James North Art Crawl: July

I now have to concede the point that art does in fact imitate life in its lazy lull through the summer months - a realization that I’ve been battling in my efforts to maintain a weekly habit of posting to this blog through the humidity, through the spiking social demands now that my non-art friends are enjoying ‘time off’, through the dearth of quality exhibitions while galleries are busily hoarding their proverbial nuts for cooler weather. Some will christen this as an opportunity for ’special programs’ and the like - and as a matter of fact, the Urban Moorings Project is actually a fine example of that very thing - but one is really better off just accepting the lackadaisical state of affairs with sporting good humour.

And if you need further proof of this sorry state of affairs, behold the mimes.

In terms of cultural relevance, mimes are about as reflective of Hamilton and its art as the fruit-and-barnyard-animal prints being shown at The Print Studio under the peculiar title of ‘A Walk Along James Street North’ - technically sound, rather eye-catching, but contextually bizarre. I can’t recall the last time I saw either a Eurotastic street performer or a rooster on James Street North, and with good reason.

Contrary to what I now recognize as a routine on my part, You Me Gallery ended up being our first stop of the evening, the construction barrier surrounding the presently-closed Hamilton Artists Inc. creating a substantial detour on our usual path. This proved a fortunate move, as Brian Kelly’s showing of sculptures incorporating found objects and light sources provided substance enough for discussion, even if I did find the overall effect to be one of an especially artful display of new lamp designs. The word I used in my brief chat with Bryce Kanbara was ‘domestic’ - not especially charged with judgement one way or the other, but accurate all the same given that each structure was easily the cousin of any number of familiar lighting fixtures for the home, with little deviation from that basic shape - in fact, lamp bases were actually incorporated as the foundation for further found objects. In some cases, the combination of elements produced subtle visual puns without overcomplicating the equation; in far too many others, Kelly didn’t seem to know when to stop, quoting rhyme and verse of every garage sale you’ve ever visited.

A similar thing was happening further down the road at Loose Canon Gallery, where gallery regular David Irvine is showing solo with a wealth of paintings executed on discarded records. A quick perusal of his website does confirm my initial suspicions that his is largely a commercial-crafting venture, which may render my criticism largely irrelevant, but given the fact of what he is doing here, I can’t help but sense a lost opportunity. Yes, all these paintings are on records, but you would only know that by looking very closely for the trace of the record’s label under the heavy-handed density of paint he invariably uses in each and every work - otherwise, to quote my even-more-frank viewing companion, it’s just ‘a bunch of round things.’ There’s enough work here for a few to reveal a quite deft hand at drawing, so I can’t help but wonder how much better his work would be if only Irvine were tackling his surfaces with a touch more sensitivity - how interesting it would be to glimpse some black vinyl grooves curving from behind some of these odd characters, or the potential kick-start of catching clues of the record’s contents by a hint of its label, music and image becoming mutual concerns that charge each other in unexpected ways depending on whether one chose to be illustrative or outright contrary about the link.

One thing I can say is that by the time my companion and I left Loose Canon, we were excitedly debating this very point, which means we didn’t leave the experience empty-handed. And I did get a couple of lovely art books at an amazing price at Under the Moon, which between the old-world decor and brilliantly discerning selection is easily my favourite used-book destination in the city. That might be just enough to get me out again come August, humidity and mimes notwithstanding.

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