Steven Shearer, Andrea Bowers and Stephen Andrews at the Power Plant from December 1 – 10 February, 2008.
Steven Shearer, Window, 2005. Image: renaissancesociety.org
VoCA saw the Power Plant’s winter exhibition this weekend. Steven Shearer, whose work takes up the main gallery spaces, is the Vancouver artist who has made a name for himself by making art about death metal music. He was shortlisted for Canada’s Sobey Art Award in 2006.
At first glance, we didn’t find much to like about this exhibition. The walls of the first gallery were hung with works from digital collages detailing seemingly hundreds of small images of 1970s teen idols, to fine drawings of head bangers and richly coloured paintings of stoner rock fans.
Several pieces took the form of archives of song titles, or merchandise gathered from eBay. The work comes across as the document of a middle-American lifestyle that there is no entry point for if you don’t relate to it or aren’t aware of the music. There were large crudely-made collages that looked like something every suburban teen might have on his or her bedroom wall. We thought, Ok these people exist…so what? The gallery text notes that Shearer “celebrates the anger, aggression and creativity that bubble beneath the surface of polite society.” Sure, but was there anything deeper to this work? Anything truly thought-provoking?
Steven Shearer, Puffs (detail). Image courtesy the Power Plant
We weren’t sure, so we walked through again. This time, we admired the tiny drawings in crayon and ballpoint pen, whose style is reminiscent of those famous Rembrandt etchings. We saw, in his paintings, the colouring and style of the Fauvist painters and of Norweigan painter Edward Munch’s The Scream. There were echoes of the filmic effects of Luc Tuymans – particularly in a lovely landscape painting, washed red as if a gel had been placed in front of a camera.
In one gallery, there was a mysterious metal garden shed, lit from inside. We couldn’t see its point, so we kept walking.
Steven Shearer, Drag. Image courtesy the Power Plant
Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. Image: wikimedia.org
We still weren’t convinced on the collages, so we walked through again. This time, as we approached the second gallery, the sound of a guitar revved up and a hideously loud screeching – emanating from the garden shed – filled the gallery. This guitar solo was triumphant, parent-loathing noise, so loud as to be almost unbearable. It went on for several torturous minutes, while my companion gave a very engaging impromptu performance of air-guitar.
Steven Shearer, Longhairs (detail), 2004. Image: sobeyartaward.ca
Rembrandt, Self-portrait, 1630. Image: pep-web.org
This sound piece was a baroque gesture, a comment on the idea of emotional expression (which is what art is, after all) – modern music that expresses teenage angst-ridden rage. As atrocious as this sound can be to some, it speaks to a culture for whom lack of authenticity is a deep frustration.
All in all, VoCA found it to be a worthwhile exhibition. We’re still not convinced on the collages, though.
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
Dear Andrea,
I enjoyed your description of the air guitar solo as “parent-loathing”. I want to rush to this exhibit because of the example images you gave, and your comparisons to great masters are apt, but they couldn’t paint these metal-head subjects with the deep empathy and admiration that Shearer does. A woman at a tea party recently announced to me that ‘painting is dead’. When I uncovered the fact that she wasn’t familiar with Kent Monkman or Kim Dorland she lost credibility with me. However, I think painting is painting, but it’s always alive and well in good hands like Shearer who paints his time in history with such passion.
Andrea, may I suggest a small way to improve this review? I’m going to assume you are up for it since you are inviting comments. Here goes: it might surprise you to hear that words like “lovely” and “exquisite” (as in your Star article) sound pretentious and are not that descriptive. I think a more specific adjective would be better.
Thanks for posting this, I almost forgot I wanted to see this show last week, but went to Art Metropole instead where I bought my dad a bumper sticker that reads, “I’d rather be snow shovelling”
xN