Self-Portraits Exhibition

One Hundred Self-Portraits in One Hundred Days | Leef Evans
Spanning Time: Coinciding Self-Portraits | Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty & Lisa Walker

Exhibition runs: Sept 13th – Oct 13th, 2013
Opening reception: Fri Sept 13th, 7 – 10pm

Gallery Gachet presents two distinct projects of self-portraiture: A solo painting exhibition by Leef Evans, and a participatory, critically reflective photo exhibition by Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty and Lisa Walker.

“The whole process of doing it – it’s about staving off suicide.” Leef Evans

The idea descended as most of Leef’s ideas do, emerging from a maelstrom of cloudy, unrelenting frantic need: One Hundred Self-Portraits in One Hundred Days. These paintings explore the kaleidoscope of the mundane – the colour and composition of a body inhabited daily, but rarely observed. It is the process, not necessarily the product or the subject that drives Leef’s works. It’s in the doing of it, the working at it, every day. These paintings archive the willingness to deal with waking up, survive the day, and at the end of it, to have a record of the work it took to make it through.  “Most times I couldn’t stand the look of myself,” Leef says, “the weight of the same face looking back at me, the same sad face, the same tired face.  I nearly quit a number of times. But revelation often comes in the banality of repetition. I was disassembled every day and remade without drama or ego.  And there I was.  And here I am.”

Spanning Time: Coinciding Self-Portraits focuses on the work of Lisa Walker and Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty, two photo-based artists who have made use of self-portraiture consistently in their work for over a decade. Both explore the overall effects of long-term self-portraiture including points where their work coincidentally has come together or overlapped.

An image of you; photographed by you. A photographic self-portrait necessitates being both the observer and the observed. One part of you is the creator of the image; the other part is the subject. Holding a camera towards you, with the intention to record a genuine moment, to connect and conclude an experience. The self-portrait touches on what it means to be a self-aware being, for the simple act of photographing oneself reveals both consciousness, and awareness of such.

Self-Portrait Sessions: Sat Sept 14th, 2 – 4pm

Join artists Leef Evans, Lisa Walker, and Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty in making self-portraits. The gallery will be open as both exhibition space and studio. Alongside the artists in the exhibition, experiment with the mediums of drawing, painting, and photography to create self-portraits of your own. The afternoon is a free workshop, open to the public, and materials will be provided.

If you would like to participate, please register pre-register by email: programming@gachet.org or by phone 604-687-2468.