Celebrated Halifax-based conceptualist David Askevold passed away on January 23, 2008.

David Askevold, Love Mansion - 9 Matrix. Image: pageandstrange.com

As a teacher at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in the 1970’s, David Askevold developed and led what he called the Projects Class. During this period, Askevold selected artists, including Lawrence Weiner, Robert Smithson, Lucy Lippard, Joseph Kosuth, and Mel Bochner, and invited them to submit projects that he and his students would then carry out.

David Askevold, Shot in the dark IV, cibachrome print. Image: pageandstrange.com

His work, which involved conceptual video, photography and project-based pieces was influential to many California artists whom he taught in the 70s and 80s while he lived and taught there. His interest in the relationship between nature and society, as well as in performance, coincidence, collaboration and chance, may be seen as a precursor to today’s Relational Aesthetics.

Good interview about Relational Aesthetics from the BBC HERE

David Askevold, Burned Bush, cibachrome print

Read more about Mr. Askevold HERE.