Zin Taylor
The Story of Stripes and Dots (Chapter 5)
September 27, 2013–March 23, 2014
Fogo Island Gallery
210 Main Street, Joe Batt’s Arm,
Newfoundland and Labrador A0G 2X0
Canada
T +709 658 3444
F +709 658 7341
www.fogoislandarts.ca
www.fogoislandinn.ca
www.shorefast.org
Writing is central to Zin Taylor’s practice. Parallel to a number of artist books, Taylor has made a series of sculptural works the artist proposes as a form of storytelling. How else to understand his project The Story of Stripes and Dots but to “read” the eponymous objects he makes to propel it forward? Taylor conceives of his sculptural components—stripes and dots in many variations—as words in a sentence, the articulation of which can be ongoing. By substituting objects for words, Taylor seeks not to assert equivalence between the two so much as establish the essentially spatialized perception he has of the way language functions. A striking clarity defines the artist’s vision. Taylor sees in language—in art—the highly defined dimensions of a world he can work within.
Taylor’s exhibition at the Fogo Island Gallery follows on from his two-part residency with Fogo Island Arts in 2010 and 2012. A number of the works presented in the show derive from the time he spent on Fogo Island. For the photo series and video work Lichen Voices (2013), Taylor worked with the artist Patrick Staff and the curator Robin Simpson. Following Taylor’s direction, the two men throw poses while dressed in stripe and dot pajamas, respectively. Manifestations of the artist’s stripe and dot vocabulary, the two figures suggest an overlay of culture (straight lines and perfect circles; patterning and abstracted repetition) superimposed on a background of the lichen-clad rock formations so ubiquitous on Fogo Island. However, instead of dominating the landscape, Taylor sees his cultural avatars as controlled by the lichen, hence the work’s title, Lichen Voices. With these works, Taylor intuits something of the drama of life lived in a remote location like Fogo Island.
Zin Taylor: Lichen Voices / Stripes and Dots (2013)
Accompanying Zin Taylor’s exhibition at Fogo Island Gallery is the catalogue Zin Taylor: Lichen Voices / Stripes and Dots, copublished by Fogo Island Arts and Sternberg Press (Berlin). The publication features essays by Zoë Gray and Saelan Twerdy, and Zin Taylor in conversation with Patrick Staff and Robin Simpson. The book also presents the artist’s portfolio An Index Describing the Individual 19 Thoughts About Stripes and Dots Arranged on a Vitrine Made of Brass and Glass.
Zin Taylor special fundraising edition
Lichen Voices (2013), a limited-edition printwork by Zin Taylor is available for purchase. All proceeds support the Shorefast Foundation, a Canadian registered charity, which is the parent organization of Fogo Island Arts. For more information, please send enquiries to editions [at] fogoislandarts.ca.
Important dates:
Fogo Island Gallery exhibitions
Zin Taylor: September 27, 2013–March 23, 2014
Silke Otto-Knapp: April 16–August 31, 2014
Fogo Island Cinema
Kevin Schmidt, EDM House (2013)
Commissioned by Fogo Island Arts (with the support of the Canada Council and the British Columbia Arts Council) EDM House is a 17-minute-long video the artist shot in northern British Columbia last winter. The work continues Schmidt’s investigation into notions of the sublime, including the folly of its human approximation when contrasted with nature’s grandeur. A number of screenings of EDM House will be presented at the Fogo Island Cinema throughout the fall of 2013 and winter 2014.
Fogo Island Dialogues: Culture as Destination
A roving international symposium, the second iteration of the Dialogues will take place at the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna, November 17–19, to consider the disruptive effects of the digital on knowledge production and modes of consumption.
Further information:
www.fogoislandarts.ca
www.fogoislandinn.ca
www.shorefast.org
www.sternberg-press.com
www.mak.at
Press contact:
T +1 709 266 1083 / rosemaryheather [at] fogoislandarts.ca
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
