ThreeWalls Blog

Bellwether at Alternator Gallery, Kelowna, BC

posted November 14, 2008 in news , reviews

This year threewalls created the traveling exhibition Bellwether for participation in two exchanges: with Vox Populi, Philadelphia in July and with Alternator Gallery, Kelowna this past October. Curated from former threewalls artists who are or were Chicago based, the show travelled in two versions, the larger in Philly and the smaller in Kelowna.

Both exhibitions featured work by: Josh Mannis (Los Angeles), Jenny Walters (Los Angeles),  Duncan McKenzie (Chicago) with Christian Kuras (London), Daniel Anhorn (Chicago), David Coyle (New York),  Caleb Jones Lyons (Chicago) and Heather Mekkelson (Chicago). With the Philly show including work by Ann Toebbe (Chicago),Joseph Kohnke (Los Angeles), Bill O’Brien (Chicago), Lisa Boumstein-Smalley (Chicago), and Chelsea Tonelli Knight (Chicago).

Former Kelowna resident, Dan Anhorn's work was featured in the Kelowna press, and the work of former Philadelphia resident, David Coyle was also pictured in the Philadelphia City Paper.

A bellwether is a herald or a harbinger. ThreeWalls brings a group of artists, all based in or formerly based in Chicago, whose work imparts a kind of warning or predication. Riding the line of disaster prophesy, the work suggests both decline culturally and environmentally, as well as simultaneously deconstructing the meaning of art or the Avant-garde as a pilaster of faith in the abstract. Positioning a group of artists whose work creates disruption within the accepted narrative of modern art alongside work that proposes a menacing or hesitant narrative, Bellwether is both a document of current doubt and anxiety in the face of cultural disrepair,  as well as a provocation from a group of artists working from outside the traditional poles of the Avante-garde.

David Coyle, Edgar Allen Poe, pictured left, Heather Mekkelson, Debris Field, put his out on the last, installation, pictured right.

Caleb Jones Lyons, Radio Stack, the dream is over, pictured left; Jenny Walters, Better Miller, pictured right; running perimeter of room: Duncan Mackenzie and Christian Kuras, Values Values Values