Jo Cook, Paul Zylstra, Drew Klassen  |  Coast to Coast
May 28 - June 22, 02

Coast to Coast

As part of its exhibition programming, the Khyber often presents the work of emerging artists in a group context. In Coast to Coast, the Khyber presents work by three Canadian artists from various parts of the country and who were previously unaware of each other's practices.

The juxtaposition of these artist's works provides a sampling of current drawing, painting and video practices. Collectively, these works investigate the nature of memory and bodily experiences.

Jo Cook, from Mayne Island, BC, investigates the process of drawing, and how it relates to the body as a site of terrors, pleasures and transformations. For her, the true subject of drawing is not the world we inhabit but the collisions between the real world and the conditions of our internal response. Her method of working resembles investigation rather than conviction. Using farce, and a combination of made, found and collected objects to link and rearrange relationships, Cook opens up possibilities rather than providing assurances. Jo Cook studied at the Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design.

Paul Zylstra, who lives and works in Ottawa, ON and studied at the University of Victoria and York, presents a looped video in a constructed viewing booth which strives to recreate the experience of self-realization. The video places the viewer in the position of a young child being spoken to by two adults. The blurred imagery and dialogue of the video immerse the viewer in a situation that plays on individual memory and the human relationships and interactions which shape our future identities.

Drew Klassen hails from Halifax, NS and studied at the former Technical University of Nova Scotia (now DalTech). In Coast to Coast he presents painted details of canonical artworks on panels the shape of television monitors. The surfaces of the painted images are scoured with a belt sander, creating horizontal striations which act as a form of static interference in the reception of the image. The resultant images are analogous to the imperfections of human memory and recall, and reference the merging of two canons; traditional high art and the culture of mass media.