EXHIBITION: collective PADEJO.
October
24 to November 4, 2007
"Micro>macro"
Opening Reception:
Thursday, October 25, 2007, 6 - 9 pm
Once a week, three Toronto artists abandon the personalized gesture of their individual practice to work together as the Collective Padejo. Since 2003, Paul Walty, Denis Leclerc and Joseph Muscat have been meeting at a Distillery District studio in Toronto to produce a number of large mixed media works which they have exhibited in Toronto and around Ontario. Diverse activities converge in Padejo’s latest installation which plays the traditional technique of rubbings against its re-interpretation through the lens of a video camera.
During their sampling excursions in the Distillery District, the artists used a malleable surface to record the details of bricks, stones, wooden beams and a variety of objects worn by usage and time. While the images in their rubbings seem to be literal transcriptions and visual recordings, they trace a journey dominated by chance. These large rubbed pieces recall topographic maps or aerial photographs of the earth from on high. The markings are limited chromatically and have been mounted on ten 4' x 8' laminated panels. A preliminary viewing of these panels in the installation suggests a flyover or a surface scan. The memories of these places, once visited, are expressed in the wear, the polish and the texture, which inscribe the paper and give it a relief recalling a printing plate.
The process used by the artists - a straightforward rubbing of a drawing instrument such as oil-stick across a sensitive surface pressed against an object, whether it be individual brick or a section of wall, is referenced in a video projection integrated into the installation's structure. The visitor, drawn to the video, will find the movement of these same images similar to the experience of being in a plane flying over the earth. The large drawings suspended around the screen turn that high-flying vision with its monumental scale upside down, becoming an intimate testament to a journey deep inside the world.
If satellites in space transmit thousands of images towards terrestrial receivers, the explorations of the Collective Padejo of a city neighbourhood deliver similar observations, gathered at a local level with more modest means, those of drawing and video. All you need to do is open your eyes and look about to see these slices of universe, both monumental and miniscule.
For all inquires you may contact Joseph Muscat by phone at 416-702-8946 or e-mail muscat@interlog.com