Planetofthe Arts vol.3no.5 March 1988 IAN WALLACE Ars Longa, Vita Brevis lan Wallace-Selected Works 1970-1987. Feb.- April 3, 1988. Vancouver Art Gallery. lan Wallace has taught at U.B.C. and, since 1972, the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. For his students in first years, Wallace represents their academic introduction to 25,000 years of art history. To students in their senior years, he functions as a nexus for critical discourse on issues in contemporary art. Wallace’s art work, currently on exhibit at the VAG, operates in the public space much the same way: art history is one of the basic levels on which the work can be read, but the more polemical aspects nurture discourse on many levels. The work is not didactic however. Rather, the synthesis of photographic reality with radical abstraction allows for a wide spectrum of understanding and interpretation. Itis this very fusion which is the theoretical heart of his work. The exhibition is curated by Christos Dikeakos. In his catalogue essay, Dikeakos terms the exhibition “a recognition of lan Wallace’s role in the development of conceptual art in Vancouver.” The exhibition also enhances Dikeakos’ reputation as an important innovator and contributor to the evolution of conceptual photography in this region. For example, he curated the seminal Photo Show (1969) at U.B.C. Local participants included Wallace, Jeff Wall, Duane Lunden, and others, notably Robert Smithson and Dan Graham. Then in 1971, Dikeakos curated the College Show, in the Fine Arts Gallery of U.B.C. In this exhibition Wallace showed Magazine Piece, (1971) a dismembered Seventeen magazine taped grid- fashion to the gallery wall. The grid was a reference to formalist painting and, as Dikeakos notes, “(acts) as an interface between the reality of media materials and its conflation of identity and consumption.” At the time, the installation (which is represented in the current ex- hibition as documentative enlargements) would have mirrored the grid-like and oppressive rectilinear architecture of the Fine Arts Gallery. The “mirroric” architecture of our urban reality is disrupted for the pedestrian or office worker through reflection and multi-faceting: Pan Am Scan (1971) is aseries of black and white photographs which depicts a freeze-frame pan from the interior of an airline’s office to the street. This work examines the relationship between the city dweller and the city, and effectively portrays the anxious flight response and it’s futility in this symbolic wilderness. With La Melancolie de la rue (1973) the artist, the curator, and catalogue essayist Jeff Wall recognize a transition in Wallace’s art. This work becomes the first large-scale, hand coloured photo-mural which Wall asserts “(establishes) a structure for Wallace, that of the sequential grouping of large-scale, hand-tinted photographs, which became his primary medium throughout the seventies.” The imagery in this work is an example of the multiplicity of levels of understanding inherent in this exhibition. On a literal level, we are presented with a scene of a crowded city street, a person driving by a new subdivision, and a derelict shanty on a mudflat. But in the “Literature of Images” we can see corporate, domestic, and marginal architecture analogous to different social orders (Further litererary meaning could be attached to the Dollarton squatter shacks; they once housed Malcolm Lowry). The works begin to assume epic proportions with An Attack on Literature I, Il (1975) and A Summer Script (1974) as these massive photo-murals exceed 20 meters in length. Wallace does not appropriate images - they are composed as paintings are, and he takes responsi- bility for everything in the image area. In A Summer Script for example, there is a literal rep- resentation of colour as “cosmetics” as Wallace notes “it’s cosmetics and artifice and the idea of constructing the image.” The filmic image is reinforced because the work is comprised of hand-painted stills from a film project. : : : : With An Attack on Literature (1975) installed in public space, it is important to examine the her- metic and polemical nature of this work. Despite Wallace’s intention “not to underestimate the viewing public”, both curator Dikeakos and essay- ist Wall detail Stephane Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira‘le hasard and his essay The Book: A Spiritual Instrument as the foundation for comprehension of the work. Unfortunately, with- out a working knowledge of Mallarmé, An Attack on Literature is reduced to a large series of photos depicting figures interacting with each other, a typewriter, and some paper. Wallace recognizes this - “There is a lot of hermetical material which | wouldn’t expect a lot of people to be interested