Cartographies: Dionne Simpson

8/12/2019 Cartographies: Dionne Simpson

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The Art Gallery of Peterborough

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Dionne Simpson: Cartographies

Printed in CanadaCopyright 2010

The Art Gallery of Peterborough250 Crescent Street

Peterborough, OntarioK9J 2G1Tel: (705) 743-9179Fax: (705) 743-8168Email: [email protected]

Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Art Gallery of PeterboroughMarch 12 May 2, 2010

Curators: Pamela Edmonds and Sally Frater

All rights reserved

ISBN: 1-896809-56-1

Printing: Captain PrintworksDesign: Tariq Sami @ HistrionicsPhotography: Wayne Eardley

Under Construction #1 , 2010, delineated canvas, hair colour, ink, text, 40 x 40


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Under Construction #1 (detail) , 2010, delineated canvas, hair colour, ink, text, 40 x 40


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Urban Decay #1 (detail) Urban Decay #1 , 2009, mixed media, 20 x 20


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O ver the past decade of her art practice, Dionne Simpsonhas continuously built on past histories to create new stories.The histories are not only her own experiences but theyreach into the distant past for technique as well as metaphor.Her work is very much about surface but we soon see that there is more behind the first reading. Layer upon layer of meaning exist in this work.

Like reading a map, one can locate a particular fixed point of attention or one can choose to explore the topography,the paths and obstacles to truly understand the nature ofthe environment. It is this sense of way-finding that bothcurators of the exhibition respond to in their essays. Curator,Pam Edmonds refers to Simpsons work as conceptual mapping.

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Guest curator, Sally Frater continues deeper in this concept in deciphering the use of the grid as applied to surface;systems of measuring and qualifying location and valueapply here.

The exhibition and catalogue title Cartographies become,significantly appropriate when one considers the concepts it embraces and refers to, each meaning heavy with metaphorand context. It is a word rich with implicit intention and is a fitting descriptor for this body of work.

There are many who have made this catalogue possible.We would like to thank the curators of the exhibition,Pam Edmonds and Sally Frater who brought this intriguing exhibition to the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Thanks goesto Tariq Sami for his sensitivity to the nature of Simpsonswork, which is reflected in his inspired catalogue design.Last, but not least, we thank artist, Dionne Simpson forher fine work and generous contribution to the success ofthe exhibition.

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Maps are often thought of as tools for getting from here tothere. Maps reflect the world reduced to points, lines, and areas,using a variety of visual resources: size, shape, value, texture orpattern, colour, orientation, and shape. Cartography, the studyand practice of map-making-combining science, aesthetics andtechnique-builds on the premise that reality can be modeled inways that can communicate spatial information effectively.

With the advent of new media/digital art, GIS and mobile tech-nologies, the concern with data collection and mapping has beenincreasingly pursued by contemporary artists with both fervourand criticality. It is little surprise that, in an era of globalizedpolitics, culture, and ecology, these projects utilize the map in a political and social dimension to produce new configurations of space, subjectivity and power. Here, the map can be viewed as a conceptual tool to experiment with a particular territory inspecific ways in order to reach unforeseen destinations. Mapping quite simply becomes a medium for expressing the artists ownobservations and reflections about the contemporary world.

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Pamela Edmonds


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This exhibition came together as a result of the mutual admira-tion of Simpsons oeuvre with Hamilton-based independent curator Sally Frater. As curators who are similarly interested incontemporary art that engages questions of modernity and iden-tity politics, Cartographies explores global modernity and identityas fluid and continually unfolding, bringing the post-colonial andpost-modern into dialogue. Simpsons multi-layered paintingsare conceptual maps to be deciphered and explored. The rewardis the infinitely varied journeys they take us on.

