TOQUE BAROQUE
Ben Darrah & Paul Walde
June 29 - September 2, 2006
37 Mulcaster Street, Barrie, Ontario - Canada
| toque (tôk) n. 1 a hat with no brim or with very little brim. 2 tuque.[<F] |
baoroque
(b? r?k? or b? rok?) adj., n. -adj. 1 of or having to do with a style
of art, architecture, poetry, or music that flourished in Europe, especially
in the seventeenth century, and was characterized by rich and elaborate
ornamentation. 2 ornate or fantastic in style. 3 irregular in shape:
baroque pearls. -n. the baroque style. [< F < Pg. barroco irregular] |
| Perception is coloured by the lens through which one looks. The Group of Seven argued that the European, nineteenth century model, did not give an accurate picture of Canada. We are arguing that the lens needs to be updated again. |
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Description Toque Baroque is a traveling exhibition of paintings by Ontario-based artists Paul Walde and Ben Darrah. Both Paul Walde and Ben Darrah immigrated to Canada from England as young children. Like many new immigrants, they embraced Canadian culture, and have maintained an appreciation for the uniqueness of this landscape, both socially and geographically. Toque Baroque is an exhibition of works that examines this Canadian uniqueness and proposes a new, more contemporarily relevant kind of Canadian Landscape painting. Paul Walde turns directly to the material of the Canadian landscape, specifically the boreal forest and the Canadian Shield, for the subject of his work. This includes grinding up stones from particular regions, such as the North Shore of Lake Superior, and using the powder as pigment for paintings that are literally speaking of the land - the stuff this country is made of. Walde is also presenting works that further explore the idea of painting by mounting thin slices of microscopic chunks of stone onto slides, which are then projected into the exhibition space - creating a contemporary rock painting that cast the gallery in the role of the cave. |
Paul Walde's Work - click on thumb to view work
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Ben Darrah's large scale mixed media paintings respond to how the sense of a Hinterland has become mediated with other references of contemporary life to fuse into an at times cohesive, and other times, a paradoxical series of images that speak of this Country. It is the point of mediation that becomes Darrah's focus - the point - shift - when camouflage pattern, or faux wood paneling no longer reference forests, but speak more of fashion and social positioning. This shift becomes all the more apparent when combined with grafitti-like stenciled images of "Canadian Scenes" derived from sources such as tourist postcards. Darrah's works are then cloaked in aesthetically driven paint handling and colour choices, which serve to add a very personal subtext to the commentary on contemporary Canadian life. |
Ben Darrah's work - click on thumb to view work
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When
combined in one exhibition the works of Walde and Darrah not only speak
of a new way of representing Canada, but also speak of the very act
and function of paintings. By pushing the boundaries they are building
on the history of past wall-based art making and are requiring the viewer
to get up to speed when looking at contemporary art. |
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