Mom & Dad
Sunday, 12 April 2009
I was a mere toddler when Andy Warhol died. Growing up in a stuffy environment void of artistic expression, I did not even know of him until my late teens. Yet, as a leading figure in the pop art movement, his work was without a doubt hugely influential in my introduction to the art world. It shaped my perception of art and expression and altered profoundly the love-hate relationship I have with mass culture. If his work had such as impact on me, it must also have on others, especially ones who grew up in the height of this era.
Perhaps this is why I have always found Douglas Coupland’s work to be highly compelling. While there are parallels to their work, each is distinctively different in point of view. Says Coupland, who never knew Warhol, “He cast the largest artistic shadow of the 20th century. All 21st century artists have to constantly redefine their professional relationship with him.”
This is the position he takes on his new exhibition. In Mom & Dad, Coupland “uses personal family experience and his decades working within the pop culture arena to compile a set of works that renegotiate his ongoing relationship with Andy Warhol. The works are highly personal, based on his B.C. upbringing in a family heavy with guns and taxidermy. Using unexpected materials, Coupland finds a route to Andy Warhol that is personal, shamanic and eternal.”
This series is currently exhibited in Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver until May 2, 2009.