QUID PRO QUO and THE FOUR SEASONS
Artist: Garry Neill Kennedy
Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
13 October to 10 November 2012
Exhibition review by Sam Hanrath
In the history of the human race, colour has always played a critical role in divining meaning from the natural world and communicating meaning in the representational world. Humans imbue colours with specific and powerful meanings, through cultural associations and personal associations. In QUID PRO QUO and THE FOUR SEASONS, Garry Neill Kennedy presents a group of works which invite the viewer into a dialogue between their personal associations with colour and the associations of others with colour.
Entering the main gallery, the viewer is immediately surrounded by a large wall work which stretches floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall. In chisel typeface, these walls read QUID PRO QUO in red, blue, black, yellow and orange. On such a large scale, in a space whose walls are marred by varying nooks, doorways and other structural elements, the text is difficult to make out. On one of the walls coloured installation plans from other similar wall works have been hung accompanied by texts gathered on a table which reveal to the viewer a narrative behind each work and what each of the colours in each work represents.
When the viewer first encounters the work, they may have difficulty reading the text let alone finding a narrative within it. The phrase QUID PRO QUO refers to a favor granted in return for something, but this supplies no further narrative to the viewer who is then forced to draw the narrative out of the only other information supplied: the colour. For me, and perhaps many others, these colours call to mind the colours of wounds and bruises, particularly when grouped together. Thus, a darker though still ambiguous narrative comes through; some sort of shady exchange of power has taken place. Something has been exchanged quid pro quo for something else - though perhaps not willingly, but under threat of violence. Text accompanying this work and the others outlines the exact narrative for the viewer, and suddenly newer or deeper associations with these colours are built in the viewer’s mind so that these colours will, from now on, recall these narratives when seen elsewhere in the world.
Part of the text of QUID PRO QUO projects through a doorway onto a wall in a secondary space in which THE FOUR SEASONS has been installed. Four different colour schemes repeat through the three series of works within the space; the scheme is shown in one as paint on four panels of chipboard, a second as paint scribbles on four panels of canvas and a third as colour sample collections in four frames. Each work in each series is accompanied by a list of the trademark names of colours used in the piece, all of which are associated with whichever of the four seasons the panel represents: “Apple Blossom, April in Paris, Green Bud, Easter Egg, Spring Field, Spring Yellow...etc.” This work investigates a lighter side to colour associations in human culture than the more political QUID PRO QUO. Similarly though, abstraction here denies readings into the forms of the work and forces an analysis of the colours. Before even noticing the list of colour names the viewer tries to decipher each season by colour. Then looking at the list, the viewer is shown the complex dialogue of colour associations within culture, where colours taken from nature have been trademarked to always represent the things from which they were taken. It raises the questions of whether these are associations we would have made on our own from our own experience with colour or whether our interpretations of colour are informed by culture and media (likely a combination of both).
The exact narratives of Garry Neill Kennedy’s work can be difficult to penetrate or appreciate due to the abstract quality of the work, but once drawn in, the viewer is immersed in a revealing dialogue about personal and public narratives internalised through colour associations. After leaving the exhibition, I cannot be sure if my own personal associations with colours have left with me, intact.
Artist: Garry Neill Kennedy
Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
13 October to 10 November 2012
Exhibition review by Sam Hanrath
In the history of the human race, colour has always played a critical role in divining meaning from the natural world and communicating meaning in the representational world. Humans imbue colours with specific and powerful meanings, through cultural associations and personal associations. In QUID PRO QUO and THE FOUR SEASONS, Garry Neill Kennedy presents a group of works which invite the viewer into a dialogue between their personal associations with colour and the associations of others with colour.
Entering the main gallery, the viewer is immediately surrounded by a large wall work which stretches floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall. In chisel typeface, these walls read QUID PRO QUO in red, blue, black, yellow and orange. On such a large scale, in a space whose walls are marred by varying nooks, doorways and other structural elements, the text is difficult to make out. On one of the walls coloured installation plans from other similar wall works have been hung accompanied by texts gathered on a table which reveal to the viewer a narrative behind each work and what each of the colours in each work represents.
When the viewer first encounters the work, they may have difficulty reading the text let alone finding a narrative within it. The phrase QUID PRO QUO refers to a favor granted in return for something, but this supplies no further narrative to the viewer who is then forced to draw the narrative out of the only other information supplied: the colour. For me, and perhaps many others, these colours call to mind the colours of wounds and bruises, particularly when grouped together. Thus, a darker though still ambiguous narrative comes through; some sort of shady exchange of power has taken place. Something has been exchanged quid pro quo for something else - though perhaps not willingly, but under threat of violence. Text accompanying this work and the others outlines the exact narrative for the viewer, and suddenly newer or deeper associations with these colours are built in the viewer’s mind so that these colours will, from now on, recall these narratives when seen elsewhere in the world.
Part of the text of QUID PRO QUO projects through a doorway onto a wall in a secondary space in which THE FOUR SEASONS has been installed. Four different colour schemes repeat through the three series of works within the space; the scheme is shown in one as paint on four panels of chipboard, a second as paint scribbles on four panels of canvas and a third as colour sample collections in four frames. Each work in each series is accompanied by a list of the trademark names of colours used in the piece, all of which are associated with whichever of the four seasons the panel represents: “Apple Blossom, April in Paris, Green Bud, Easter Egg, Spring Field, Spring Yellow...etc.” This work investigates a lighter side to colour associations in human culture than the more political QUID PRO QUO. Similarly though, abstraction here denies readings into the forms of the work and forces an analysis of the colours. Before even noticing the list of colour names the viewer tries to decipher each season by colour. Then looking at the list, the viewer is shown the complex dialogue of colour associations within culture, where colours taken from nature have been trademarked to always represent the things from which they were taken. It raises the questions of whether these are associations we would have made on our own from our own experience with colour or whether our interpretations of colour are informed by culture and media (likely a combination of both).
The exact narratives of Garry Neill Kennedy’s work can be difficult to penetrate or appreciate due to the abstract quality of the work, but once drawn in, the viewer is immersed in a revealing dialogue about personal and public narratives internalised through colour associations. After leaving the exhibition, I cannot be sure if my own personal associations with colours have left with me, intact.
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