Afar Per Se
Amar from Afar and Diane Feught
We
look towards the far distant for a sense of something other than
the hum-drum existence that often takes over our routine lives.
Vacations, videos, reading, music – all become the escape routes
to enrichment. Afar Per se
fulfills the wanderlust and slakes the thirst for exoticism,
transferring a National Geographic mind frame into the refined
halls of high culture.
Amar
from Afar is actually residing and working quite close for his
studio is in Lumby, BC – yet that fact could translate into a
rather exotic imagining for a New Yorker. Headbones Gallery
visited the artist’s studio in the fall and were rewarded with a
revelation as expanding as that of visiting another country.
Amar’s work is not static. It reaches backwards in time as it
projects forward and seldom is there only a surface meaning. But
this is not a plea for nostalgia or even a reinforcement of
exotic otherness for Amar doesn’t let the image rest. He pokes
at it, jabs at it with the dissonance of virtual life and in
doing so pulls his visual story line into the theatrical realms.
There is a taste of intrigue, plot, climax and even the
potential for a narrative resolution. He gives us sufficient
clues but doesn’t reveal the ending.
Diane
Feught’s actual past, present and future have rarefied
beginnings. Feught grew up in an Anglican home. As an adult, she
lived in a Buddhist priory in Edmonton for seven years where she
experienced the lush overlap of philosophical, spiritual and
cultural diversity while still living in the heart of a
‘typical’ Canadian milieu. Her oil paintings and gouaches leave
room for study as well as speculation as to their narrative
source. Often with a strong composition that supports the drama
of the imagery, her technique – impeccable and practiced –
supports the strangeness of her subjects by granting an
immediate viability to the juxtaposition of elements. The
overwhelming perfection and balance take over any doubt at the
unusual imagery. Feught also backs her innuendos with
information, detailing with a precision to provoke applause.
Afar
Per se
- what does it mean? Per se does not only mean “intrinsically”
but also, “by, of, for or in itself”. It seems a fitting
description of the works of Amar from Afar and Diane Feught with
all of the allusions to otherness that they inspire.
The
opening reception for Afar
Per se is Friday, November 11, which is
Remembrance Day and
11/11/11. Even the date is fittingly evocative yet cryptic.
Trance
and Nilt to cosmic Eastern sounds and melodies during the
opening reception with Daniel
Stark on sarode,
Bill Boyd on cello and
Gaz on guitar.
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