An Elvis Presley cloth adorns the doorway to the main gallery where
snapshots, paintings, photos and workbooks festoon the space. Coffee
tables, sofas and bookshelves contain Hemingway to Burroughs to a
typing manual.
None of the art on the walls made any particular impression apart
from the chessboard pattern of small plant photos which displayed
images that looked like they had a three dimensional texture. From
close ups of flax to wide shots of trees to flowers, they are worth
a look.
The free jazz playing is great. It sounds like people improvising
live. But the workbooks were, for me, the most interesting part of
the exhibition. Whytes particularly showed an aesthetic and
poetic sensibility I enjoyed. One page is a list of clichés,
another quotes from portrait of the artist as a young man,
contrasted on another page against an ink drawing of the way
swedish people have sex. Ill say no more, take a look.
Robin Kenealys workbook was in a different style, with letters
and notes from friends, and an obsession with images and quotes from
Bob Dylan turning into an infatuation with Milla Jovavich.
Apart from this static display, the rest of this exhibition is a continually
changing set of performances, talks, film showings and music performances
for three weeks. Highlights include a reading and slide show of Winnie
the Pooh on Thursday the 21st, the future of art form
talk on Friday 22nd, and the Nova Scotia CD release on Friday the
6th of December.
Enjoy has changed direction somewhat with these latest sets of exhibitions.
Each three week show has been organized by one or two artists who
act as their own curator and can show their own work and/or that of
others. An interesting concept in theory, it appears that the hands
off stance Enjoy is taking has led to a serious lack of direction
and focus for some of the exhibitions. Enjoy has always been known
for tight, untraditional and groundbreaking exhibitions. If they want
to retain their reputation, I wonder if the gallery should perhaps
return to a more hands on approach to the curatorial process.
[the workbooks mentioned in this review have been mistakenly credited to Richard Whyte and are in fact all by Toon - Enjoy]
Richard Whyte
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