Pamela Edmonds

Art Gallery of Peterborough

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For over a decade, artist Dionne Simpson has explored the sitesand spaces of cultural urbanization through her distinctive visualpractice. Employing the materiality of cotton canvas as a metaphor for the underlying fabric of Canadian society, Simpsonhas built an international career based on her unique workswhich are created through a painstaking process inspired by theWest African art of thread pulling-the removal of thread frommaterial in order to create patterns and images. Her latest seriesis highly personal form of Pointillism depicting anonymousurban landscapes as well as a series of self-portraits that pulsatebehind the exposed grids of the de-woven fabric. In these mixed-media paintings, Simpson applies an unorthodox assortment of materials such as wax, soil, ash, hair dye and liquid paper. Shefurther embeds a dizzying array of imagery and symbols sourcedfrom contemporary culture including corporate logos, images of media celebrities and icons, texts and numbers, which are strate-gically placed inside the hundreds of tiny windows formed withinthe unravelled canvas. Through this relational information,the artists work investigates the ways in which the architecturalmapping of cities converges upon sites of consumption,commerce and the ethno-cultural histories and class realities of the citys inhabitants. Through subtraction and addition, thework strikes an intriguing balance between the contemporaryand traditional as well as between abstraction and realism.Not only does Simpson construct and deconstruct her ownpersonal history and image in this work, on a broader level,she decodes the very foundations and structures of modernculture, from art and language to community.

Under Construction #4 (detail) , 2010, delineated canvas, clothing dye, text, 40 x 40


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Urban Decay #2 , 2009, mixed media: liquid paper, colouring dye, 20 x 20 Urban Decay #3 , 2009, mixed media, 20 x 20


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Cartographies , installation view, Art Gallery of Peterborough, 2010


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In Rosalind Kraus oft-cited essayThe Originality of the Avant- Garde (1985) she observes that within the practice of manyModernist artists, the visual trope of the grid functioned as a marker of artistic originality. Largely considered to be thevanguard of the avant-garde in Modern art, Kraus notes that thegrid-scored surface1 of the canvases of artists ranging from Josef Albers to Piet Mondrian and Agnes Martin marked the imageof an absolute beginning2 that simultaneously offered thepromise of autonomy.3 The grids existence as a cornerstone of non-representational art gave rise to the (fictitious) notion that this new kind of art was truly original (irrespective of the fact that this claims potency was diminished each time that it wasemployed by yet another artist or was used in succession withina particular artists practice). Positioned as it was the grids potencylay in the fact that due to the emphasis on what lay on itspictorial surface, a work of art could only be evaluated in termsof formal qualities. This meant there was no equivalent of thegridded canvas to be found in nature, no visual referent existedin the world at large and that there was no linguistic terminologythat could adequately describe it 4. As such, these works existedoutside of history. The discourse that was then created to discuss

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Sally Frater


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this type of painting insisted that these works be evaluated byformal qualities alone. This conclusion aided in cementing thenotion that this art primarily existed apart from the political andor sociological conditions that existed at the time of its produc-tion, and that these factors bore no influence on them as worksof art.

In The Originality of the Avant-Garde (as well as in the earlier byless often cited essay Grids from 1976) Kraus refutes the gridsclaim to originality, pointing out in Grids how the employment of the grid in Modernist work was proceeded by the use of thegrid in symbolist art in the form of windows5 and that thesymbolist interest in windows clearly reaches back into the earlynineteenth century and romanticism.6 Therefore, if we are toconnect gridded Modernist paintings from the early twentiethcentury within the long trajectory of painted works that haveemployed the grid within them, then perhaps one would not beamiss in suggesting that these works do not exist outside of therealm of influence.

Though artist Dionne Simpson is producing work at a much laterpoint in time that the reign of High Modernism in art, her prac-tice is, in some sense, very much connected to the visual tropesof that period. The paintings within her oeuvre incorporateelements of collage and they too also explore employ grids.Yet this is where much of the similarity ends. Simpsons deploy-ment of the grid in her practice extends it beyond acting as a

Walking Man, Cell#15 (detail) , 2002, mixed media, 94.5 x 24.5


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device that merely affords formal exploration. Instead, it forms a platform from which the artist can address the overlapping inter-sections of painting and architecture, social mapping and thecultural geographies of cities, the anonymity of urban spaces aswell as constructs of race, class and gender.

