Exhibition by Paul Chan

Description:

Western Front presented the first Canadian solo exhibition of artist Paul Chan. This self-titled exhibition featured a new collage work Gift into Line (2006), as well as 2nd Light (2005), the second of a seven-part series of digital projections and drawings entitled The 7 Lights (2005–07).

The works within 7 Lights reimagine the Judeo-Christian narrative of the seven days of creation as hallucinations through digital projections, an unsettled revisitation of religion and utopian thought. The work fills corners of the floors and walls, appearing like light and shadows emanating from nearby windows. However, in the title, the word “light” has been struck through, negating any claims of absolute representation. 

2nd Light is a single-channel video projection with no audio. It uses a tonal range of colour as the passing of time from dusk to dawn. Viewers contemplate the projection from a vantage point that shows the so-called shadow of a solitary and stately broad-leaf tree, at times idyllic with its branches gently swaying but then interspersed with bodies falling from the sky and the waving of battle flags from some belligerence just beyond the audience’s view, drawing from the continued biblical themes of the apocalypse and revelation.

The exhibition opening took place on November 2, 2007.

Chan also gave two artist talks on November 28 and 29, 2007 at Western Front and Emily Carr University respectively.

Curated by Candice Hopkins.