Milktruck Delivery #9 Feb 😎 🥛 🛻

I was pretty slammed, cooked, baked, whatever you want to call it after a busy couple of months with the exhibition and wrapping up my studies in Paris. So slammed, cooked, baked, whatever that I put off writing my newsletter for a whole two and a half months. I’m not going to play catch up on those two months. Only a quick allusion to the Borderland exhibition that Teresa Ranchino and I put on with artists, Michel Jocaille, Hugo Guérin, Lorenzo Conforti, Irmak Dönmez, Yasmine Louali, and Alice Bandini. It was smashing, exhausting, and I feel - I hate to say it - invigorated to start dreaming up a future project.

The last month and a bit has been a lot of jumping around. Flying back to Canada from Paris was marked with a couple of stops on the East Coast. Starling and I had 48 hours in New York to see friends and take a lil bite outta the big apple. I made a stop at Stephen Friedman gallery (thanks for the intro Hadrien) to check out the Denzil Forrester show which was like stepping into the best party you’d ever want to attend. Vibrancy on a different level. Not vibrant in a way to grab attention, but rather, pointed toward the necessity to communicate sound and movement. The composition was so precise and purposeful that each individual work surrounding you invited you in, rather than making you pause to take in the bigger picture. It felt involved. I felt involved! The works were huge and filled the space perfectly - illuminating the cold January night right before closing time. The works showcase Forrester’s incredible eye - capturing moments as they unfold to reggae and dub sounds - and translating them alongside the music onto the canvas. His struggles are also highlighted and much of the ecstasy that we see in the nightclub pieces has its tone shifted to a much more difficult place - the loss of a dear friend to police brutality or sweating in his families basement to help make ends meet. All events are captured with tenacity but with a hand that seems to allow for improvisation, moments that endure through colour and communication.

In addition to portraying the dance halls of East London, Denzil Forrester's works are also significant in their rich documentation of black British culture and the West Indian community during the 1980s, often depicted through the lens of his own experiences.

From 1986 to 1988, Forrester went to New York for a two-year residency after being awarded a Harkness Fellowship. Sam Thorne, Director of Nottingham Contemporary, explains that after Forrester’s residency with the British School at Rome from 1983 to 1985, "New York felt dirty and noisy [in comparison], almost monochromatic, with graffiti providing the only colour." As a result, all of the paintings that Forrester made whilst in New York solely consist of hues of melancholy blue.

One such painting, ‘Blue Jay’, is inspired by the death of Forrester’s friend Winston Rose, who died in police custody in 1981 having been forcibly detained under the Mental Health Act. Monumental in scale, 'Blue Jay' is arguably one of Forrester's most significant works. Thorne explains that "[Rose]’s figure is seen from behind, held limb by limb, crucifix-like by four police officers, their shiny-tipped helmets looking more like hoods." Here, the policemen’s anonymity allows them to become symbols of the police brutality that proliferated London during the 1980s. The drama of the situation is captured by the artist’s use of frenetic brushstrokes and a swirling, vortex-like composition.

- text from the exhibition catalogue

My dear friend, Philippe Bourdeau - curator at l’Imagier Exhibition Centre in Gatineau, Quebec is putting together a show featuring eighteen artists with selected works from their archives/photos taken with disposable cameras provided to them or used a photo roll from their work. An explorer of the many sides and faces of curation, Bourdeau aka salutcowboy as he is known by fans in all corners of the earth, introduces anonymity to the Valentine’s Day show. Over a iMessage interview, Mr. Cowboy had this to say about the show:

“If I have anything to say about this project, it's this: When I was given the task of organizing a fundraiser, I thought a lot about how these events are usually organized. I couldn't see myself asking artists, most of whom are long-time friends, to donate their work so that the gallery would make a profit and the artists themselves would only get recognition. I thought it made more sense to find a way to present multiple visions without having to categorize mediums, which I rarely do, and without losing the subject matter of the works. I also thought about what most of us do to document the world in a candid way, which is to take photos. This is how the idea came about. As we all have different ways of conceiving reality, it was important to me that this be done through the lens of the camera, without necessarily being able to control the end result. It's also a way for me to return to a more democratic and personal way of acquiring work, based solely on what you see and what appeals to you. The fact that the exhibition is very minimalist, with 4x6 on the wall, gives an aspect of displacement that I find interesting, since you have to approach each photo to understand its subject or the idea that emanates from it.”

I regaled Starling with this idea after chatting with Philippe about the programming. What an interesting way to spur interest and intrigue - an invitation to provoke original thought and reactions to the art lining the walls. As witnesses to works of art, the viewer often is asked or asks themselves why they like a piece. People often pull the predisposed influence the artist already has on them into their critique, a common thread that helps them classify and relate. When any sort of indication of who the creator is goes out the window, the viewers imagination takes over; swirling each feeling and prompt together into original thought - a unique viewpoint unattainable when prior knowledge is possessed.

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I’m keeping this month’s edition short - needed to shake the rust off and get back into the swing of things, etc!