CHESTER FIELDS

Foreign Object Exhibition/Reception

Chester Fields — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:33:13 +0000

The Foreign Object exhibition begins tomorrow with an opening reception from 5 to 7! Everyone is welcome! Come check out the jury’s selection and meet some very talented North Shore youth!

Jury selection!

Chester Fields — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:15:54 +0000

The jury has spoken! The Foreign Object exhibition will feature work from:

Emily Allegretto-Smith

Michael Bryant

Jennifer Chew

Angela Chia

Rhiannon Collett

Nakeyta Cook

Quintana Crawford

Adam Flewelling

Mengyao Liang

Sogol Khadivi

Amy Kim

Emma Kiss

Sophia Knowles

Teghan McDonald

Rebecca Merenyi

Megan Patrick

Jihee Song

Tiffany Tsai

Amanda Woodland

Alia Youssef

Congratulations to you all!

Less than a week away!

Chester Fields — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:38:56 +0000

Deadline is Tuesday, April 4th!

The deadline is fast approaching! If you haven’t already taken you’re photos for Foreign Object there’s still time to create an image you can be proud of. Get out your cameras and start clicking! I’ve already gotten some early submissions and it looks like the competition is going to be fierce! And more importantly, the exhibition of selected works is going to be STUNNING!

You can do it! I believe in you! Yes you! Who else would I be talking to?! Go! Go! Go!

Alia Youssef, Slow Bussin’, 2011

Colour culture

Chester Fields — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:31:31 +0000

Installation art describes an artistic genre of site-specific three dimensional works designed to transform a viewer’s perception of a space. You may choose to do document some kind of installation or artful interference for your Foreign Object entry (although the clock is ticking!)

Take a look at these images by Beijing artist Xiong Wenyun. Her installations include blocks of pure color mounted in the doorways of truck stops, homes and shacks along the along the Sichuan-Tibet highway. Here’s an example of how a fairly simple gesture can still have quite an impressive visual impact. What kinds of simple interferences can you create in photographing the landscapes that surround you? Can you incorporate some kind of cultural investigation? Wenyun undertook other experiments with color on rocks, streams and clusters of trucks covered in bright canvases. The work is meant to be a reassessment of the value of colour and the rainbow in chinese culture, and, in particular, in the buddhist interpretation of tibetan tradition (for the tibetan monks, the rainbow symbolises the ladder that unites the earthly sphere with the celestial).

Xiong Wenyun, from Rainbow series, 1998-2001

The future looks bright… and slightly pixelated

Chester Fields — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:58:34 +0000

Technology has a big influence on art! Through new technology we bring up new ways of thinking and seeing. Satellite imagery has created new ways of seeing the earth, our countries and cities. Through Google street view we can take virtual walks through neighbourhoods in almost any city in the world! The other day I decided to take a virtual walk through my own neighborhood. On my adventure, I came across a shop where my friend happens to work. I walked from out front of the shop and around to the back alley. When a blurry figure appeared, I realized it was my friend, taking out the garbage! What a strange way to be captured in time! The kinds of technological adventures change the way we see our surroundings, and the way we think about being seen.

Vancouver artist Patrick Cruz captured one such moment in his recent exhibition Forecast Situation. While walking in virtual Vancouver, in-between one place and another, Cruz took a screen capture of what he was seeing. The capture, a photograph taken inside his computer, employed several layers of technological processes: the Google street view camera, the internet, and Cruz’s computer. Cruz took this layering process even further by having the photo manufactured into a fleece blanket! What do the many layers of information within Forecast Situation reveal about the age and culture we live in? Are there some visual clues to the limits of this process of layering?

Patrick Cruz, Forecast Situation, 2011

I saw the sign

Chester Fields — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:27:21 +0000

If you haven’t yet been to the Ken Lum exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, you should GO RIGHT NOW! Sign out of facebook, put down that bowl of Mini-Wheats and get yee to public transit. Admission is $13 for students or by donation on Tuesday nights.

This exhibition could help you to push the limits of your ideas and what can be considered ‘art’, not to mention that much of Ken Lum’s work fits perfectly with this season’s theme. The artist draws context from his personal experience as a resident of a culturally diverse place, and often combines image and object in interesting ways! Let’s take a look!

