Rodney Graham
Encyclopedia
Rodney Graham is an artist and musician
born in Abbotsford, British Columbia
. He is most often associated with the Vancouver School
. He is married to the artist Shannon Oksanen and lives in Vancouver.
, Jeff Wall
, Stan Douglas
, Roy Arden
and Ken Lum
. He was taught by fellow Vancouver school artist Ian Wallace
while at Simon Fraser University
, Burnaby, British Columbia
, from 1979 to 1980. Around this time, he played in the band UJ3RK5 with fellow artist Jeff Wall
. His wide-ranging and often unclassifiable work has frequently engaged with technologies of the past: literary, psychological and musical texts, optical devices, and film as historical medium.
Among his earliest works is Camera Obscura (1979; destroyed 1981) a site-specific work that consisted of a shed-sized optical device on his family’s farm field near Abbotsford, British Columbia. Entering the shed, the observer was confronted with an inverted image of a solitary tree. Both prior to this (with Rome Ruins [1978]) and throughout the 1980s and 90s, Graham employed the technique of the camera obscura in his work.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Graham took found texts as the basis for his bookworks—at once conceptual and material—inserting bookmarks with additional pages, inserting textual loops or incorporating books into optical devices in works such as Dr. No* (1991), Lenz (1983) and Reading Machine for Lenz (1993), respectively; many of these were carried out with the esteemed Belgian publisher Yves Gevaert and/or the gallerist Christine Burgin. His extensive body of works related to Sigmund Freud
(beginning in 1983) in a sense develops out of this text-based practice, though later found books would be integrated unmodified into Donald Judd
-like “specific objects,” as with The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (1987).
In 1994, Graham began a series of films and videos in which he himself appears as the principal character: Halcion Sleep (1994), Vexation Island (1997) (shown at Canadian pavilion of the 1997 Venice Biennale), How I Became a Ramblin’ Man (1999), and The Phonokinetoscope (2002), for instance. It is in this last work that evidence of Graham’s engagement both with the origins of cinema and its eventual demise surface, a work where Graham takes up a prototype by Thomas Edison
and puts forward an argument for the relation between sound and image in film. Later, in Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 (2003), two increasingly obsolete technologies, the typewriter and film projector, face off against one another—with the latter projecting a film of the former.
In 2003, Graham turned to drawing and painting for the first time. Adopting a persona in a host of related photographic, installation and painted works, The Gifted Amateur, November 10th, 1962, 2007, indicates both continuing performative and art historical directions in his work.
Presently, Graham is working on a series of film installations with Harun Farocki
, called "HF/RG," slated to open at the Jeu de Paume
, Paris in Spring 2009. Recent work will also be the subject of a survey at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona in January 2010, which will travel. Graham lives and works in Vancouver, and is currently represented by 303 Gallery, New York; Christine Burgin Gallery, New York; Donald Young Gallery, Chicago; Lisson Gallery, London; Hauser and Wirth, Zurich and London; and Johnen Galerie, Berlin.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
born in Abbotsford, British Columbia
Abbotsford, British Columbia
Abbotsford is a Canadian city located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, adjacent to Greater Vancouver. It is the fifth largest municipality in British Columbia, home to 123,864 people . Its Census Metropolitan Area, which includes the District of Mission, is the 23rd largest in Canada,...
. He is most often associated with the Vancouver School
Vancouver School
The Vancouver School of conceptual or post-conceptual photography is a loose term applied to a grouping of artists from Vancouver starting in the 1980s...
. He is married to the artist Shannon Oksanen and lives in Vancouver.
Work
Coming out of Vancouver’s 1970s photoconceptual tradition, Rodney Graham’s work is often informed by historical literary, musical, philosophical and popular references. He is most often associated with other West-coast Canadian artists, including Vikky AlexanderVikky Alexander
Vikky Alexander is a Canadian contemporary artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has exhibited internationally since 1981. Working across mediums she is a leading practitioner in the field of photo-conceptualism and is well-known as an installation artist who uses photography, drawing,...
, Jeff Wall
Jeff Wall
Jeffrey "Jeff" Wall, OC, RSA is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. Wall has been a key figure in Vancouver's art scene since the early-1970s...
, Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has exhibited internationally, including Documenta IX, 1992, Documenta X, 1997, Documenta XI, 2002 and the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2001 and 2005...
, Roy Arden
Roy Arden
Roy Arden is a Vancouver artist.Arden has had solo exhibitions at the Ikon Gallery, Galerie Tanit and Vancouver Art Gallery. Other exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Basel, and the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp . His work is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art - was featured in...
and Ken Lum
Ken Lum
Ken Lum is a Canadian artist of Chinese heritage who lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. Working in a number of media including painting, sculpture and photography, his art is conceptually oriented, and generally concerned with issues of identity in relation to the categories of...
