Sagala Regalia: A Regal Procession

The term Sagala Regalia combines both Filipino and Latin words and translates to "Regal Procession," an apt title for Kuh Del Rosario's exhibition of sculptures at TRUCK. The term sagala refers to a religious-historical procession, during the Flores de Mayo festival held in the Philippines. (1) Participants or 'Muses' for the sagala are hand picked for their vitality and beauty. Adorned by a menagerie of colours, fabrics and seasonal flowers, the muses elicit inspiration and awe from the many onlookers and other participants of the sagala. The pageantry of the event eclipses the religious purpose of the parade, which is to celebrate Santo Nino (the infant Jesus), instead the procession and festival have become part of the Filipino traditions celebrating youth, love and romance; transformed beyond the intangible, spiritual origins and historical meanings of the festival. 

Having witnessed many of these sagalas in her early youth, Del Rosario pulls from her vivid memories to create a new procession of sculptures that seem to stand in for the muses that have reshaped the meaning of the event so poignantly. Del Rosario presents us with a procession of works that utilize materiality as a conduit for the transformation and celebration of meaning. Using salvaged materials and found objects harvested from TRUCK's throw away pile Del Rosario presents us with a pageant of a history of forms where meaning and materials are precariously reconfigured as 'interested simulacra' becoming a structural part of Del Rosario's sculptures. 

This approach to material and meaning is well grounded in modern sculptural practices as well, the French structuralist Roland Barthes had suggested that in place of "a [prevailing] mechanical=materialistic formalism," the exploration of an object's form is a theoretical act, rooted in its "materiality and functioning." (2) In his 2002 essay on Contemporary Sculpture and the Responsibility of Forms, New York based independent writer and curator Klaus Ottmann prescribes the concerns of contemporary sculpture as new variant of the materialistic formalism of Barthes - what he terms as 'spiritual materiality,' "one that is based in part on a structuralist analysis of the world that attributes ideological meaning to the materials themselves or inscribes linguistic codes onto them and in part on a participatory humanism - a renewed involvement in the question of being, transcendence, and the social by way of its materiality - a new variant...(3) This spiritual materialism includes art that either reconstructs 'material,' in a manner that is "reflexive or poetic, in such a way as to manifest thereby its rules or ideological structure." 

This transformation as a 'new variant' of materials is a vital part of Del Rosario's process, which involved the selection of materials culled from TRUCK's recent move out of our basement level gallery space in the Grain Exchange. Salvaged materials otherwise destined for the landfill became grist for the mill- "object[s] of the everyday...dredged up from the sediment of the urban quarry." Emerging from our subterranean vault were the material participants to the 17-year history of TRUCK's tenure in that underground venue. Del Rosario then employed an artistic process that favoured happenstance, mistakes, and corrections that cultivate an "organic development of the work." (4) A dialectical process that is as much a product of chance and circumstance, as a means of transforming materials, an imperfect solution to perfecting materiality and meaning.

The resulting sculptures in Sagala Regalia are adorned with the remnants of our past; our precious exhibitions, events, correspondences, identity, layered under the weight of paint, foam, wood glue, and whatever medium the artist can summon. The artefacts and their histories are transformed through the power of the artist, as an agent of change, reconstructing and perhaps revealing an ideological structure that is at our very heart. This procession is then paraded before using a sovereign pageant of deepened meaning, vitality and beauty.

Essay by Renato Vitic

1. "The Phillippines: Flores de Mayo & Santa Cruzan." Faculty of Education, The Utrecht [n.d]. Viewed January 15th, 2014. www.philippines.hvu.nl/culture2.htm

2. Roland Barthes, "Digressions," in The Grain of Voice: Interviews 1962-1980. op. cit., p. 115

3. Kluas Ottmann, "Spiritual Materiality: Contemporary Sculpture and the Responsibility of Forms," Sculpture Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, April 2002. www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag02/april02/ottoman/otto.shtml

4. Del Rosario, "Stmt.," 2013

 

    

TRUCK GALLERY CALL FOR: USED FURNITURE/ INTERESTING OBJECTS

Truck Gallery is in need of the following items for an upcoming exhibition by José Luis Torres. All donated items will be consumed by the artistic process so please only donate items you no longer need.

- old wooden ladder

- old wooden desks

- old chairs

- mattresses

- armchairs

- ordinary objects worn by time

- rare & interesting objects

Donations can be dropped off at TRUCK Gallery, 2009 10^th Ave SW. Calgary, AB. T3C 0K4 during regular gallery hours.

PLEASE CALL IN ADVANCE & LET US KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE

TRUCK Gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 11am – 5pm & Saturdays 12pm – 5pm

TRUCK Gallery is a non-profit registered charity and can provide tax receipts for any donations when proof of value is provided.  

