Alternorthern
The Lab
San Francisco, CA
2 Feb – 6 March 2010

featuring work by: Sonny Assu, Valerie Boxer, Vincent Chevalier, Brendan Fernandes, Jenny Gag, Michael Love, Jon Sasaki, Until We Have a Helicopter, and Zoë Yuristy

By Tonya Warner

The initial aim of the curators of Alternorthern was to bring the work of emerging Canadian artists to a US audience.  However, to simply see this show as a subversion of Canadian stereotypes proves as problematic as defining a coherent Canadian national identity in itself.  The works were chosen not just for their “Canadianness” but as examples of art by Canadians wherein the artists literally insert themselves into the work.  What ties these pieces together conceptually is less their country of origin and more their performative examination of identity.  As a result, there is a mix of stereotypically “Canadian” imagery (hikers, deer, a canoe), along with examinations of more universal – dare I say global – themes.

Zoë Yuristy’s “After William Notman” series most directly deals with how Canadians – historically and presently – visually define their own cultural identity.  Based off of Notman’s “outdoors” portraits staged in his studio in the 19th Century, Yuristy’s work examines what kind of imagery is seen as key to a national identity.  For her photographs, the artist poses herself in front of digitally projected backgrounds in the fabrication of a more contemporary enjoyment of the “great outdoors”.  Although such scenes are not culturally exclusive, their execution and historical precedence speak to the artist’s own examination of a national identity and thereby her own.

Brendan Fernandes’s work speaks to embracing a multi-cultural identity in globalized society. Fernandes was born in Kenya to Indian parents and grew up in Canada.  For one of his works in this exhibition, “Foe”, the artist hired an acting coach to teach him how to speak in the accents of his cultural backgrounds.  The act of learning to speak in these accents that both are and are not a part of his identity points to themes of displacement and authenticity. Ethnic diversity is officially embraced by the Canadian government and thereby becomes an element of Canadian identity as well, further complicating the questions raised by this exhibition.  Another of Fernandes’s works, “Neo Primitivism” features a plastic deer emerging from a cardboard box into a children’s wading pool.  It speaks to displacement but also a kind of resilience, of finding one’s way in a new and foreign environment.

Examining “Canadianness” through personalized works by Canadians seems to be the best and least murky approach to the question.  If all the works here dealt with stereotypes, there would be a pervading air of cynicism that would come no closer to presenting what being Canadian means, especially as unique from being American.  The only downside to this exhibit is that the works cannot escape their context – instead of national identity being a component of the mutli-faceted artworks, it is the primary reading.  The viewer seeks out what makes each piece “Canadian” firstly and examines other present themes as an after-thought.  The works fight to transcend being reduced to their cultural heritage while coming together to present a complicated and diverse picture of that very thing that unifies them.

http://www.thelab.org/events/413-alternorthern.html

http://zoeyuristy.wordpress.com/

http://www.brendanfernandes.ca/