Posted on
2013-11-18
Nestled between snow-covered mountains and the edge of the Pacific Ocean, Vancouver is the most extraordinary city; it is at once remote and removed from the centre of the Western World, yet it sustains the vibrancy of a thriving modern metropolis. One of the most distinguished representatives of this city’s vibrant art scene is Rodney Graham. He has created a practice which operates through systems of quotation, reference and adaptation, working with diverse media such as film, photography, installation, painting, music
and text.
In his photographic work, each image is a fictional self-portrait, with the artist costumed but always recognisable, portraying a variety of characters. Graham has produced this new work both in his Vancouver studio and in public leisure facilities throughout the city. Four lightboxes, created between 2011 and 2013, will be unveiled together for the first time and presented under the exhibition title, ‘The Four Seasons’. Graham did not originally conceive these works as a series, but, he says, they evolved into a series ‘organically’. Dedicated to the four seasons, these meticulously staged mis-en-scènes represent the artist’s major late body of work. Over the past three years, the artist and his team worked tirelessly until they reached the point of perfection.
The first of these works to be photographed was ‘Betula Pendula Fastigiata (Sous Chef on Smoke Break)’. The subject was inspired by a scene that the artist witnessed behind a restaurant on Vancouver’s main street: a member of the kitchen staff taking a smoke break.He resolved to make a work from the situation but decided to transfer the image to a park
Exhibition runs through to December 21st, 2013
Hauser & Wirth
Limmatstrasse 270
8005 Zurich
Switzerland
www.hauserwirth.com