. He was taught by fellow Vancouver school artist Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace (artist)
Ian Wallace in Shoreham, England, is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver. He won the 2004 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts...
while at Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
, Burnaby, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, from 1979 to 1980. Around this time, he played in the band UJ3RK5 with fellow artist Jeff Wall
Jeff Wall
Jeffrey "Jeff" Wall, OC, RSA is a Canadian artist best known for his large-scale back-lit cibachrome photographs and art-historical writing. Wall has been a key figure in Vancouver's art scene since the early-1970s...
. His wide-ranging and often unclassifiable work has frequently engaged with technologies of the past: literary, psychological and musical texts, optical devices, and film as historical medium.
Among his earliest works is Camera Obscura (1979; destroyed 1981) a site-specific work that consisted of a shed-sized optical device on his family’s farm field near Abbotsford, British Columbia. Entering the shed, the observer was confronted with an inverted image of a solitary tree. Both prior to this (with Rome Ruins [1978]) and throughout the 1980s and 90s, Graham employed the technique of the camera obscura in his work.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Graham took found texts as the basis for his bookworks—at once conceptual and material—inserting bookmarks with additional pages, inserting textual loops or incorporating books into optical devices in works such as Dr. No* (1991), Lenz (1983) and Reading Machine for Lenz (1993), respectively; many of these were carried out with the esteemed Belgian publisher Yves Gevaert and/or the gallerist Christine Burgin. His extensive body of works related to Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
(beginning in 1983) in a sense develops out of this text-based practice, though later found books would be integrated unmodified into Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
-like “specific objects,” as with The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (1987).
In 1994, Graham began a series of films and videos in which he himself appears as the principal character: Halcion Sleep (1994), Vexation Island (1997) (shown at Canadian pavilion of the 1997 Venice Biennale), How I Became a Ramblin’ Man (1999), and The Phonokinetoscope (2002), for instance. It is in this last work that evidence of Graham’s engagement both with the origins of cinema and its eventual demise surface, a work where Graham takes up a prototype by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
and puts forward an argument for the relation between sound and image in film. Later, in Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 (2003), two increasingly obsolete technologies, the typewriter and film projector, face off against one another—with the latter projecting a film of the former.
In 2003, Graham turned to drawing and painting for the first time. Adopting a persona in a host of related photographic, installation and painted works, The Gifted Amateur, November 10th, 1962, 2007, indicates both continuing performative and art historical directions in his work.
Presently, Graham is working on a series of film installations with Harun Farocki
Harun Farocki
Harun Farocki is a German filmmaker.He has made over 90 films, the vast majority of them short experimental documentaries...
, called "HF/RG," slated to open at the Jeu de Paume
Jeu de paume
Jeu de paume is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, though these were eventually introduced. It is a former Olympic sport, and has the oldest ongoing annual world championship in sport, first established over 250 years ago...
, Paris in Spring 2009. Recent work will also be the subject of a survey at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona in January 2010, which will travel. Graham lives and works in Vancouver, and is currently represented by 303 Gallery, New York; Christine Burgin Gallery, New York; Donald Young Gallery, Chicago; Lisson Gallery, London; Hauser and Wirth, Zurich and London; and Johnen Galerie, Berlin.
External links
- Rodney Graham at 303 Gallery
- Rodney Graham at Lisson Gallery
- Rodney Graham at Hauser & Wirth Zürich London
- Rodney Graham at Johnen + Schöttle
- Rodney Graham at Donald Young Gallery
- "Greatest Hits: Rodney Graham's Little Thought" CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
Magazine; article by Lee Henderson - Graham's work is discussed in "What is it About Vancouver Art?"
- "The Vancouver School: A City's Place in the Realm of Ideas" Article discussing Vancouver's photo-conceptual art scene with Daine Augaitus of the Vancouver Art GalleryVancouver Art GalleryThe Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
. Some of Graham's work is also featured. - An analysis of Graham's Rheinmetall/Victoria 8
- But Where's the Coast? Rodney Graham and Art in Vancouver a lecture by Grant Arnold on occasion of Graham's exhibition at the MACBA, Barcelona
- Rodney Graham. Through the Forest a lecture by Lynne Cooke on occasion of Graham's exhibition at the MACBA, Barcelona
- Rodney Graham talks with Friedrich Meschede about the exhibition "Rodney Graham. Through the Forest" at the MACBA, Barcelona