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“The domestic sphere, long associated with antiquated views of femininity, is portrayed in a new light as the site of ritual.” |
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“The domestic sphere, long associated with antiquated views of femininity, is portrayed in a new light as the site of ritual.”
Lucas Soi
It all started with this article in Fortune Magazine from 1997. They estimated that by 2006 there would be 30 million teenagers in the U.S.A., the highest level since 1976. They said teens would spend $84 billion of their own money that year. I compared that figure with a report written in 2004 by market research firm Mintel that said teens were spending $175 billion annually. That’s a 100% increase in spending in the teen market in less than 10 years.
Cradle Stories is a series of ten, ink on paper, drawings produced over the past two years. I wanted to create a body of work that reflected the times we live in today, but show that we’ve always been here; the human species hasn’t changed very much throughout the generations. I thought of my coming of age in the suburbs of West Vancouver, the richest district in Canada. The domestic sphere, long associated with antiquated views of femininity, is portrayed in a new light as the site of ritual.
I looked back through art history for takes on contemporary society in painting. My favorite work was by Courbet and Manet, who painted their surroundings without editorializing. They painted average people doing everyday things. I was really impressed by the panoramic format Courbet used in A Burial At Ornans (1850); I saw it in person in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and physically experiencing it changed my life. It’s a painting the size of a movie screen. So I thought, our culture is so influenced by Hollywood, and show business is so influenced by books, particularly graphic novels right now. So the drawings are made out of multiple sheets of paper, symbolizing the pages of a book.
We showed Cradle Stories at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco in October. When people see the work in person the feedback I get is more about technique than content. Each drawing is made with millions of 0.25 mm ink dots. They take over 200 hours to complete.
The dots are taking on a more formal aspect in my new body of work that I’m making for my next solo show in San Francisco at Ever Gold Gallery in October 2011. I’m continuing my exploration of contemporary life in suburban West Vancouver and its notorious economy of illegal indoor marijuana grow-operations.
