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Homologous Fields

Dil Hildebrand (Montréal), Tyler Los-Jones (Calgary)
Runs from October 9, 2009 through to November 5, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, October 9 at 8:00 PM

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Virtual Tour

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The text below was written by Renato Vitic and appears in the invitation that accompanies this exhibition.

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In a review entitled The Demise of Depiction, London based writer and art historian David Cohen states that depictive painting, “realism, naturalism, figurative painting — whatever you want to call it — is haunted by a sense of exhaustion. Its been done better in the past. Its no longer relevant.”[1]  To this I would add that geometric abstract and minimalist sculpture suffer from a similar sense of exhaustion, a sense that all that can be said within these artistic fields has been done so. Yet these wearied, traditional fields of art can also function as paradigms to explore aspects of intersecting practices that extend beyond a single discipline. For the exhibition, Homologous Fields, Dil Hildebrand and Tyler Los-Jones operate within the respective disciplines of representational painting and geometric minimalist sculpture, yet employ perceptual strategies to expand the possibilities that exist between objects and the perception of them, and the viewer.

In the field of sculpture the use of illusion to “create” space is insignificant when compared to the discipline of painting, where a two-dimensional surface depicts a virtual three-dimensional space. Painterly concerns regarding pictorial space, or overlapping picture planes to create depth, are inconsequential in sculpture, which by definition exists three-dimensionally. Sculpture is volume, whereas painting often depicts a “scene.” Regardless of the fundamental differences between these two fields, an accord exists between the works of this exhibition, namely, in the opportunities given for a critical realization of dimensionality within a “perceptual space.” Each artist in this exhibition answers the challenge of the ennui that dogs their respective fields through the manipulation and obfuscation of perceptions of space.

The term “perceptual space” has been described as “a 'mind- space', which acts as a 'theatre' where we 'see', 'hear', 'feel' and 'act out' our perceptions. The configuration of this mind-space is prescribed by the use of spatial metaphors. Additionally, how our body has learned to orient itself in space is essential to how we make sense of the world and understand our place in it.”[2]  By disrupting notions of our orientation in perceptual space these artists posit a visual reorientation of our understanding or sense of the world.

In his artist statement Los-Jones states that he is, “interested in opposing concepts existing simultaneously within one object.”[3] Los-Jones uses the classical concept of the five “Platonic Solids,” forms that exhibit the duality of a mathematical purity and an essential relationship to the natural world through their spiritual connections to the five natural elements, to create complex geometric forms whose interiors are perceived as “intangible and extend beyond their rigid exterior walls.” The internal volumes of Los-Jones’s sculptures defy their external dimensions, creating by volume a perceptual conundrum for the viewer.

Hildebrand’s paintings present the viewer with multiple perspectives of transparency and pictorial space to reorient the viewer in a purely optical perceptual space. Representation is reordered in Hildebrand’s works by depicting landscapes seen through transparent planes, and in the larger works of this exhibition (such as The Blues, 2009), through the mirrored reflections of other spaces upon the glassy surface that truly exist only as paint. The corporeality of these paintings is unmistakable and the viewer takes on the near impossible task of holding multiple perspectives of both the virtual and material on a purely two-dimensional surface.

Both Tyler Los-Jones and Dil Hildebrand use the contrast between the perceptions of internal and external space to confound the viewer and question the relationship between reality and perception. The strategy of reordering perceptions, presented by the artists in this exhibition, potentiates a new psychological relationship between the object and the viewer in the theater of perceptual space.

 

 

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Image credits:

Left:
Dil Hildebrand 

Right:
Tyler Los-Jones

 

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Press:

Quebec painting pair exploits perceptions

 

 

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Dil Hildebrand

Dil Hildebrand was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He obtained his MFA at Concordia University, Montréal in 2008. In 2006 he won the RBC Canadian Painting Competition. Dil will have solo exhibitions this coming May, 2010, at Pierre-Francois Ouellette art contemporain in Montreal, and at YYZ in Toronto, October 2010.  He lives and works in Montreal.

Tyler Los-Jones

Tyler Los-Jones is a practicing artist in Calgary and credits his upbringing in the Rocky Mountains as a major influence on his work.  He graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2007 with a BFA in painting.  Due to spending much of his life in Alberta, he is actively trying to do spend time near as many large bodies of water as possible. He is currently planning a series of site-specific urban exhibitions, and is working on a new collection of drawings.