in or find relevant to themselves.” Beginning in 1980 with the Poverty project, Wal- lace again marks atransition in his work. Although not forsaking the hand-painted plexiglass and black and white photos completely, technology now permits the effective lamination of photo- graphs to canvas. This enables Wallace to directly engage in the dia- lectic of radical abstract painting and photo- graphic representation. Here the monochromatic painted surface, drained historically of its means of representation co-exists with the photo-real on the formalist canvas. Now the artist is able to reconcile a pre-1970 desire for painterly abstrac- tion with the conceptual weight of photo-reproduc- tion. Over the course of seventeen years, it is impres- sive that Wallace maintains such a consistent dialogue with the symbolic wilderness of the city and the modernist dialectics which found the work. Ultimately, by carefully balancing the mod- ernist tradition of abstraction as a structural under- pinning to the work with layers of semiology, Wallace succeeds. Polemics aside however, the public jury is still out on this one. lan Verchere is a third year printmaking student at ECCAD. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Discorder, Action, Western Living, and Planet of the Arts. He wrote this article while on codeine painkillers, a direct result of being the lead singer for male-bonding band Curious George. lan Verchére Fry pan: melt marg. low heat, add sliced mushrooms and vegetables. La melancolie de l’av lan Wallace, now showing at the Vancouver Art ¢ essay to Wallace’s catalogue, are gaining an incre: both as artists and theoreticians. This is curious, be demonstrate serious, obvious weaknesses requir Part 1 - Jeff Wall: The Art Of Mystification. Wall's essay, “La melancolie de la rue: Idyll and Mo 82”, identifies three currents in Wallace’s work, an first is photography emphasizing social inequalit artists interested in building a new, socialist world, by a self-styled artistic “vanguard” who bantered | The second currentis “reductivist or “minimalist” pa do it, for example a rectangle of only one colour. Its militant display of an almost total absence of skill ju For example, monochrome paintings were, acct predominant culture” (whatever that is), or manif painting after this might end). Or, the fact these pa by photography (what painting ever has been?) n contemplation of the historical fate of painting as labour.” (wha?). But why is unclear. All this does hyperbole that has virtually paralyzed discussion The third tendency is transcendentalism. Of course thought, but Wall nicely describes the particular utopian projection of a human evolutionary leapo hard he can write clearly.) Wall wants to show how these three tendencies dence) interact in Wallace’s work. Both monochr suggest (but how?) an “ideal” state, not yet exist culture” frustrates every attempt to turn the poter reaches a “dead-end” where it can only further serv transcendence as an unreachable ideal. (Or som Wallace tries to get out of this “dead-end” by whe transcendentalism. By placing a higher value on “: ism is supposed to turn this “defeat” of art into son “site of resistance”. Evaluating whether or not these claims have ar ambiguity the writer demonstrates. On the one ha person distance from the ideas he describes. He r presents each as a fait accompli. Atthe same time work, thereby seeming to suggest some sympath Wall must answer a question: is he a dispassio advocate? Is he an historian of (artistic) ideas, wh lay out their origin and development, or is he a perspective? Wall’s ambiguity on this question means he does theoretical positions he describes he glosses ove How does he justify the outrageous claims made b dominant culture”? Why is it so bad? How has it “c do those terms mean? True, answering each of these questions would re this must be done before Wall can claim stringing and ill-defined terms explains anything. Conversely, if he is not interested in whether or repeating catch-phrases provides little insight to th first explaining what they mean, and why they are Wall might respond the terms and arguments are most cases | doubtis true. And if the rare situation < term or argument, basic scholarship demands he The question of his theoretical basis is obfuscatec in the most difficult language he can. For exampl between words in Wallace’s “Image/Text” as a “.. writing which allows Literature to come into being.” the obvious truth there can be no words without : reductivist painting provide a “...silent, challengin Logos”? Planetofthe Arts vol.3no.5 March 1988 IAN WALLACE Ars Longa, Vita Brevis lan Wallace-Solected Works 1970-1987. Feb.