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Shannon Bool

Shannon Bool was born in Comox, BC and currently lives and works in Berlin. Bool attended the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver and the Cooper Union in New York, and graduated from the Staedelschule in Frankfurt. She has had solo exhibitions at the Bonner Kunstverein, Germany (2011), and the Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst Bremen, Germany (2010) and her work was included in the exhibition Made In Germany Zwei at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover (2012). In 2012, a monograph of her work, Inverted Harem, was published by DISTANZ Verlag. Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt and the Lenbachhaus, Munich, as well as numerous private collections, including the Saatchi Collection, London. Bool is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery in Toronto and Galerie Kadel Willborn in Dusseldorf and Karlsruhe.

Exhibitions

  • Sunbeams

    MICHELLE BLADE, SHANNON BOOL, HEATHER GOODCHILD, MORGAN WATT
    June 29–July 27, 2013

    Installation View, Sunbeams, 2013

    Michelle Blade 366 Days of the Apocalypse, 2012 selection of paintings from 366 Days of the Apocalypse, acrylic ink on paper 9 x 11”

    Heather Goodchild, Journey Portrait, 2009. Wool and burlap, 27" x 70".

    Shannon Bool, Fallen Knight, 2012. Oil and batik on silk, 66" x 44".

    Shannon Bool, Casino Runner (Aztec Inn), 2011. Wool, 44" x 222".

    Installation View, Sunbeams, 2013.

    Morgan Watt, Primitive Understanding, 2013. Embroidery floss on linen, 18 x 24 x 3/4". Begin Being, 2013. Embroidery floss on linen, 18 x 24 x 3/4".

    Heather Goodchild, Journey Landscape, 2009. Wool and burlap, 65" x 37".

    Morgan Watt, Promises, 2013. Embroidery floss on linen, 9 x 12 x 3/4".

    Premised on the concept of thanatophobia, the works in Sunbeams have been brought together for their shared interest in the undetermined. Although defined as a fear of death or dying, the origin of thanatophobia can also be an apprehension or aversion to the unknown. The inability to comprehend what occurs after death can be a source of anxiety for individuals, and those most prone to this specific type of phobia are often highly intelligent and inquisitive, or those who question their own philosophical or religious beliefs. In addition to ritual and spirituality, the works in the exhibition maintain an engagement with craft and labour, adopting lengthy production processes to address a contemporary Western relationship to faith, the afterlife, and end times.

    In 366 Days of the Apocalypse (2012), Michelle Blade (Los Angeles) created paintings for an entire year, the impetus for the series being the myths surrounding the 2012 Mayan prophecies. Produced daily, the project created a ritual in which the artist moved towards both the literal end of the work and the proposed end of the world. Elements of romanticism, ritual, and existentialism are present in the work, as Blade conceals her surfaces with ominous hazes and subsumes her figures into transcendent landscapes. Despite its foreboding premise, the work is not intended to act as a warning, but rather an examination of our relationships to rituals, prophecies, and our own sense of mortality.

    Everyday life, literature, psychology, and art history are frequently referenced in Shannon Bool’s (Berlin) work, which takes a range of forms including wall paintings, photograms, collage, and sculpture. Casino Runner (Aztec Inn) (2011) is a twenty-foot-long carpet whose pattern is derived from a wall-to-wall floor covering of an Aztec-themed casino from the 1980s. The casino itself is homage to a relic of American Art Deco, the Aztec Hotel, which continues to operate in Monrovia, California. The hotel exemplifies American Art Deco’s appropriation of the geometric patterns and symbols of ancient Mexican civilizations, and Casino Runner complicates this cross-cultural relationship. Hand-woven by traditional village weavers in Anatolia, Turkey, the carpet alludes to the delirious and sublime experience of entering a casino while simultaneously creating an Eastern interpretation of a Western sensibility.

    Since 2009, Heather Goodchild (Toronto) has focused her work on Anna Ward Brouse, an imagined character in a secret society conceived by the artist. Brouse is an amalgamation of several 19th century North American spiritual leaders, and within this constructed narrative Goodchild develops systems, regalia and rituals of Brouse’s visions, using this process to locate meaning within her own desire for spirituality and ritual in a culture lacking religion. In Journey Portrait (2009) and Journey Landscape (2009), Goodchild draws from the rituals and symbolism of Freemasonry, Girl Guides, and childhood games, gathering inspiration from the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell and Alchemical practices. Within a system of symbols and proverbs, the individual rugs outline voyages towards personal fulfillment achieved through sacrifice.

    Word play and language figure prominently in the work of Morgan Watt (New York), who arrived at embroidery through his interest in the process of drawing and contemplative, labour intensive practices. Investigating the intersection of drawing and embroidery, Watt became intrigued with medieval tapestries, and his work references methods of communications in the medieval era, in particular battle standards. Works such as Primitive Understanding (2013) relay envisioned conversations amidst the fear and chaos of the battleground. Although the absurdity and humour of these interactions is apparent in the dialogue, anxieties of death and fear are prevalent in the works, with falling arrows alluding to the prospect of death arriving in a violent or abrupt way.

    Postscript 53: Kellee Ngan on Sunbeams (PDF)

Talks & Events

  • Summer Reading

    SHANNON BOOL, JEN CURRIN, MICHAEL DUMONTIER, ANTHONY HUBERMAN, BRIAN KENNON, TOSHIE TAKEUCHI
    August 1–August 31, 2013

    Please enjoy these summer reading “picks” from a selection of local and international artists and writers, including Shannon Bool, Jen Currin, Michael Dumontier, Anthony Huberman, Brian Kennon and Toshie Takeuchi.

    The PDF is available here.