Since becoming something of an issue back in the 1970s, the search for an unmistakable and tentative Canadian identity remains elusive. Characterizations and typecasts that caricature Canadians hardly get to the meat of the matter. Wherein lies the Canadian heartbeat, its soul, its national sense of oneness, common goals, and shared origins? You’d think that as a people Canadians should know, yet it seems they find themselves in the midst of an age-old syndrome: they can’t see the forest for the trees. How is it that Canadians fail to see what unites them?
Scott August and Chris Gillespie, both emerging British Columbia artists, approach issues of Canadian popular culture, landscape, storytelling and iconography using trees and forests as references. In the quiet of defining the elusive Canadian identity, the works of both artists seem promising terrain as forest and tree speak directly to the conundrum of identity amongst diversity. Chris Gillespie’s use of diminutive snow-laden conifers and a miniature snowmobile plays on the idea of environmental breadth as a dominating force. Both the scale and the objects play off of and reference the conflicts, diverse identities and mysteries wrapped up in our expansive geography. Drastically reducing the trees and snowmobile in scale offers viewers a birds-eye that works to distance and objectify these hallowed Canadian subjects. As such, the small cluster of trees and abandoned snowmobile almost seem to become characters in a story, witnesses to a drama, props in a play, pieces of a puzzle, and clues in a mystery. it’s as if the viewer has stepped in just before or right after the action takes place so that either something is about to happen, or something has just happened that is yet undiscovered, creating a palpable tension. Is this some new Canadian drama unfolding? Is the little guy driving the snowmobile ever coming back? Is he dead or just lost in a maze of trees trying desperately to relocate his beacon of light? it’s difficult to shake the sense of suspended activity and mystery bordering on legend, myth and danger. Next to the maple leaf, these are a few images that speak more directly to the great Canadian wilderness than the snowmobile. It’s a true Canadian icon, pure and simple, the wilderness vehicle of choice for Canadians seeking to be part of their home and native landscape.
Entering the installation work of Scott August, I find myself smack in the middle of a real forest replete with trees, grass leaves, stumps and wood piles. Scott’s uncompromisingly earthly installation pulls no punches - it’s a shamelessly patriotic homage to the uniquely Canadian cultural production of plaque art. At long last, one shining young Canadian art star has some forth to break free from artspeak and art-market hegemony to redress and reinvest in this lost Canadian art form. As stated by the artist himself: “Plaque Art isn't a thing of the past, it has just been over-harvested and I would like to bring this fact to the attention of the general public, and raise awareness and concern about the current state (and possible extinction) of our natural plaque art forests.” With sterling conviction this young pioneer gives expression to the Canadian love affair with the great outdoors, be it camping, fishing, hunting or canoeing, not to mention that Canadian penchant for diligently coveting bits and pieces of wilderness and indiscriminately dragging it all back home as keepsakes and treasures. Canadians just can’t leave their forests alone for a second! What makes this gallery installation so super handy is that I don’t have to pack around all that food and gear. Plaque art has been brought to me on a platter, so to speak, along with some good old-fashioned taxidermy. it sets my mind spinning to think of what else is possible in the wake of a plaque art renaissance. Could it possibly be that this reconnection with my roots is bringing me closer to who I am as a Canadian? And while I can’t really tell whether the bearded guy in the photos is from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec or New Brunswick, guess what? In the final analysis, he looks pretty damn Canadian, and that’s good enough for me. in fact, I feel I could just camp out here all day in the gallery, snug amidst this plethora of plaque art that has reignited a Canadian fire within me. I want to hang out here because it really feels like home.
To see more of Scott’s art, click the link to his website here.