DRAWING WATER
Patrick Mahon
Central Gallery
October 19, 2008 to January 4, 2009
Patrick Mahon's new series of drawings and sculptures, entitledA Book of the River, displays networks of lines and arabesques that describe the movement of water and invoke conditions of environmental and psychological turbulence and unrest. The artist has adapted his work from a series of engravings by J.M.W. Turner, originally compiled in the book Rivers of France(1837). Mahon generates elaborate “nets” of printed lines that propose a poetic and “structural” order to the life-sustaining presence of rivers.
In addition to A Book of the River, the exhibition includesDrawing Water, a series of banners generated from drawings about the Thompson River that were created in workshops by First Nations students from the Sk'elep School of Excellence and by Kamloops residents living adjacent to the river, including some from the Royal Avenue area. The exhibition also includes River, comprising significant works from the gallery’s permanent collection selected by Mahon.
Drawing Water, the larger exhibition, presents the artist’s continued interest in investigating large-scale natural phenomena that invoke both metaphorical and material readings. Operating across multiple fields of inquiry and modes of representation, Drawing Water links the historical subject matter of the river in art with pressing contemporary environmental and social concerns.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue with texts by Patrick Mahon, artist interview conducted by Jen Budney (former KAG curator), and a poem by Michael Blackstock.
Generously sponsored by B-100