Dead Letters Rising

Today I headed up to to Artspace, the space about Books and Co in downtown Prince George (in my opinion the cultural hub of the city rests within these walls. . . ) I was there to check out the visual art display of artists Graham Pearce & Magda Partyka entitled Dead Letters. First off let me say, the name of this show intrigued me very much when I first heard the show was to happen.

And let me tell you, I was not disappoimted. Clearly the work of 2 very creative people who are daring to look at the limits of our societal constraints, problems and buring-our-heads-in-the-sand kinds of attitudes.

In the semi-dark of Artspace, the powerful paintings, masks, sculpture and other works dominate the space. Collectively, they evoke image and form of subject matter not easily digested. It is not exactly a feel-good display, but most certainly, thought-provoking and eery. There is a desperate and bothered message here, calling out to the beholders to pay attention immediately, and it is a message not easily ignored. A number of animal figures were strung up on a mobile-type apparatus. The raven in particular stands out in my mind. Also, I carried away with me the haunting image of the oil-slicked mask on the wall.

I knew there was some important social commentary here so because I missed the opening & artists' talk (held last Friday evening) I asked Graham Pearce for further explanation of what Dead Letters has to say; what exactly is going on within those walls of Artspace? Here, in his own words, if what he told me about the display in responding to a couple of questions:

1. What prompted putting this display together?

In March 2009, Magna Partyka inquired about hosting an art show with me, and I thought it was a cool idea to bring together artistic impressions of our mutual discomfort with current political/ social/environmental affairs. We started work on the art for the show soon after. Although Magda included art from prior to our decision to host an art show, everything in my half of the exhibition is from the last 8 months

(wow Graham you must have been working like a madman - comment from Mary Mac).

We set up the show together with certain shared ideas: the opening would be vegetarian and as egalitarian as would be possible in respect to its invites.

2. Can you tell me more about the significance of the title of the display?

The title is taken loosely from Herman Melville's short story, "Bartelbythe Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street." Bartelby, the story's protagonist,worked in a dead letters' office -- this is a metaphor to explain why Bartelby drops out of capitalist society and eventually humanity. Dead Letters seemed to capture the sentiment of outsider art. Rather than give our audience an easy experience, we wanted a conceptually charged and passionate art that challenges systems and institutions that water-down or dismiss most art that risks. We knew that most people would either not understand our intentions nor care enough to work to think about them. Consequently, Dead Letters fit. On another level, Jacob Marley's warnings to Ebaneezor Scrooge are as popular now as ever -- but people seem to conveniently ignore that the message works through the layers of capitalism to how people destroy the environment for short term gains. Jake Marley Jr. seems to be sending dead letters.

The concept of the zombie animals is connected to the overall theme of Dead Letters: messages that are not received/ understood by the audience listed on the address. The masks on the wall represent the ghosts from A Christmas Carol reinvented to address some of the major troubles of our times. For example, Jake Marley Jr. is drenched in oil ("Let them eat gas"), and the Ghost of Corporate Future is caught-up in the physical blow-back of climatechange. The zombie animals are hunting down the human (a version of Bartelby the scrivener), who is awakened to the dystopia albeit in a nightmare.

OK man, on the theme of Dead Letters. . . umm, you had 250 people at your opening and people (like me) are still checking out your work. . . maybe they were dead man, but may now reincarnated or risen from the dead?

Oh and by the way. . . I just have to say . . . I love the combination of the creepy with the Christmas Carol - here we are in October heading to Hallowe'en and thereafter the Christmas season. . . how timely is that for such a display! (and we won't mention the most capitalist driven time of the year these days. . . ) Very intriguing stuff and it is good to see the arts are alive and well (with a little help from dead & ill) at looking seriously at the harsh negatives that come with unfettered capitalism and the associated environmental destruction. Inspiring indeed in a heart-stopping freaky sort of way.

The show continues at Artspace for another week and sculptures (plus a few more) will be in the College of New Caledonia Library for a month.