Scott Treleaven
dal 14/1/2005 al 19/2/2005
Segnalato da
14/1/2005
Scott Treleaven
Conner Contemporary Art, Washington
In Who Are You an Agent For?, the artist features new collage work and celebrate the release of the limited edition DVD of the Salivation Army video. The harrowingly Romantic story of the rise and fall of a gang of young queer radicals, The film draws heavily on the artist's own experiences publishing a zine of the same name, bringing together his eye for potent imagery and interest in street-level mythologies.
WHO ARE YOU AN AGENT FOR?
Conner Contemporary Art is pleased to introduce the work of Toronto-based
artist Scott Treleaven in his first solo exhibition in Washington, DC. To
date, Treleaven is best known for his zine-cum-film, THE SALiVATION ARMY,
listed by the Village Voice as one of the most notable underground films of
2002. In Who Are You an Agent For?, the artist will feature new collage
work and celebrate the release of the limited edition DVD of the SALiVATION
video.
Cut-Up Method pioneer William Burroughs warily greeted visitors in Tangiers
with the question, “who are you an agent for?†All of us, he decided, are
agents for someone…often unwittingly. Scott Treleaven’s films and collages
explore the idea that lurking beneath the surface of punk’s iconoclasm is a
stream of symbolist and occult influences that trace an unseen, secret
lineage. Treleaven’s subjects turn from the mainstream religious and social
systems that condemn them, choosing instead to create adjunct cultures they
can truly call their own; a constructed world replete with its own set of
social codes and guarded systems of exchange and belief.
Already an established name in indie and underground circles, Treleaven’s
22-minute cult film, THE SALiVATION ARMY (2002), has been variously compared
to Jarman, Anger, Dennis Cooper, and to Burroughs’ seminal gay manifesto,
The Wild Boys. The harrowingly Romantic story of the rise and fall of a gang
of young queer radicals, THE SALiVATION ARMY film draws heavily on the
artist's own experiences publishing a zine of the same name, bringing
together his eye for potent imagery and interest in street-level
mythologies.
Similarly, the scenes of orgiastic exotica that make up the artist’s
collages have conjured associations with Moreau, Géricault, and even CB
DeMille, as King’s Road punks and comely young Paris Commune rioters revolt
against backdrops of 17th century witches’ sabbats and Victorian Hellfire
Club rallies. Key to the potency of the work is Treleaven’s inclusion of his
own personal photographs of the modern progeny of these traditions. Using
mechanical reproduction as a leveling medium, the meticulously layered black
and white photocopies evoke a stark noir sensibility, alluding to zine
culture, anarchist broadsheets and underground missives. Eruptions of
origami paper flowers heighten the Baroque compositions and Rorschach-esque
monuments that celebrate the violent clash between high and low, lyrical and
political, tragic and heroic.
Recently, Treleaven's work has been exhibited at Deitch Projects (NYC),
D'Amelio Terras (NYC), Galerie du jour agnes b (Paris), Marc Selwyn Fine Art
(Los Angeles) and Kavi Gupta Gallery (Chicago).
Image: The SALiVation Army 2002-2004, 22 minutes dvd with Kevin (still from SALiVation Army) - giclee print, 8 x 10 inches. edition: 10
This exhibition is curated by Scenic / Simon Watson.
Opening reception: Saturday, January 15th, 6-8pm.
Conner Contemporary Art is located: 1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW - 2nd Floor,
Washington, DC 20009