PETER DEACON - RCA
"FACING WEST -LOOKING EAST"
This title for an extended series of work has its origins in a three month period during1988 when I was working as an artist in residence at the Leighton Colony in Banff. At that time a series of collage works on paper titled "Letters From Banff" was produced. These small scale pieces contained auto biographical references as well as references to the mountain landscape surrounding Banff. They were subsequently exhibited in one-person exhibitions at The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff, The Virginia Christopher Galleries in Calgary, and the Thomas Gallery in Winnipeg, as well as numerous contributory exhibitions across Canada. Individual pieces traveled as far a field as Japan.
The oriental venues seem, in retrospect, to be particularly appropriate because the motivation for much of the work was based upon levels of cultural and aesthetic interchange between western and eastern values. I came to Canada in 1975 from England to teach at the University of Calgary and, inevitably, carried with me an artistic experience steeped in a European sensibility. Some time was subsequently spent studying Chinese and Japanese painting, including free-form brush calligraphy with the late Chinese artist Chin Shek Lam.
This background seemed to be relevant to the location of Calgary and particularly Banff, situated close to the continental divide; the watershed which both literally and metaphorically connects and divides eastern and western influences. The works produced since that period in 1988 both consolidate and expand upon these concerns. They are all based upon the physical act of facing west from the continental divide at various locations in southern Alberta. The associated levels of perception are influenced by the memories, dreams and experiences of my own life, in particular those experiences that involve looking east.
The newest work, instigated in 1990 involves the location of sheets watercolor paper and polished copper plates, along with other artifacts, directly in the landscape. Forty-nine of these are located on or very close to the 49th line of latitude representing the border between Alberta and the USA. One hundred-twenty others will eventually be placed on the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia which in the northern part of the province follows the 120degree line of longitude and in the southern part of the province forms the continental divide. Some of these artifacts are buried in mineral deposits, others are located with exposure to the weather. Some will inevitably be affected by the growth of flora and the movement of insects and small animals. Many of the surfaces contain images applied to them prior to location that relate to the sites themselves. The sites are documented with photographs and maps which in themselves form part of the finished works. It is my intention to temporarily resurrect or retrieve these artifacts periodically over a time period of one, to twenty years.
In relation to the site locations on the border of Alberta and British Columbia there is the certainty of a latitudinal correlation with locations in England and Wales that relate to my early life and experiences. (This correlation is certain because the whole of the British Isles falls well within the latitudinal extremes of Alberta). Preliminary collage works resulting from the documentation produced in1990 when the artifacts were first located have been exhibited in contributory exhibitions across Canada and in Japan. One-person or two person exhibitions have been held in Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto. Individual works have also been acquired for the permanent collections of the Alberta Art Foundation and The Canada Council Art Bank.
Preliminary Collage works resulting from the documentation produced in 1990 when the artifacts were first located have been exhibited in contributory exhibitions across Canada and in Japan. One-person or two-person exhibitions have been held in Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto. Individual works have also been acquired for the permanent collections of the Alberta Art Foundation and The Canada Council Art Bank.
In an unpredictable way, my early interests in planar geometry and other topological constructs as a means of correlating the two-dimensional reality of painting with a three dimensional understanding of the world will have come full circle. The topographical focus of the new work is indicative of a process of psychological and geographic analysis -a mapping of the boundaries of the mind and of the boundaries of experience.
THE COPPER PLATES
These observations should be read in the broader context of the attached artist's statement "Facing West -Looking East".
All of the copper pieces relate to specific locations on the continental divide and specific time frames related to those locations. The plates will have been 'exposed' quite literally to the influences of the environment at those sites and to the influences of the artist whose personal experiences suffer the same combination of unexpected events and predictable cycles as the natural environment.
This symbiotic relationship of continual adjustment and give and take between the influences of the environment and the influences of the artist is central to the concept of the work.
The process of 'exposure' has its parallel of course in photography and as with that discipline, the concept of negative and positive is integral to the manifestation. Such polarization, uniquely suited to the east/west axis of the continental divide metaphor, is further exemplified in the association with printmaking that is generated by the use of copper plates. These works, however, are not made to be printed. The copper surface rather operates as a neutral plane into which and upon which events happen.
The works are subject to a continual process of location, retrieval, adjustment, documentation and exhibition. While they are under the control of the artist they will always be returned at the earliest opportunity to their consistent 'homes' at specific locations on the continental divide. When outside the control of the artist they are subject to the possibility of a life other than that influenced by nature. They could be discovered, moved, stolen, sold, lost, stored in archives etc. In each situation they would be subject to a spectrum of differing environmental and temporal influences from the unexpected and dramatic to the slow and imperceptible.
The metal, copper, CU 29, in the table of elements is well suited for use as a surface to record changes and events. It is highly durable yet soft enough to retain a record of physical contact through scratches etc. This same quality along with its fine grain enables images to be etched into it using photo-etch processes. It responds sensitively to oxidization induced by chemical changes and these reactions usually result in a patina in the blue/green range which seems beautifully relevant to landscape associations. Copper is also highly conductive and I am hoping at some point for a lightning strike.
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