North-West/South-West
North-West/South-West is a
two-person show of the work of Cochrane based artist, Peter Greendale and Peace
Country resident Edward Bader. Both artists use a collage technique in their
works to respond to their locales. Peter Greendale’s photographs the various
towns and cities of Southwestern Alberta while Edward Bader’s collage works are
based upon photographs taken at the North
Country Fair, May 2010. Viewed in tandem, the work by these two artists
provides a unique take upon the similarities and differences between the
prairies of Northwestern and Southwestern Alberta.
Peter
Greendale
My contribution to the
North-West, South-West” is a series of what I’ve come to term “Photographic
Collages.” However, they are not the
result of a “cut and paste” exercise, in which parts of pre-existing photographs
are cut out and reformed into a new image, but are “made” in the camera using
the rectangle supplied by the camera as the structural framework of a
composition. In this way, I see them as
collages, where an artist takes images or objects away from their usual context
and arranges them as visual elements towards creating new imagery. All of these
images were the result of serendipitous strolls through the streets and
alleyways of the towns and cities of southern Alberta. I don’t venture out seeking to document a
specific subject or place but seek out interesting compositions from my
view. The actual subject matter is unimportant
to me and only has value as visual elements of an over-all composition.
Edward
Bader
I have
executed a series of collages based on my photographs of the North Country
Fair. The Fair is a recreation on a smaller scale San Francisco’s “The Summer of Love”, with its’ wandering
jugglers, clowns and numerous kiosks and festive tents selling alternative
health remedies, workshops, massages, international crafts, souvenirs and CDs from
the local to international groups that perform. I have appropriated the high key colors, flat florid graphics of
California’s Sixties art and counter culture i.e the
posters of Peter Max and the art style of the Beatle’s animated classic, “The
Yellow Submarine”. The goal of this body of work is to celebrate
the vibrant energy and values of Northwestern Alberta’s own counter-culture.
