Performance: Thursday, November 21, all day
Opening with Friday Night ART Live: Friday, November 22, 7:00pm
Talk and Publication Launch: Saturday, December 14, 2:00pm
Exhibition by OCAD U faculty and staff member Derek Liddington
Every moment can be traced back to the first time the sun touched my face is an exhibition by Toronto based artist Derek Liddington and his first solo show within a public gallery. Through a series of site specific works, Liddington explores the potential moments that can occur between the rise and fall of the sun over the horizon. Engaging with disciplines as diverse as drawing, sculpture and performance Liddington traces the sun's movement across the sky as an allegorical investigation of the human condition – specifically that of love and violence enacted within these moments. The anecdotal origin from which the exhibition draws is an offsite happening occurring on the artist’s birthday, November 21. Set to the backdrop of downtown Galt, Cambridge, a crane operator will perform the task of lifting a 300 pound circular steel plate in an action following the course of the sun’s rise from the east, to the delving of the light under the horizon to the west. The banal object celebrates both the sun’s rise and fall, engaged in a hopeless tracing of the solar gesture; an act of mimicry that is simultaneously archival and violent. However, the tension in the gesture also nods to the minimalist act of visually engaging with its surroundings, both in time and space.
In the main space of the exhibition Liddington presents a new sculptural work, A love worth fighting over (a monument to those that preceded me). Derived from his explorations of geometric composition and movement in relation to narrative, the work illustrates an operatic scene between three lovers, a car, and two ballerinas. Within the work entire segments of the narrative are concealed and revealed within the banner’s bellowing folds exploring the simultaneous expansion and compression of time, past, present and future. The surface of the banner has been dyed through a process of soaking and then rubbing powdered graphite over canvas. This process works to expose the very act of its creation leaving behind traces of the fingers and hands moving across the dyed surface. The resulting surface shimmers and flakes against the folds and reflecting light. In the wall drawing – All I could do to control my anger was stare at the endless beauty of the sun as it spilled over the horizon. All I could do to control my love was stare at the endless beauty of the sun as it spilled over the horizon. – Liddington uses mark making as a means for unveiling violence and tension. Geometric forms act as stand ins for individuals, objects and iconic imagery as we begin to see the unfolding trajectory of Liddington’s love story through the rise and fall of the sun.
Derek Liddington works and lives in Toronto. He obtained his MFA from the University of Western Ontario (London) and BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Halifax). Liddington’s work has been exhibited in numerous public settings, including his 2010 staging of Allegory for an Opera as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (Toronto). His most recent solo exhibition titled Modern Love is currently on view at Daniel Faria Gallery (Toronto). He has exhibited at abc 2013 (Art Berlin Contemporary), and in group shows curated by Cole Swanson and Rui Amaral. Liddington has received numerous grants and in 2011 was shortlisted for the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize. He is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery (Toronto).
Curated by Iga Janik
Gallery Hours:
Mon – Thurs 9:30am – 8:30pm
Fri & Sat 9:30am – 5:30pm
Sun 1:00 – 5:00pm
Image: A love worth fighting over (a monument to those that preceded me), 2013. Rubbed graphite on canvas, steel, 8'x8'x8'. Photography: Jennifer Rose Sciarrino. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cambridge Galleries, Queen’s Square
1 North Square
Cambridge, Ontario
519.621.0460
derekliddington.com
Free