The artists use of the grid subtly draws attention to the ways inwhich its very existence mediates discourses of commerce andtrade, natural and built environments, and social constructs.Simpsons use of the grid is multifarious. The artist often beginsa work by delineating the canvas, de-weaving and removing threads so that the structure which is already a grid becomes a series of myriad grids. In turn, these grids form a series of cellsthat punctuate the surface of the canvas destabilizing the oncetaught structures. These cells are then reinforced by the additionof a material such as wax and Simpson often inserts facsimiles of photocopied and reduced corporate logos into them. Overlaidimagery is then applied to the surface in a manner that furtherreferences the supports either in subject matter (such as thewindowed wall of a skyscraper) or blocks of colour are applied

and arranged so that they reveal the underlying structures ofcity grids.

Simpsons latest series,Under Construction , marks something of a departure for the artist. Though eleven canvases have beenproduced at this point she intends to expand the series so that eventually it will include thirty-seven works, each one denoting a

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year of her life thus far. Aesthetically,Under Construction differsfrom her other works in that several of the canvases featurerenderings of Simpson herself, a marked contrast from otherworks that depict either urban landscapes featuring buildings,public transportation or anonymous figures. Simpsons self-por-traits feature the artist in Victorian costume and the images arecreated using unlikely materials such as liquid paper, hair dye,food colouring and Jamaican soil which have been applied withcotton swabs.

The works that comprise Under Construction thus far pointedlychallenge the underpinnings of High Modernism. They breakwith the taboo of shunning language, incorporating text intomany of the works; they directly address history and the realitiesof race and racial discrimination, they collectively speak toevents and corporeal realities that exist outside of and beyondthe picture plane. With the exception of one untouched canvas,all of the works bear the trace of the artists hand. The workUnder Construction #1 , features an outline of the artists face.Her hair is parted and styled in an Afro, half of which has been

filled in by black patterning that resembles the patterns on West-African traditional cloth. The canvas directly above and to theleft of the subjects face is filled in with white letters that bring forth the associations between blackness and the abject. Anotherwork, Under Construction #4 , features an image that focuses on a black outline of the artists face that is overlaid by black lettersthat detail an account of slavery in Virginia. Both of the images


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Under Construction #7 , 2010, delineated canvas, ash, clothing dye, text, 40 x 40 Under Construction #9, 2010 , delineated canvas, Jamaican soil, ash, clothing, dye, gesso


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and Modernity. In its pursuit of originality and emphasis onnon-representational subject matter, High Modernisms narra-tives led to an obfuscation of the historical precedents and reali-ties that underpinned Modernism. Simpsons works suggests that not only does she as a contemporary (black) subject have a direct and (ongoing) relationship to Modernisms long and variedhistory but that Modernism has had an engaged and ongoing relationship with blackness as well.

Looking at the blank canvases ofUnder Construction #10 andUnder Construction #8 , we are presented with both an untouchedcanvas as well as one that has been delineated. Of the elevenworks that comprise this series, they present us with the most obvious links to their Modernist oeuvre of paintings of the twen-tieth century. Yet to be fully transformed under Simpsons hand,the instability ofUnder Construction #8 reminds us of just howinadequate or limited that High Modernisms discourses of pureformalism has been in their collective dismissal and/or denial of history and all of its muddled and complicated realities. Thoughthe issues raised by the (now) overt images present in theUnder

Construction will ultimately be obscured with overlaid withimagery by the artist, their presence will not, and cannot be,completely obliterated as Simpson has already destabilized andloosened the overarching hold of the myths of Modernism.

Sally Frater

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detail how speech acts and language render black subjects asabject 7 (a fact that is underscored in the words appearing bothover and around the subjects face).

