method and the eventual industrial revolution followed. Add some fossil fuels to the mix, shake well and presto! We have a global industrial economic society in overdrive, on a collision course with the limits of Nature.

So it comes as no surprise that space itself has become the “final frontier” and a stage onto which we project our fantasies of progress for the future. However, beyond the propaganda, the space race is all but a bust, slowly being dismantled before our eyes. The reality behind this charade is that it is here on terra firma that we must face all the problems and challenges of our own modernity. There is no escape. And this is where the imagery and metaphor of navigation associated with the stars comes in. Where do we go from here? Who do we turn to for guidance? How do we make sense of the changes that are afoot when old rules no longer apply? How do we cope with disillusionment? There are traditions and there is wisdom out there that can still serve a purpose, but they may not be dressed up in the flash and dazzle of new technology…

I was born in Winnipeg in 1969 and have been drawing, painting, designing and building things for as long as I can remember. I studied these things with a number of tutors in my youth, and followed up with a bachelor of fine arts at the University of Manitoba which I completed in 1996. Later the same year I moved to Montreal, where I have lived ever since. I maintain a studio in Montreal and show regularly, thanks in large measure to ongoing representation by Galerie Roger Bellemare and Galerie Christian Lambert. My work has been exhibited across Canada as well as in France, and is now a part of numerous private and public collections, including the Musée national des beaux-arts à Québec. I live with my wife and our son in the Mile End.