Whilst on my exchange at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, I came across two artists that interested me. Marie Lannoo, who is an abstract painter from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and Ken Lum a Vancouver based artist who works through a number of different media including painting, sculpture and photography.
On my exchange I was doing research for an essay when I came across a book called “Abstract Painting in Canada” by Roald Nasgaard. At the back of was a short one page article on Marie Lannoo. The artwork shown was called Evening Shadow Blue #1.
 | ||||
| Evening Shadow Blue #1 (2005) MARIE LANNOO |
In this series she would paint on the edges of the canvas so colour would reflect off the stretcher and cast a gentle glow onto the wall.
On her website are photographs of her latest works from her solo exhibition called “Through and Through and Through” held at the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon Saskatchewan last year. The first work I saw was Through and Through and Through #27...
 |
| TTT #27 (colour turned off) (2009) MARIE LANNOO |
....as you can see for an artist that is interested in colour it is not a very colourful painting, that is until you walk around the painting and suddenly the colour turns “on” as Mary describes.
 |
| TTT #27 (colour turned on) (2009) MARIE LANNOO |
Now to be honest I really didn’t get it. I decided to email Mary to ask her a few questions about how she achieves these paintings.
She was fantastic she answered all my questions and even sent me a copy of the Through and Through and Through catalogue. (Click here to hear more about what she trying to achieve and to see more of her work from Through and Through and Through).
Basically she explained to me how this series developed out of a question “how can I increase the dimensional component of reflected colour in my work?” She was interested in the effect of light hitting the back of CDs and reflecting colour. This lead her to researching the materials CDs are made from … the material being prismatic foil. Then she meet with Science Professors at the University of Saskatchewan to find out how she could maximize the amount of reflected colour with this prismatic foil.
THE RESULT: a 6ft-tall curvilinear sculpture made from prismatic foil.
 |
| TTT Installation (2010) MARIE LANNOO |
This is one of many sculptures she made for the exhibition. The sculpture is kinetic. The audience becomes encouraged to move around the work and see how the colours change. Her next challenge was to create this same kinetic energy through painting.
THE RESULT : Through and Through and Through No. 1.
 |
| TTT #1 (2009) MARIE LANNOO |
In this particular painting the viewer is confronted with what appears to be a flat monochromatic ground. As the viewer inspects closely they notice a series of almost invisible lines that seem to march across the canvas. These lines are only invisible when the viewer looks at the painting from head on, but when they step to the side the stripes burst into life with colour. She is able to create this effect through interference paint. Interference paint has miniature flakes coated in oxide pigment that reflect light and colour into the space that is occupied by the panting.
After the semester of studying I decided to go on a road trip across Canada. I got in touch with Marie to see if I could visit her and look at her art and she was more then happy for me to come visit her studio in Saskatoon. So I flew out from Vancouver to Halifax from there I caught a bus right across Canada. The longest part of the journey was Toronto to Saskatoon. It was a 2 day bus trip. I arrived in Saskatoon early in the morning, did some sightseeing then met up with Marie Lannoo.
 |
| Marie Lannoo and me at her Studio (2011) |
It was a fantastic experience! After some lunch we went to the back garden and she showed me one of two studios she works in. Seeing the paintings that close and personal was great. I finally understood just how kinetic her paintings are.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
On my exchange I was also lucky enough to see Ken Lum’s retrospective which was on at Vancouver Art Gallery. Grant Arnold, the curator of the retrospective showed us around. It was a fantastic experience as we were able to ask lots of questions about the show. To start with we looked at one of Ken Lum’s early performance work called Entertainment for Surrey.
 |
| Entertainment for Surrey (1978) KEN LUM |
Ken’s piece involves him standing alongside The Trans-Canada highway for a total of 4 days during morning peak hours. This highway links Surrey to Downtown Vancouver it operates much like the Tuggeranong Freeway connecting Tuggeranong to the City. Surrey was once a former farming community, which was transformed by the urban development of Vancouver into a suburb. During his performance he was wearing a grey hoody and jeans and stands static against the passing blue and white-collar commuters. A wide range of reactions occurred over the 4 days. The car is quite a private space and to have some strange figure on a hill staring down into that private space of course did concern some commuters. The performance raises the issues of mobility and work, city and suburb, built environment and natural environment, identity and recognition and class and place… These are all key themes Ken Lum’s explores throughout his work.
