BANANAGANZA: Kristin Stahlman & Co. at N.A.C.

I suppose the root word for Bananaganza is Extravaganza. The artist who organized the whole show, consisting of photographs of banana peels found lying about, is Kristin Stahlman. Because the banana peels were actually found, the show made me think of Marcel Duchamp's Objets trouvés or Found Objects, such as a bicycle wheel mounted on a kitchen stool, a urinal labelled Fountain and a bottle rack not labelled anything but simply signed "Marcel Duchamp."  For this reason, I though of giving my review the title, "Pelures de banane trouvées" or "Found banana peels."  But that would be a misinterpretation of the purpose of this show, which is simply to have fun.

Dada, the group which influenced Marcel Duchamp, was not out to have fun.  In its efforts to undermine the seriousness of the ideals, including artistic ideals, which in their opinion led to world-wide war, the Dada artists were quite seriously subversive.  Reason and logic were their enemies and they were deeply pessimistic.  Duchamp wanted to shock and succeeded.  Compared to him, this group of photographers gathered together from as far away as Venice, Italy, are a bevy of childlike innocents, celebrating banana peels in the same way in which, I suppose, they celebrate life.  I am told that on their Opening Night, they did not open NAC's doors to the general public, but instead held a banana-themed party, eating and drinking bananas in every shape and form and holding a competition to enact slipping on a banana peel.

This banana peel art is quite disposable, but only because they do not consider it important.  I don't suppose that anyone who contributed a photograph of a banana peel to the show expects to go down in the pages of art history as striking a blow against consumerism and materialism, as most of the exponents of Found Art have done.  They can't even be said to be going in for conceptual art as the quirky labels they put on their photographs, such as "Banana in the crotch of a tree" for one phallic, only partly eaten banana, do not illustrate ideas but are only added after the event, by the power of suggestion.  Any connection with ideas is based on their associations and nothing more.  All those people with an axe to grind were "so much older then."  Kristen and her friends are "younger than that now" (with apologies to Bob Dylan, whose fervent fan I was in the sixties).

The one thing that was lacking, as Steven Heinemann of the Write Bookstore pointed out, was a trompe-l'oeil rendering of a banana peel, such as a street artist might draw, to make people afraid of slipping.  But they were, after all, photographs. Perhaps if Kristin puts the show on again, she might think of this suggestion.  In the meantime she has already included a banana peel on a shelf of toys and a banana peel in a washroom.  Banana peels may crop up anywhere. 

Perhaps there were banana peels on Jacob's Ladder and that's what put his hip out of joint rather than wrestling with an angel.  Perhaps they eat bananas in Heaven, throw the peels in Purgatory and those that slip on them end up in Hell.  Long live bananas!  So says Kristin Stahlman and so say I.  Down with serious intent!

Show by Strong Brock Art Students at N.A.C.

Show by Strong Brock Art Students at N.A.C., First week in March, 2016

This show includes some pieces by Brock Art students who were in the previous show, but also includes more that weren't. I saw the previous show as tender and poetic and also inclined to fantasy, but this is not the case for this one. Variety is what really characterizes this show. I was rather taken aback by it at first and didn't quite know what to say about it because it didn't have an overall feeling tone like the previous one.

There is one striking picture that might be seen as fantastic because it uses Chinese symbols, that is the animals that stand for the various years, depicted in a fanciful kind of way, but to the student who painted it, these animals would seem quite familiar and belonging to the domestic world rather than to the world of fantasy. This was the picture I liked best. It was called "Nine Years in Canada" by Yuta and includes a somewhat dreamy, melancholy self-portrait. It is in fact a mixture of melancholy and humour because the animals are depicted in a way that is playful and full of fun. I feel this ambiguity lends it depth.

Two other pictures really impressed me but they were quite different. They are both quite powerful and in your face. One is a large, anatomically correct male nude, a young man lying on his front but with genitals exposed. Once more it is in "the X-rated corner." THere is not much colour contrast. It has a rather evocative title, "Pasture Parts" and is by Sarah Bryans. The title suggests that the artist likes to feel free to graze on this young man. The other is "Barren Rainbow" by André Gascon. It is a riot of colour --all the colours of the rainbow plus white. I suppose it is a barren rainbow because all the colours are dislocated and not in a rainbow shape, but that makes it so much more interesting. A hose pipe next to it suggests that the colours are sprayed on.

Two other pictures I also liked and which were quite humorous in a sardonic kind of way were "Transmigration" by Kaia Toop, which shows the subject of the painting developing from a jar of preserves and some vases of flowers to curled up fox, and "The Comfort of a Rubber Duck" by Kerry Ann Murphy, which shows a woman in a bath tub entirely surrounded by rubber ducks.

There were also two abstracts which have undeniable merit but are a little too austere for my personal taste. They are "Not Seen" by Matt Caldwell and "Fiber" by André Gascon.

I thought it was a pity that the various pieces seemed to have been selected more or less at random, and didn't show each other off better. For instance, an untitled abstract by Jessica Wright which was very similar to one in the previous show didn't show up nearly as well and looked rather out of place.