- April3, 1988. Vancouver Art Gallery. Jan Wallace has taught at U.B.C. and, since 1972, the Emily Carr College of Ar and Design. Forhis students in fist years, Wallace represents their academicintroduction to 25,000 y ‘of art history, To students in their senior years, he functions as a nexus for critical discourse ‘on issues in contemporary art. Wallace's art work, currently on exhibit at the VAG, operates inthe public space much he same way: at histor is one the basic lovels on which the work ‘can be road, bul the more polemical aspects nurture discourse on many lovels. The work is not didactic however. Rather, the synthesis of photographic realy with radical abstraction allows ora wide spectrum of understanding and interpretation histhis very fusion Which i the theoretical heart of his work. ‘The exhibition is curated by Christos Dkeakos. In his catalogue essay, Dikeakos torms the ‘oxhibion "a recognition of lan Wallace's rola in the dovelopment of conceptual art in Vancouver." The exhibition also enhances Dikeakos' reputation as animportantinnovator and contributor to the evolution of conceptual photography inthis region. For example, he curated the seminal Photo Show (1969) at U.B.C. Local participants included Wallace, Jeff Wall, Duane Lunden, and others, notably Robert Smithson and Dan Graham. Then in 1971, Dikeakos curated the College Show, in the Fine Arts Galery of U.B.C. In this exhibition Wallace showed Magazine Plece, (1971) a dismomibored Seventaon magazine taped grid- fashion to the galloy wall, The gid was a reference to formalist painting and, as Dikeakos notes, (acts) as an interface between the realy of media materials and its conflation of identity and consumption.” Atthe timo, the installation (which is represented in the current ox- hibton as documentative enlargements) would have microred the grd-ke and oppressive rectilinear architecture of the Fine Ars Gallory. The "mirrorc’architacture of our urban realty is disrupted for the pedestrian or office worker through reflection and mult-faceting: Pan Am ‘Scan (1971) isa series of black and white photographs which depicts afreeze-frama pan fom rior of an airline's office othe streot. This work examines the relationship between the ‘and effectively portrays the anxious fight response and its futility this symbolic wilder With La Molancolie de [a rue (1973) the ats, the curator, and catalogue essayist Jott Wall recognize atranstion in Wallace's ar. This work becomes th firs large-scale, hand coloured pphoto-mural which Wall asserts “(establshos) a structure for Wallace, that of the sequential {Grouping of large-scale, hand-tinted photographs, which became ‘his primary medium throughout the seventies.” ‘The imagery in this work is an example of the mutiplcty of levels of undorstar in this exhibition. On aIiteral level, we are presented with a scene of a crowded city strect, a ‘person driving by a new subdivision, and a derelict shanty on a mua. But in the “Literatu ‘6fimages” we can see corporate, domestic, and marginal architecture analogous to dif ‘social orders (Further itererary meaning could be attached to the Dollarton squatter shacks; they once housed Malcolm Lowry). The works begin to assume epic proportions with An Attack on Liter ‘Summer Script (1974) as these massive photo-murals exceed 20 meters in length. Wallace ‘does not appropriate images - they are composed as paintings are, and he takes responsi- billy or everything in the image area. nA Summer Script for example, thera isa literal rep- resentation of colour as “cosmetics” as Wallace notes “i's cosmetics and atice and the dea fof constructing the image.” The filmic image is reinforced because the work is comprised of hhand-paintod stills from afi project. I, 1 (1975) and A With An Attack on Literature (1975) installed in publi space, itis important to examine the hor- matic and polomical nature of this work. Despito Wallace's intention “not to underestimate the viewing public’, both curator Dikeakos and essay~ ist Wall detail Stephane Mallarmé's Un coup de {dés jamais n'abola le hasard and his ossay The ‘Book: A Spiritual Instrument as the foundation for ‘comprehension of the work. Unfortunately, wth- ‘out a working knowledge of Mallarmé, An Attack ‘on Literature is reduced alarge series of photos ‘depicting figures interacting with each other, a ‘ypewnter, and some paper. Wallace recognizes this "Thora isa lot of hermetical material which | wouldn't expect alot of people to be interested in Or find relevant to themsolves.” Boginning in 1980 with the Poverty projact, Wal- lace again marks atransition inhis work. Athough not forsaking the hand-painted plexiglass and black and white photos completely, technology ‘Row permits the effective lamination of photo: graphs to canvas. ‘This enables Wallace todirectly engage inthe dia lectic of radical abstract palling and photo: