Image far above: Branko Djuras; Image directly above: Grant Mercs
CJSF Sound Therapy Radio Taping: Friday April 8th, 6 – 7pm, with musical guest Rick Buckman Coe
(www.soundtherapyradio.com)
Two solo exhibitions within the gallery space: Grant Mercs explores the breakdown of process; Branko Djuras pieces it back together again.
The undercurrent in Mercs’ work addresses the concept of entropy. Originally a scientific term within the field of thermodynamics, the word entropy has now been reframed, with one of its many meanings as, ‘the breakdown or disorganization of any system’. In this case, Mercs addresses the systems that he had previously used to create art. It is this quality of entropic decay – the slow breaking down and the gentle rusting – that reveals the true nature of the work and how depression has informed its creation. Entropy is the artist’s own journey with depression made visible in the drawing and painting, as well as the primary link between the two mediums.
The series presents new insight into artistic production, incorporating ‘entropy’ as a mechanism of creation in relation to an artist’s work. It cultivates new space for a different narrative for the artist and depression to be built, an alternative to traditional/historical, psychological/psychiatric, or otherwise stereotypical depictions of depression and the depressive state.
The drawings were created primarily with ball point pen on archival paper, fixed and coated with wood varnish. This technique itself duplicates entropy as the specific varnish used in the process breaks down the ball point pen ink and creates a sepia tone emblematic of aged, weathered, archaic images. Featuring a range of organic forms with technological objects such as weather balloons, the subject matter of each piece further explores entropic natures – seeking out the very moment of decay.
The paintings are primarily concerned with the liminal spaces left in the wake of Modernism’s collapse; specifically, the absence of an authoritative narrative built around a very reductive understanding of ‘progress’ in modern art and what this entails for a painter. They combine elements
and techniques found within art history and pop culture in an attempt to find their own language as works of art.
Mercs states, “there is a certain freedom now in the idea of painting, and these pieces speak to that freedom, without necessarily being interested in the Modernist/Post-Modernist dialectic that’s been predominant for the last several decades. More of an ‘after’ Modernism is at play here, a sense that it is possible to have a conversation with the history of painting that can take almost any shape or form desired.”
***
Branko Djuras lost both his short and long-term memory, spending an entire month in hospital reforming his identity when he created this series of photocopied parts of his human body. They are an attempt to represent the emotional state he experienced during this process of reintegration.
During his month of hospitalization, Djuras felt a deep, acute sense of loss. Unable to recall details of his life other than that he was a professional artist, glimpses of random events would drift into his mind. These memories were always devoid of emotion, igniting a sense of being bereft of “his soul”, and activating the recurring fundamental question of “Who am I?”. Looking around the hospital, the only accessible and immediate way of creating art was using a photocopier. Unable to draw or paint, this device seemed the easiest means of expressing his process of survival and healing through the primary directive he has always known – his art. In an attempt to reconstruct his sense of self, the process of photocopying different parts of his body began. Or as he succinctly states, “it was an attempt to fill in the blanks, like on a standard questionnaire form.”
The technique involved the movement of face, hands and arms over the body of the photocopier using the extended exposure setting. The final pieces were articulated through a process of collage, thus creating surrealist-inspired, distorted abstract forms. These creations of separated body pieces now began to take on a whole new life of their own, suggesting other, disparate interpretations to the viewer. Playing with the idea of forming his doppelganger through this method, Djuras on some level managed to create a duplication of his identity in abstract visual form, but the forms on another level also breathe a sense of being irrevocably different to his human persona. He wondered what his doppelganger would tell him if they met. Would he have more profound insights into Djuras’s identity and person than he alone could perceive?
While working on the series, Djuras moved out of the personal realm and into a more objective observational position. He began to question what most people would do if they lost a part of themselves – what would they become? Djuras’s series complicates questions relating to our identity, existence and the role of art in maintaining a cohesive sense of ourselves, ones that will never be fully articulated or realised – just as the individual elements in the series. The beauty of this work remains in what is left unconfirmed for us, and the ambiguous identity of the abstract forms.
Media requests: Lara Fitzgerald, programming@gachet.org, t: 604 687 2468.
