September 19–December 12, 2015
Opening: September 19, 9–12pm
Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum
#203 – 1856 Scarth Street
Regina
Canada
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 11am–5pm
WANTED investigates current debates about consumption, resource sharing and marketplace that require a willing viewer to agree to participate in loathing and longing for desirable objects in order to transcend the conflicts of life. This idea of viewer/audience complicity underlines the approaches taken by all of the artists in this project, leading to double readings of optimism/renewal and revelation/criticism, forwarding the notion of art as a kind of reappraisal of beauty by setting in motion a willful play of confidences between viewer and spectacle.
Prior to and during the exhibition, a series of events will also take place across the city, including an exhibition opening, artist talks, bilingual educational tours and curatorial walk-throughs. As an extension of the exhibition, this project will feature an off-site work entitled Pioneer by Maori artist Brett Graham that will be presented at the First Nations University of Canada. This newly created large-scale work, produced specifically in response to this exhibition, will be presented in conjunction with Performing Turtle Island Fluid Identities and Community Continuities at the First Nations University of Canada. This gathering of Indigenous Theatre and Performance focuses on indigenous playwrights and modes of performing indigenous identity on conventional and non-conventional stages through critical and performative lenses.
Jack Anderson (Canada) / Brett Graham (New Zealand) / Marla Hlady (Canada) / Darren Lago (UK) / Kevin McKenzie (Canada) / John Noestheden (Canada) / Manuela Ribadeneira (UK)
WANTED is curated by Elizabeth Matheson.
Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum is an artist-run centre supports the work of independent and artist-curators in both its short- and long-term programming. Focusing on art in all its formats, WANTED is an exhibition that emphasizes diverse cultural voices accessing the white cube. In other curated and open submission projects, we look at time-based and performance art, art in public spaces, festivals and non-art institutional contexts, as well as broader conceptions of curating, including in its residency and production projects, education and audience engagement initiatives.
Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum and the curator gratefully acknowledge the support of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, Department of Visual Arts at the University of Regina and First Nations University of Canada.
Press contact:
Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum
T +1 306 522 7166 / F +1 306 522 5075 / [email protected]