Contact TRUCK Gallery with any questions:

p: 403-261-7702

e: info (at) truck.ca

Resonant Field @ TRUCK

Artists Sylvia Matas, Warren McLachlan, and Tanya Rusnak think about nightshades, mechanical waves, optical phenomena, and unfathomable distances. They wander through fields of the in-between, while convergent forces in spaces not easily seen testify to the density of voids as generative spaces. An essential, but nebulous, question emerges: what is happening in the darkness?   

In The moon is moving away from earth at a rate of about 4cm per year (2013), Sylvia Matas makes a gesture intended to span a distance that cannot be fully comprehended by sight alone. Her arm is traced on the gallery wall, a reimagining of our very first artworks: Lascaux now. It is a simple, personal act that both emphasizes and belies the distance between bodies (astral and corporeal), while measuring the intimate sensitivity of our own body to register where we end and everything else begins. Matas’ outstretched arm is a generous full extension of its own distance, but it also brings her that much closer.   

The moon is but a member of a family of particles in the drawings of Tanya Rusnak. Her images are intricate, precise. In this exhibition she presents an encyclopedic record of dust and the forces that propel it: rocks, star fields, clouds, meteor showers, and volcanic eruptions. Her drawings, accompanied by mounds of resting salt, are executed with the patience and care of a manuscript illuminator, reminding us of mystical pursuits. Several times removed from their original sources, these images approach the spectral, revealing visitors from another realm. Together, they are like a library of the unknowably far away – long past or distant future.   

The darkness also includes creatures of the night. Warren McLachlan has built two bat houses, each large enough to house a small colony of Myotis Lucifugus, the brown bat. Copper clad, they double as antennas – passive receivers of incessant radio waves. There is a house for the outside, mounted on the gallery’s facade, and one for the inside. I wonder which the bats will choose, but more pressingly: what effect will a bat’s echolocation sonar have upon incoming radio waves and what effect will these waves have upon the bats? Would freak resonant frequencies allow a bat’s ear to inadvertently tune into midnight concertos?   

Among other artworks in Resonant Field, these projects recognize unseen realms and the forces and desires that span them. Forms begin to emerge from the invisible when these artists look to the deep memory of the self-organizing system, the elusiveness of language, conductivity, ratios of the body, constellations, specks, calendars. Matas, McLachlan, and Rusnak create works like palindromes; they can be read in multiple directions, as ideas that begin at their own center, their outstretched hands reaching into the rich, ripe darkness.   

JdH 

Jason de Haan is a Canadian artist, his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

F3 - 50/50 Fundraiser! Who do you love? Negotiating fundraising through art auctions.

During Christmas of 2012, Icelandic artist Erling Klingenberg posted this little gem that has stuck with me throughout the year, that the sale of artwork becomes an answer to the crass prevailing culture of corporate consumerism:

"Who do you really love? Don't buy them something cheap and nasty. An

iPhone? Chinese garbage hewn from the gnarled fingers of free-range

prison workers. A Vuitton bobble? Silk over your eyes from a

profiteering megalith company spinning a yarn about heritage and

craftsmanship. Nonsense. They want your money, that's it. They don't

give a shit about you.

But I do.

That is why for Xmas 2012 buy a work of art from your favorite

starving artist, or from any of the countless others that dedicate

their work to intriguing, posing questions and entertaining you.

Remember: If it comes in plastic or a printed box, you don't need it.

Art, you need that.

In order to fulfill your requirements and better serve your needs, you

are hereby not allowed to purchase any more crap, ever."

There has been much talk about the ethical nature of art auctions, and the increasing pressures placed upon artists to donate out of their own pockets to support non-profits, volunteer organizations, and charities.  Artist-run centres are no stranger to the auction of artworks! Artists by their nature, are  generous and giving individuals, I speak specifically about the arts community here in Calgary, and in general about artists I have met nationally and internationally! I won't parrot those critiques here, but perhaps suggest that something positive to can come from such auction activities in a respectful and acknowledged manner that recognizes not only the objective value of artists works, but the value of buying art from artists locally!

For several years now we at TRUCK have tried to steer clear of the auction of donated artworks. Unfortunately, given the pressures from funders to engage in community derived fundraising efforts, and the limited resources available to us as organizations, the art auction remains one of the more feasible models for raising funds. After a hiatus of 3 years (the Last one was held Dec 3, 2010) from the art auction this year TRUCK will be hosting a 50/50 auction fundraiser, where we split the proceeds evenly with the artists who's works are for sale. Taking this as an opportunity to put some money into both the pockets of the artists themselves, and to support our fundraising efforts.

