Brad Allen, Scott Kemp, and Gregory Ligen: Whatever This Is It Won’t Last Long

Curated by Zebulon Zang
Opening July 12, 2013, 8pm

INT. SMALL SHOP — DAY

A light flickers intermittently above near depleted shelves that loosely grip the shop walls. “BLOWOUT SALE” signs intersperse the whiteness of the store. The few goods remaining are discreetly spread on various platforms. On the clerk’s desk a sign reads “all you need before the end”.

Rooted in the perpetual return to the crisis of the end of the world at a time when it has been ceaselessly predicted, depicted and eluded, Whatever This is It Won’t Last Long looks to a combination of pessimism and humour in order to face this never ending and seemingly imminent threat. Working between the role of props for a proposed fiction and an existence as works of art, the objects present in the exhibition utilize the vernacular of commodities to support the narrative of the pre-apocalyptic sale within this fictional setting. The works expressly walk a line between illustrative prop/everyday object and artwork, utilizing a deadpan absurdity inevitable when dealing with the incongruity of consumption in the face of termination.

Brad Allen is an artist and designer with a strong grounding in illustration collage and drawing. His work engages with the culture of mass imagery and commonplace signs through a wry and reflexive humour. He has a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Scott Kemp is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Vancouver. He is currently completing a degree in visual art at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Gregory Ligen is a Canadian artist and writer currently based in Toronto. His artistic practice explores literary structures and the roles of language within visual art. He has published a small collection of short stories and has exhibited in both Canada and the UK.

Zebulon Zang is a writer and filmmaker with a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Working between staged and documentary experiences his work often becomes self-reflexive interrogation of the anatomy of narrative. He has also worked as a curator, most recently founding MCAS, an experimental exhibition space.

[Reviewed by Vancouver Graffiti, July 18 2013]