After the Grave: Language and Materiality

Authors

  • David Scott Armstrong
  • Patrick Mahon

Abstract

The introductory essay highlights a double sense of the word grave which is brought together in this issue as a means of getting at an aesthetic and a material zeitgeist: the prevalent feeling is that our current cultural moment harbors material and virtual means of artistic and written iteration that are in profound states of transition. The introduction to this issue focuses on intersections between written language and material sign, text and image, and on the links between the histories of specific art medias that speak to notions of passage and a passage-beyond. Commenting on the major essays in the issue and their respective engagements with art and text in light of shifting materialities, the introduction also situates a series of "artist's projects" in relation to the themes of the project.

Author Biographies

  • David Scott Armstrong
    David Scott Armstrong grew up in both Saskatchewan and Alberta, and is currently based in Toronto. His studio practice involves the exploration of reproducibility, time and entropy through an ongoing interest in print media. His work, which has been exhibited nationally and internationally, explores broader questions regarding perception and threshold through print, bookwork, moving image projection and installation. He previously taught at the University of Western Ontario and in 2003 joined the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University, where he is an Assistant Professor and currently Head of the Print Media Area.
  • Patrick Mahon
    Patrick Mahon is a Canadian artist and writer, and is current Chair of the Department ofVisual Arts at the University of Western Ontario, in London. Patrick Mahon's work focuses on issues related to print culture, historical and contemporary aesthetics and on post-colonialism. Recently, Mahon was part of a collective of artists working in the Canadian Arctic on a research/creation project entitled Art and Cold Cash. Mahon has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally and has worked as an independent curator on several national touring group exhibitions. In Toronto, he is represented by the Leo Kamen Gallery.

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Published

2008-04-01

Issue

Vol. 42 No. 1 (2008): After the Grave: Language and Materiality in Contemporary Art

Section

Journal Article