June 27–September 8,2013
Fogo Island Arts
Highway 334 — Suite 100
P.O. Box 102 — JBS
Fogo Island, NL
A0G 2X0
Canada
T +1 709 266 1083 ex 112
F +1 709 266 1089
www.fogoislandarts.ca
www.fogoislandinn.ca
www.shorefast.org
New Zealand artist Kate Newby presents the inaugural exhibition at the Fogo Island Gallery, an exhibition space housed in the newly opened Fogo Island Inn, which is located on Fogo Island off the north east coast of Newfoundland in Canada. Beginning June 27th through September 8th, 2013, the exhibition is the culmination of Newby’s six-month artist residency with Fogo Island Arts.
Constructed for the exhibition is a low-lying 16 x 22 foot platform, sitting on a moss green polyester carpet—a kind of landscape within the landscape of the island. On the platform, the artist places groupings of kiln-fired rocks and sticks she made while living on the Fogo Island. To emphasize that the groupings follow a specific logic, Newby assigns them names, written in marker on a piece of cardboard placed beneath each one. The artist’s titles suggest a system is at work, one she derives from a similar preference the communities on Fogo Island have for assigning names to places, landmarks and things. Described by the artist as an autobiographical portrait of her time on the island, the work is also a portrait of a specific location: Fogo Island, a place where local history is inscribed in memory through the practice of naming. Newby’s work offers a reflection on this tradition, proposing a way to understand a landscape through its social dimension.
In another work, Newby makes reference to the powerful role the weather plays in the lives of Fogo Islanders. The artist’s Let the other thing in (2013) is a set of wind chimes installed at an off-road location where they are likely to be encountered at random by people walking in the area or driving by on an ATV. Abandoning her artworks to the mercy of the elements is typical of the artist’s practice; Newby often creates the circumstances for her works to be temporary, regardless of the materials they are made with. This timeframe of destruction Newby often builds into her artworks helps pose questions about value and the immediate timeframe artworks are typically experienced within.
Kate Newby—Let the other thingin is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name, co-published by Fogo Island Arts and Sternberg Press (Berlin). The full-colour publication features Kate Newby interviewed by Mami Kataoka, an essay by Jennifer Kabat, and a conversation between Newby, geologist Paul Dean and strategist Daniel Wong. The book also features a series of Newby’s Skim Stone pictures, a series of photos by the artist of people skimming her ceramic stones into various bodies of water, where they presumably take on a different life within a difficult to fathom timeframe.
Important dates:
Fogo Island Gallery exhibitions
Kate Newby – June 27–September 8,2013
Zin Taylor – September 27–December 8,2013
Silke Otto-Knapp – December 23–March 9, 2014
Kevin Schmidt – March 27–June 8, 2014
Fogo Island Dialogues: The Possibility of an Island
A roving international symposium, the four iterations of the Dialogues will take place at high-profile institutions:
–The Fogo Island Inn, July 19–21, 2013, focusing on the idea of “belonging to a place.”
–Centre for Canadian Architecture (CCA), Montreal
September 19–21, 2013, with a focus on the notion of the welfare state and the role of cultural institutions.
–Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna, November17–19, 2013, will look at ideas of musealizations or “the village as a museum”; and finally return to the Fogo Island Inn on a to-be-announced date for a reflective, concluding event.
Further information:
www.fogoislandarts.ca
www.fogoislandinn.ca
www.shorefast.org
Press contact:
T + 1 206 266 1083
[email protected]