I was lucky enough to see Ken Lum give an artist talk at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He explained during his performance about how quickly people began to expect him to be in the same spot and how he eventually he became a sign.
In 2000 Ken Lum worked on a series called the shopkeeper series. This series is a group of fictional lower/ middle class business signs. Half of the signs are permanent and the other half are the provisional lettering of the proprietor that gives us some insight and revelation to their feelings and desires. The text at the bottom does not necessarily conform to expectations of what you’re suppose to do when you run a business but it reveals something about the proprietors background.A good example is Hanoi Travel.
 |
| Hanoi Travel (2000) KEN LUM |
The top text reads “Hanoi Travel Flights Cruises and Train Tickets”. While the bottom half reads “Disneyland packages Fun in the sun tickets… We remember the people’s War.” There is a distinct juxtaposition and contradiction of the enjoyment meant to be had at Hanoi but also the remembered past of the “peoples war”. The peoples’ war being of course the Vietnam War.
This juxtaposition is also present in artwork called the Mirror Maze With 12 Signs of Depression.
 | |
| Mirror Maze With 12 Signs of Depression (2002) KEN LUM |
He created this work for Documenta XI. It is a fascinating piece that I thoroughly enjoyed when I saw it at his retrospective. In a way it is very much like a house of mirrors but the viewer is confronted with text being the 12 signs of depression. I can’t sleep at night, I feel alone in the world, I have no friends etc. In this artwork you are constantly seeing yourself but at the same time, unlike a fun house were you know the idea is to have fun, you are redirected to these inner symptoms of depression which constantly call into question have you ever felt these symptoms in your own life.
Out of all the artworks Ken Lum has done A Monument for East Vancouver (2010) is the one that evokes and stirs the most emotion in me.
 |
| A Monument for East Vancouver (2010) KEN LUM |
This public sculpture is based off a symbol that has been circulating around East Vancouver for decades through street art and graffiti. Ken Lum talked about how he always wanted to formalize this symbol and how the symbol is usually accompanied by the word “rules”. This to him is an interesting contradiction and is ironic because the West of the city has always held the economic and political power. To Ken the sign represents a gesture of defiance, protest and an assertion of identity.
Now the reason this sculpture is so strong is because its location. The Downtown Eastside of Vancouver is known as “Canada’s poorest postal code”. The area is noted for its high incidence of poverty, drug use, prostitution and crime. 1 in 3 homeless people in the Downtown Eastside have AIDS. 2 out of 3 have Hep. C. The crime rate per capita is one the highest in the world. The drugs being used in the area are heroin, crack cocaine and increasingly Crystal Methamphetamine.
Click here to see a short trailer for a documentary that highlights the dark secret of Vancouver which is the Downtown Eastside. If you want to watch the whole documentary you can see it here.
So lets look at this sculpture from two perspectives. Firstly you have the middle/ upper class white collar worker living on the West of Vancouver. They think Ken Lums’ work is brilliant it is a way of drawing attention to the problematic part of the city that usually is ignored and goes under the radar. While imagine being a bum, a drug addict or a prostitute and seeing this neon cross that reads East Van. Many of them thought it was a new Hospital, Shelter or Food Kitchen for the homeless only to be disappointed to realize its just a sign. For me I see the sign as being a real issue as yes does raise awareness but at the same time it doesn’t offer any solutions or means of help.
Now as this sign is only a year old it will be interesting to see how the public and the Vancouver Council respond to the problematic area.
