CONCURRENT - DANA CLAXTON & HENRI ROBIDEAU

We were delighted to hear that Dana Claxton had invited Henri Robideau as her partner for the Concurrent Exhibition at Winsor Gallery. Henri is somewhat of an institution in Vancouver, having worked with many of the city's artists assisting them in the creation of their own projects. Henri's work in Concurrent is a photographic and text based group of works that explore public spaces, architecture and art. Henri directly photographs particular sites as well visiting them via the air and virtually through Google images. Each photo montage is accompanied by meandering texts that consider each site and it's relevancy in contemporary society, Henri also highlights interesting  facts that we may not know about these places and spaces. 

Dana's work for Concurrent is a piece from her Indian Candy exhibition at Winsor Gallery. The tongue and cheek placement of Tonto and the text on this work 'You Speak Much, But Say Nothing' sparks a humorous dialogue between the two works. 

Dana Claxton

I have selected Henri Robideau as my Concurrent artist, as I am inspired by his art practice in photography, which spans forty years of artistic production. I really adore his large scale works documenting all things Giant, and the way he has used text over the years to think about what kind of society and community is being constructed. His hand written comments make the works personal, approachable and non mechanical in a way, as if to suggest, the hand - the artist hand - the human hand - our shared human touch  - is necessary to our existence.  Also, his early black and white photography of Vancouver protests in the 1980’s encouraged my own practice in that artist can interrogate the world around us and that power needs to be kept in check. His work demands that the passive observer/viewer of his subject matter/artwork, should consider how they are implicated in the story/visual and that the role of art resides within the field of ethnics as well.

In this new work, he is working within the tradition of his text-based works that reveal irony, humour and responsibility, all within the landscape of Vancouver. The works are part social realism, part documentary, and part commentary and part art!

Social realism, documentary, commentary, art – all are great ingredients to make meaning.

Dana Claxton, Tonto in Pink, 2013

Henri Robideau

Henri Robideau is the father of Gianthropology and a master of the ironic tragedy of human existence expressed through photographs and text. His most recent photographic work continues a focus on the monumental in Vancouver landmarks and represents an evolution of his earlier black and white documentary style toward the hyper digital colour internet mediated vantage point from which we view the collision of history and our modern world.

Henri Robideau, Baseball Heaven, 2014

Henri Robideau, Big Blue Blob, 2014

Henri Robideau, Crown of Thorns, 2014

Henri Robideau, Baseball Heaven, 2014