The motif of the west-African cloth has appeared beforein Simpsons work and although it marks the artists ties to hercontinent of origin as a member of the African diaspora, here it appears in tension with the Victorian costume worn by thesubject. The cloth calls forth notions of a pre-colonial Africa while simultaneously raising the issue of the violence of imperi-alism that the continent was subjected to that served to benefit Victorian England (as well as the binary that was constructedbetween the African works that were said to inspire manyModernist artists but were ultimately excluded from participat-ing in Modernist discourse)8. The soil within the work acts a point of intersection between the two represented cultures as well asacting as a referent for Jamaica (the place of Simpsons birth).The soil (while acting as a referent of both nature and the act of sullying) also works with the trope of the cloth and the Victoriancostume to bring forth issues of labour, as the intensive and time-

consuming practices of weaving, sewing and tilling soil arebrought to mind. Simpsons incorporation of these specificelements into this body of work address not only the artistscomplicated relationships with them (i.e. her relationship toVictorian fashion and Western art history as a black subject) but more importantly they assert the ties between blackness


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Under Construction #3 , 2010, delineated canvas, Jamaican soil, ash, clothing dye, liquid paper

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1 Rosalind E. Kraus,The Originality of the Avant-Garde in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and other Modernist Myths (Cambridge: MIT Press,1985)158.

2 Ibid, 158.3 Ibid, 156.4 Ibid, 158. Kraus writes of how the grid in Modernist painting supposedly exist-

ed outside of language stating that The grid promotes this silence, express-ing it as a refusal of speech. The absolute stasis of the grid, its lack of hierar-chy, of centre, of inflection, emphasizes not only i ts anti-referential character,

but more importantly its hostility to narrative. This structure...will not per-mit the projection of language into the domain of the visual, and the result issilence.

5 Rosiland E. Kraus, Grids in The Originality of the Avant-Garde and other Modernist Myths (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985) 16.

6 Kraus, 16.7 Long before the establishment of a visual index of representations that

marked black physiognomy and culture as abject, written words and verbalspeech acts coded blackness as a threatening other. Numerous theoristsfrom Frantz Fanon to bell hooks have noted that the (Western) linguisticdemarcation and equation of blackness as that which is negative has servedas the justification for the collective disenfranchisement of black subjectsthroughout history. See Frantz Fanon, White Skin, Black Masks , (New York:Grove Press, 1967) 188-189 and bell hooks, Sexism and the Black FemaleSlave Experience in Aint I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism , (Boston:South End Press: 1981) 33.

8 For a discussion of how Blackness is posited as being antithetical to Modernitysee Cecil Foster, Blackness and Modernity (Montreal: McGill-QueensUniversity Press: 2007).


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Under Construction #5 , 2010, delineated canvas, found images, hair colour, charcoal, 40 x 40 Under Construction #6 , 2010, delineated canvas, Jamaican soil, ash, clothing dye, gesso


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Under Construction #4 , 2010, delineated canvas, clothing dye, text, 40 x 40 Under Construction #4 (detail)

D i o n n e S i m p s o n


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D i o n n e S i m p s o n

Education2000 Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto1998 The Cooper Union for Advancement of Art and Science, New York2007 Juror Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition2005 Juror Junction West Toronto Rail Path - artist selection panel2005 Juror Toronto Art Council Visual emerging arts grant2005 Juror Canada Art Council Visual emerging arts grant2002 2005 Volunteer art instructor at Baycrest Elementary School

Solo Exhibitions

2010 Galerie Bourbon-Lally, Haiti2009 Art Firm, Alberta, Canada2007 Moore Gallery, Toronto, Canada2007 Art Interiors, Toronto, Canada2006 Art Gallery of Peel, Ontario, Canada2006 The Latcham Gallery, Ontario, Canada2003 Department of Canadian Heritage, Ontario, Canada2003 Roy Thompson Hall, Ontario, Canada2003 Kabat-Wrobel Gallery, Ontario, Canada2002 Artcore Gallery, Ontario, Canada2001 Harry Rosen, Ontario, Canada2000 A.W.O.L. Gallery, Ontario, Canada2000 Gallery 401, Ontario, Canada2000 The Cultural Foundation of Corsica, France2000 Visual Art Centre In Clarington, Ontario, Canada1999 Cooper Union Gallery, New York, U.S.A.