To see pictures from this exhibition, please visit our Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallerygachet/sets/72157626632976080
Grant Mercs | For All Our Entropic States + Branko Djuras | Black and White With(out) the Grey
Image far above: Branko Djuras; Image directly above: Grant Mercs
CJSF Sound Therapy Radio Taping: Friday April 8th, 6 – 7pm, with musical guest Rick Buckman Coe
(www.soundtherapyradio.com)
Two solo exhibitions within the gallery space: Grant Mercs explores the breakdown of process; Branko Djuras pieces it back together again.
The undercurrent in Mercs’ work addresses the concept of entropy. Originally a scientific term within the field of thermodynamics, the word entropy has now been reframed, with one of its many meanings as, ‘the breakdown or disorganization of any system’. In this case, Mercs addresses the systems that he had previously used to create art. It is this quality of entropic decay – the slow breaking down and the gentle rusting – that reveals the true nature of the work and how depression has informed its creation. Entropy is the artist’s own journey with depression made visible in the drawing and painting, as well as the primary link between the two mediums.
The series presents new insight into artistic production, incorporating ‘entropy’ as a mechanism of creation in relation to an artist’s work. It cultivates new space for a different narrative for the artist and depression to be built, an alternative to traditional/historical, psychological/psychiatric, or otherwise stereotypical depictions of depression and the depressive state.
The drawings were created primarily with ball point pen on archival paper, fixed and coated with wood varnish. This technique itself duplicates entropy as the specific varnish used in the process breaks down the ball point pen ink and creates a sepia tone emblematic of aged, weathered, archaic images. Featuring a range of organic forms with technological objects such as weather balloons, the subject matter of each piece further explores entropic natures – seeking out the very moment of decay.
The paintings are primarily concerned with the liminal spaces left in the wake of Modernism’s collapse; specifically, the absence of an authoritative narrative built around a very reductive understanding of ‘progress’ in modern art and what this entails for a painter. They combine elements
and techniques found within art history and pop culture in an attempt to find their own language as works of art.
Mercs states, “there is a certain freedom now in the idea of painting, and these pieces speak to that freedom, without necessarily being interested in the Modernist/Post-Modernist dialectic that’s been predominant for the last several decades. More of an ‘after’ Modernism is at play here, a sense that it is possible to have a conversation with the history of painting that can take almost any shape or form desired.”
***
Branko Djuras lost both his short and long-term memory, spending an entire month in hospital reforming his identity when he created this series of photocopied parts of his human body. They are an attempt to represent the emotional state he experienced during this process of reintegration.
During his month of hospitalization, Djuras felt a deep, acute sense of loss. Unable to recall details of his life other than that he was a professional artist, glimpses of random events would drift into his mind. These memories were always devoid of emotion, igniting a sense of being bereft of “his soul”, and activating the recurring fundamental question of “Who am I?”. Looking around the hospital, the only accessible and immediate way of creating art was using a photocopier. Unable to draw or paint, this device seemed the easiest means of expressing his process of survival and healing through the primary directive he has always known – his art. In an attempt to reconstruct his sense of self, the process of photocopying different parts of his body began. Or as he succinctly states, “it was an attempt to fill in the blanks, like on a standard questionnaire form.”
The technique involved the movement of face, hands and arms over the body of the photocopier using the extended exposure setting. The final pieces were articulated through a process of collage, thus creating surrealist-inspired, distorted abstract forms. These creations of separated body pieces now began to take on a whole new life of their own, suggesting other, disparate interpretations to the viewer. Playing with the idea of forming his doppelganger through this method, Djuras on some level managed to create a duplication of his identity in abstract visual form, but the forms on another level also breathe a sense of being irrevocably different to his human persona. He wondered what his doppelganger would tell him if they met. Would he have more profound insights into Djuras’s identity and person than he alone could perceive?
While working on the series, Djuras moved out of the personal realm and into a more objective observational position. He began to question what most people would do if they lost a part of themselves – what would they become? Djuras’s series complicates questions relating to our identity, existence and the role of art in maintaining a cohesive sense of ourselves, ones that will never be fully articulated or realised – just as the individual elements in the series. The beauty of this work remains in what is left unconfirmed for us, and the ambiguous identity of the abstract forms.
Media requests: Lara Fitzgerald, programming@gachet.org, t: 604 687 2468.
To see pictures from this exhibition, please visit our Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/gallerygachet/sets/72157626632976080