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21/10/2005

Constructing Victims

p|m Gallery, Toronto

Alejandro Vidal, Takashi Okamoto

Constructing Victims is a dynamic two person exhibition featuring the work of New York / Toronto new media artist Takashi Okamoto and Barcelona photographer / video artist Alejandro Vidal.

Independently, Vidal and Okamoto take their stands on pertinent contemporary issues and ills; each presents unique commentaries on urban and suburban worlds.

Constructing Victims reminds the viewer that, in reality, good and evil repeatedly fail to operate as a tidy dichotomy. Situations such as personal satisfaction gained through blatant consumerism, and power and control obtained through dominance are equally offensive and seductive at the root of one’s being.

The works in Constructing Victims aim a spotlight on repressed, unsightly aspects of human nature; episodes where desirable and undesirable values collide.

Takashi Okamoto critiques North American popular / political / consumer culture by deconstructing and re-contextualizing North American icons via pastiche and collage.

He then funnels his ideas back into conventional means of mass communication: design, computer programs, and computer animation.

Alejandro Vidal orchestrates and monumentalizes violence by 'anatomizing' and archiving specific instances of blind rage, prejudice, hate, desperation, panic, and greed. On an average day, the moment before an act of violence might be found in grainy footage of public and private security cameras (if it is found at all).

Vidal’s clear, deliberate staging functions as a catalyst that forces the viewer to re-examine their relationship to these kinds of heinous but very real activities.

TAKASHI OKAMOTO

Takashi Okamoto’s work is as much about the tools (computers, software, etc.) and the process used to make his work as it is about the final product. That final product can be many things: inkjet prints, posters, T-shirts, computer code, video montages, web-zines, and his own corporation mud.

In a way, all of Okamoto’s work is autobiographical; process and subject are dependent upon the environment in which he creates his work, reflecting his personal situation.

Takashi Okamoto was born in 1979 in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. He currently lives and works in New York City. Okamoto has an Honours Bachelor of Science in Astronomy; Physics from the University of Toronto and a Master of Fine Art in Design from Yale University. Okamoto began exhibiting work in Toronto in 2000. In April 2005, p|m Gallery exhibited his work at Mexico Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City.

ALEJANDRO VIDAL

Vidal’s work is concerned with issues that address social conflict, activism, self-defense, and violence. His practice involves several media, including video, photography, drawing, and installation.

Vidal views his work as a wicked exercise that examines today’s societal state of mind. In the last few years he has been investigating aesthetic positions prior to the act of violence.

From video-manuals of self-defense to 80’s punk, early rave techno, or 90’s cult movies, Vidal brings all these influences and concepts together to organize them as an attempt to understand an historical moment and its implications. He investigates the social, political, and economic implications of contemporary art; taking a critical look at the way in which marketing and politics distort our attitudes to violence and life within our cities.

Alejandro Vidal was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1972. He currently lives and works in Barcelona. Vidal has recently had solo exhibitions at MOT in London and Play Gallery in Berlin.

Vidal has exhibited widely through Europe: solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade; Galerie Adler in Frankfurt; Buro Empty, Amsterdam; and Galleria Artra in Milano. He has also been included in group shows such as Personne n’est Innocent at Le Confort Moderne in France. p|m Gallery is pleased to be the first gallery to present Vidal’s work in North America.

Image; Alejandro Vidal

Opening: October 22, 3 – 6pm

p|m Gallery
149 – 1159 Dundas Street East - Toronto (ON)
Hours: Wednesday 11am – 8pm; Thursday, Friday, Saturday 11am – 6pm; Sunday by appointment

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