Group Exhibitions2008 Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata, India2008 Summertide, Art Firm, Alberta, Canada2007 Kabat - Wrobel Gallery, Dubai2007 Art Firm, Alberta, Canada2006 Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, British Columbia, Canada2006 DPM arte c ontemporanea, Miami, U.S.A.

Under Construction #2 , 2010, delineated canvas, found images, ink, liquid paper, 40 x 40

2004 S l d P i t G l i B b L ll M t l Q b2006 H t H t H t Y g P i t P h C F d ti N f dl d C d


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2004 Salon du Printemps- Galerie Bourbon-Lally, Montreal, Quebec2003 Toronto Art Expo - Ontario, Canada2002 Artissima Artcore Gallery, Torino, Italy2002 Art Cologne Artcore Gallery, Cologne, Germany2001 Toronto International Art Fair Artcore Gallery, Ontario, Canada

Selected Bibliography

2006 Catalogue Art Gallery of Peel2006 Art Amid the Rubble, by Carey Lovelace2006 Heterogenesis: Concerning the 9th Annual Biennial2005 The Globe and Mail Sat. 23 April 2005, Globe Review sec R12,

Gary Michael Dault, Years spent on a single painting.2005 The Globe and Mail Mon 21 Feb. 2005, Globe Review sec R, Sarah Milroy.Subjugation and illumination.

2005 The Liberty Gleaner Jan. / Feb. 2005, page 10, Peter Armstrong,Culture and conflict win for artist.

2005 The Village Gleaner Jan. / Feb. 2005, page 12, Peter Armstrong,Culture and conflict win for artist.

2004 Now - HYPERLINK http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-11-18/art_reviews.phphttp://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-11-18/art_reviews.php

2004 National Post Thu. 18 Nov. 2005, Entertainment and Culture AL6,Julia Dault and J. Kelly Nestruck, Brush Strokes of What to Come.

2004 Tribune (Welland) Thu. 18 Nov. Page: C2, Section: Entertainment2004 CP Wire - Wed 17 Nov., Section: Entertainment and culture2004 Catalogue Art Gallery of Peel2004 Catalogue Latitudes 20042004 Catalogue AAF Contemporary Art Fair2004 Catalogue Salon du Printemps de Montreal 20042001 Corse-Matin: Lart contemporian sinsere en corse2001 Lola Volume 9, Suits Playing Games series at A.W.O.L Gallery.2001 Surface and Symbol Contemporary Art 2001: Profile of an artist as a young woman.2000 North York Mirror Arts and Entertainment: Artist examines identity issues.2000 North York Mirror Arts and Entertainment: Business suit inspires art work.1999 C.F.M.T., John Scott interviewing Dionne Simpson on her Designing a Culture series.1999 Rolling Stone Magazine. Interviews artists at Cooper Union in New York.

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2006 Hot, Hot, Hot Young Painters, Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland, Canada2006 I Represent A Space Gallery, Ontario, Canada2006 The Fredrick Horseman Varley Gallery, Ontario, Canada2006 Peter and Paul Fortress State Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia2005 Kabat-Wrobel Gallery, Ontario, Canada2005 Art Gallery of Peel, Ontario, Canada2005 The Art Gallery of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada2004 Latitudes 2004 Art Contemporain, Paris, France2004 Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art Finalist - New Canadian Painting Prize

- Ontario, Canada2004 McMaster Museum of Art Semi-finalist New Canadian Painting Prize

