Utilitarian Unisex Blimited Work/Play T-shirt by Ashley Andel, Vancouver – by Liza J. Lee
October 9, 2009 (8 pm to 11 pm) – Blim Art Centre at 197 East 17 Ave, Vancouver is presenting “Reticent Work” October 3 to 31, 2009 by Ashley Andel, an emerging artist. This is a collection of writhing, but muted collage-based canvases and moveable sculptures of painted cardboard rings (2004 to 2009).
“Reticent Work”
The “Reticent Work” exhibit by Ashley Andel is a series of collage made from repurposed mundane objects turned into art. The term collage derives from the French “coller” meaning “glue”, coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.
Ashley Andel was born in Edmonton and now lives in Vancouver, Canada. “Reticent Work” is his first official show in Vancouver. He has been working on art independently for ten years so far, without the aid or complications of a post secondary education. His goal in life is to be accessibly esoteric; to make art that is both entertaining and meaningful to an audience, without relying on those heavily conceptualized little cards adjacently placed to an exhibit.
Andel’s art is an intersection of work and play and for “Reticence Work” and it includes discarded packing tape rings, playfully painted into pastel shades. For an upcoming art exhibit, he has another 750 discarded packing tape rings, playfully painted in bright colours. In his day job, Andel secures boxes with packing tape, in the shipping and receiving department for the automotive industry. By night, he repurposes the used-up and discarded packing tape rings from his day labour into his art practice. Andel says he refers to Jeff Koon’s banal objects produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces, often brightly colored for these recycled art rings.
As the October Blim resident artist, in addition to having a show “Reticent Work”, Andel silk-screened some Blimited edition Ashley Andel T-shirts for sale at $25 each. Yuriko of Blim Art Centre says she really likes Andel’s selected “Schlemmer/Rodchenko Bobbin Lace Ballerina” drawing for Blimited unisex T-shirts printed upside-down to create greater abstraction, that can be worn for work or play.
The Andel Blimited T-shirt design is partially based on an Alexander Rodchenko image (December 5, 1891 to December 3, 1956). Rodchenko was a Constructivist and Productivist artist post-Russian Revolution who believed that art should have a practical and socially useful role as a facet of industrial production. The Blimited T-shirt design also reflects the Oskar Schlemmer (September 4, 1888 to April 13, 1943) aesthetic. Schlemmer represented bodies as architectural forms, reducing the figure to a rhythmic play between convex, concave and flat surfaces.
Blim
Blim is a DIY centre, rather than a traditional gallery, which primarily exhibits art for sale. This community-based art resource center primarily facilitates screen-printing and offers workshops in button making, drawing, knitting, local experimental audio, film screenings, animation, video, dance, spoken word, visual art and other crafts. Blim offers screen-printing services. For more information about the Blim Art Centre, visit the Blim PAGE. For more information about Ashley Andel’s upcoming art shows, visit his blog at http://www.ashleyandel.blogspot.com/. Blim is part of the main art attractions around Vancouver.
ENDNOTES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Koons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Rodchenko
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schlemmer
Liza J. Lee is the Co-founder and Blogger for Artistrun ArtConverge.
© 2009 ArtConverge (ISSN 1918-9273)