Ken Lum, Amir, 2000

Amir looks like a typical small business sign, but its placement inside an Art Gallery sets it apart from everyday life. Here’s another example of how artists toy with the idea of Portrait (People Take Pictures of Each Other) and Still Life (Foreign Object). This sign is functioning as a portrait in the way that it makes us imagine the business owner. We consider what culture this person is from (‘Eritrea’ is a pretty good clue!), and wonder why the owner is moving.

Unpack your bags

Chester Fields — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:10:32 +0000

Reading a photograph or a work of art often involves a lot of ‘unpacking’ in order to discover meaning. Think of your still life or object like a suitcase: depending on who is using it, where it is going, or how long it will be gone, it can be very different from other suitcases. What uses does your object have? Whose object is it? Where did it come from? Opening a suitcase will tell you a lot about the person it belongs to. Through clothing or toiletries the contents will provide a context for the owner. Now imagine two suitcases, one from 1950 and one from present day. How do their contents differ? What era is your object from? Is it new? Is it old? Is it timeless? When choosing the subject for your Foreign Object submissions, consider how your choice will be ‘unpacked’ by the viewer. Think of all the questions they might have. You don’t need to have all the answers, of course, but be aware of how many curiousities a simple object can inspire!

Take a look at these images of televisions by Lee Friedlander! What questions come to mind with these images? How are they different from each other? How are they the same?

Lee Friedlander, Florida (With Sexy Eyes), 1963

Lee Friedlander, TV in Hotel Room, Galax, Virginia, 1962

Fantastic Plastic!

Chester Fields — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:57:56 +0000

The large majority of the Chester Fields entries we receive each season are digital images, and who can blame you? With our e-mail submission process it’s super easy to upload and send. But sometimes doing something a little differently is what gets you noticed! With over 300 expected entries this season, what can you do to set yourself apart? Maybe it’s time you explored film? There are some pretty fun toy cameras available these days, and even the ol’ point-and-shoot can create some stunning images.

Yuliya Mazilova, Me, 2008

Ben Dobson, Cherry Blossom, 2008

Amy Sexton, Fake Fruity Fisheye, 2009

Beau Photo Supplies has a great selection of analogue cameras from Holga and the Lomographic Society. Take 8 images in sequence on one frame with the Oktomat! Or try the fisheye camera for a 180 degree view! Cult Classics like the Holga or the Diana give you saturated colours, blissful blurs and light leaks, amounting to some very happy ‘accidents’ in photo land.

Check out all the cameras at Beau Photo here.

The Black Panthers

Chester Fields — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:10:59 +0000

Is there anything about your world that you wish you could change? In 1966 a party called The Black Panthers was formed and played an important role in the African-American struggle to gain equality and justice. This group inspired progress and change through a movement based upon leadership and community. The Black Panthers created a Ten Point platform called “What We Want, What We Believe”, and much of the issues that it addressed are still relevant today: full employment, healthcare, housing, education, fair trials, the end of police brutality, and economic justice.

Through an active campaign of visuals, graphics, posters and newspaper production, The Black Panthers successfully communicated with and captured the imagination of the American people. Much of this communication was dependant upon the use of specific signs and symbols. The Black Panther symbol branded much of their activity, as did their style of uniform dress: a leather jacket, black slacks, dark shoes, a beret and a blue shirt. Consider the signs, symbols, actions, poses and postures found within the Black Panther images and how they communicate a bigger message. Photography is a great way to highlight issues that you think are important and a way to inspire cultural awareness. The Black Panthers legacy is a belief that anyone can effect change. What change do you want to inspire?

Howard Bingham, Black Panther Rally #7, 1968

Members of the Black Panther Party demonstrating outside a New York City courthouse, April 11, 1969. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Black Panther badge.

Objects All Around You

Chester Fields — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Damian Moppett is a Vancouver-based artist who made this series of photographs from an array of objects he found before him. The constructions he built from the various items were the artist’s remedy to simple boredom. There is no clear indication of where he was at the time, but the make-up bottles and brushes, film canisters and lighters offer some clues. The constructions or sculptures that Moppett created are the focal point and subject of the photographs in this series. The setting and circumstances are secondary to the new forms he built from the found material. Look around your bedroom or home for a cluttered or messy space. Can you re-arrange these everyday objects in unique and interesting ways? New meaning and new interpretations will arise, depending on the objects you choose, how you re-situate and how you photograph them.

Untitled (Impure Systems), 1999, C-print, 48″ x 40″