DANIEL BARROW at the Art Gallery of York University (Accolade East, 4700 Keele) to June 6a 416-736-5169. Rating: NNNN
Just when it seemed that creepy/cute art from Winnipeg had outstayed its welcome, along comes Daniel Barrow to wow us with the low-tech magic of his projection work Emotional Feelings, showing in conjunction with the Images Festival.
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The Winnipeg artist uses a children’s book illustration style and pastel palette to depict scenes that hint at violence and child abuse à la Shary Boyle. Also a collector of weird colouring book art and local public access TV videos, he’s moved from the kitschy adolescent angst of previous work to more mature imagery.
In Canopy Bed, a tubby king seems to be raping a mermaid queen. Curtains flap in the breezy Open Window, which provides a view of figures falling from the sky.
House On Fire is a Kleenex box from which flow “flames” of elegant flower-like sprays of folded tissues, an ornamental motif used throughout, as if the artist were a therapist or consoling friend helping us wipe up the emotions his work evokes. The tissue flowers also recall cars decorated for weddings.
In Flaying, a figure reminiscent of Renaissance anatomical drawings stands with skin hanging around his ankles like torn socks, as more tissues and decorative bric-a-brac emerge from his fingertips.
The two rooms contain an array of old-school overhead projectors, some with acetate images rotating on turntables, others with acetates under glass trays of water gently agitated by table fans so the pictures waver and shimmer.
Each of the four works combines several different projections, some of which can be altered by the viewer. A music box soundtrack adds to the antique effect. Barrow’s madly inventive set-up turns Emotional Feelings into a fantastic mechanical wonder.
art@nowtoronto.com