In addition to the splitting of fees, we are encouraging artists to place as their minimum bid what they feel is the true value of the work - so as not to undersell themselves. Past auction have been mainly about artists buying from other artists, and subsequently prices have been offered at obscenely bargain levels. Our goal with this event is to have works go for what the artists themselves feel is worthwhile, out of respect and with a sincere desire to garner some support for individual artists.  So if the prices seem a bit high, the reality is that they are only a fraction of the value of the work. Far from being an absolute solution to the critiques of art auctions, this event is a negotiated middle ground. Essentially, with the artist-run centre taking on an uncharacteristically commercial role. 

Unfortunately unlike commercial galleries, artist-run centres do not have networks of art buyers, or connections to markets, given our normally noncommercial nature.  So our occasional sortie into the role of commercial broker hardly compares to the resources available from those spaces. Indeed, commercial galleries benefit tremendously from the programming of artist-run spaces, with little to no return to those spaces. Artist-run centres have helped commercial markets in Canada far beyond any harm they could possibly do in the landscape of arts commerce in Canada. Within TRUCK's own history emerging artists have enjoyed tremendous commercial success as a result of their first solo exhibitions in our space. 

So this year, in time for the holidays, support your local artists! Support your local artist-run centres! Rethink those fashionable gifts with limited lifespans, and buy some art for those you love!

Artists@TRUCK New video interview with the curators of PHASE SEVEN: Jillian Daschuk, Studio North (Mark Erickson & Matthew Kennedy), Kent Merriman Jr., Cassandra Paul, & Lane Shordee

Artists@TRUCK Interview with curators Nate McLeod and Matthew Mark (Calgary, Alberta) on their collaborative curatorial practice and the group exhibition Phase Seven presented @ TRUCK Contemporary Art in Calgary, September 28 to November 16, 2013.

PHASE SEVEN: Jillian Daschuk, Studio North (Mark Erickson & Matthew Kennedy), Kent Merriman Jr., Cassandra Paul, & Lane Shordee from TRUCK Gallery on Vimeo.

Artists@TRUCK New video interview with the Donna Legault

In this multi-sensory installation, live sound is transposed to infrasonic frequencies by a customized Pure Data program. This transformation generates visual and sonic variations through the oscillation of fine ball chains that drop from the center of multiple suspended speakers. As the chains make contact with the floor, their movements carve imprints into piles of sand. The resulting sounds mingle with those of viewers and peripheral ambient noise to create a causal loop of co-responsive activity with limitless variation. In this way, the work renders the immateriality of sound as a tangible event by silencing and reinterpreting the data of everyday life.

 

CYMATIC IMPRINTS: Donna Legault from TRUCK Gallery on Vimeo.

TRUCK Rolls On!

Over the last few months, TRUCK has initiated a number of exciting changes, and the transformations are still ongoing. We have packed up and moved out of the basement of the Grain Exchange and have rolled into a larger, more accessible, street level gallery space in the Sunalta community. At our new location, we have demolished, renovated, sanded, primed, painted, prepped, installed, and, occasionally, taken some well deserved breaks.

Keep reading for a special behind the scenes look at the space in progress and to see what the TRUCK team has been up to…

The demolition in progress...

Photographer Hakan Temucin strikes a pose

Artist Eric Heitman takes a break

Interdisciplinary artist Shyra De Souza painting

Space in progress - check out that high ceiling!

Programming Coordinator, Randy Niessen, and Board Member, Jason DeHaan also painting

   

What’s next, you ask?

On September 28^th we will be launching our brand new space with a massive celebration that marks our 30^th anniversary, the opening reception for our new program of exhibitions, and the re-launch of The Parkade in our fabulous new media/ black box/ installation gallery.

Occupying four oversized shipping crates in our Main Space, PHASE SEVEN brings together work by six emerging Calgary-based artists. The exhibition, curated by Nate McLeod and Matthew Mark, features the work of Jillian Daschuk, Studio North (Matthew Kennedy and Mark Erickson), Kent Merriman Jr., Cassandra Paul, and Lane Shordee.

Work by Linda Carreiro entitled “Inside Out of Words” will be on display in our Parkade Project Space and Robyn Moody and Denton Fredrickson are presenting a newly commissioned offsite installation entitled “Marvels of the Ages Calling Forth Lost Spirits of Information” at the Sunalta C Train Station. Robyn Moody and Denton Fredrickson’s offsite installation is presented as part of the Intersite Visual Arts Festival.

Please join us on Saturday, September 28^th, beginning at 8:00 pm, for the grand opening of our new space and help us to celebrate our new program of exhibitions and our 30^th anniversary in style!

Many thanks to everyone who has helped and encouraged us during our transition, including, of course, our supportive Board Members and our team of remarkable and dedicated volunteers.