- Ontario, Canada2004 New Brunswick Museum Semi-finalist New Canadian Painting Prize

- St. John, Canada2004 The Edmonton Art Gallery Semi-finalist New Canadian Painting Prize

- Alberta, Canada2004 Kabat-Wrobel Gallery, Ontario, Canada2003 The Fredrick Horseman Varley Gallery, Ontario, Canada2002 The Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, Canada2002 The Fredrick Horseman Varley Gallery, Ontario, Canada2001 a_level, Ontario, Canada2001 Cedar Ridge Studio Gallery, Ontario, Canada2000 Womens Art Association of Canada, Ontario, Canada

Art Fairs

2008 Arte America - Galerie Bourbon-Lally, Miami, U.S.A

2008 National Black Fine Art Show (2004 - present) - Galerie Bourbon-Lally,New York, U.S.A2007 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (2000 present) - Ontario, Canada2006 National Biennial Exhibition Kingston, Jamaica2006 Toronto International Art Fair Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver, Canada2006 AAF Contemporary Art Fair (2004 - present) - Galerie Bourbon-Lally, New York, U.S.A2006 9 th Havana Biennial - Cuba2005 Off the Main (also 2004) - Galerie Bourbon-Lally, New York, U.S.A.2005 Affordable Art Fair (also 2004) - Galerie Bourbon-Lally, New York, U.S.A.


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2003 Power of Expression Art Auction (also 2002), Toronto Ontario2001 Agnes Etherington Art Centre Art Auction, Kingston Ontario2001 Millennium Art Auction, Sunny Brook Hospital, Toronto - Ontario

Gallery RepresentationArtFirm CalgaryArt Interiors TorontoDPM Arte Contemporanea Miami / EcuadorGalerie Bourbon-Lally International Art Fairs

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Selected Grants and Awards

2008 Grant Toronto Art Council Mid-career Artist2008 Public Collection MacDonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph - Ontario2007 Public Collection El Barrio Museum2007 Nomination Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Award2006 Public Collection Peel Gallery - Canada2006 Grant Canada Council for the Arts Project Grant2006 Grant Ontario Art Council Emerging Artist2004 Grant Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant2004 Public Collection RBC Financial Group2004 Grant Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Exhibition Assistance2004 Grant Ontario Art Council Exhibition Assistance2004 First Place Award - RBC New Canadian Painting Competition (National Winner)2004 Public Collection Paradigm Investment Canada2003 Award The Power of Expression Award of Excellence2003 First Place Award The Creative Vision The Fredrick Horseman Varley Art Gallery

also awarded in 20022003 Grant Ontario Art Council Emerging Artist2003 Grant Toronto Art Council Emerging Artist2003 Public Collection Apple Canada Inc.2003 Public Collection CIBC Wood Gundy - Canada2003 Public Collection Sunlife Insurance - Canada2003 Public Collection Agnes Etherington Art Centre - Canada2001 Public Collection Cultural Foundation in Corsica,2001 Award Kathryn Minard Mixed Media Award Toronto Outdoor Exhibition1999 Scholarship Women Art Association of Canada

1999 Award Arts Week1999 Commission Playdium Entertainment Corporation

Charity Auctions and Donations

2007 Whodunit Mystery Art Auction (2004 present), Toronto - Ontario2006 Art with Heart, Auction for Casey House (also 2005), Toronto - Ontario2005 Latin American Art Auction, Miami - Florida2005 Canadian Art Gallery Hop, Toronto - Ontario Exhibit A (suit) , 2004

Mixed media, 20 x 20Exhibit B (smoker) , 2004Mixed media, 24 x 48


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front + back cover: Under Construction #10 (detail) , 2010, Cotton canvas, 40 x 40inside cover (front + back): Urban Decay #1 (detail) , 2009, Mixed media, 20 x 20

pages 1, 10, 19: Under Construction #8 (detail) , 2010, Delineated canvas, 40 x 40

Documents

Cartographies: Dionne Simpson