Exhibit review: ‘This Show is Trash’ at FAB Gallery

Is there such a thing as trash, or is “trash” simply the word we assign to forgotten things? At This Show is Trash at the Fine Arts Building (FAB) Gallery, artists Tanya Klimp and Darcy Fraser Macdonald challenge human perceptions of waste and value. The outcome is a museum-like exhibition full of mind-tickling paradoxes.

Klimp is a Master’s of Fine Arts (MFA) Painting candidate and Macdonald is a MFA Intermedia candidate. In This Show is Trash, they each use a variety of unusual mediums to modernize the past. While some artworks have clear visual appeal, others rely heavily on symbolism and sentimental value.

Macdonald enjoys hunting for artifacts in the North Saskatchewan River valley. These artifacts were once considered trash, discarded by Edmontonians after the Second World War. Macdonald’s finds include everything from rusted spoons to ceramics and glasses. These objects are on display in two long glass vitrines, but also incorporated into MacDonald’s own projects.

In Theatre Labyrinthe Threshold, Macdonald combines plaster tiles, newspapers, and bricks to create something new. Sporting uneven edges, this artwork looks purposefully incomplete, as if it has just been found rather than created. Various “found” objects, ranging from porcelain fragments to shredded tires, surround the display. Industrial sounds from 1943 give an audial dimension to the collection.

Shredded tires are also present in Macdonald’s Gorgon II. Here, a hiking backpack sits on a wooden chair covered by a mane of twisted twentieth-century tires. The motionless tires are severe and cold, and spill over the chair like a slumping, all-devouring sea creature —or, as the name suggests, the hair of a Gorgon. An altogether lack of softness, both in shape and in colour, creates a chilling and still atmosphere.

Unlike Gorgon II, Macdonald’s Face the Gorgon is surprisingly warm and inviting. The tarnished mirror features the drawing of a Gorgon’s head, as well as retro red lightbulbs around its intricate rim. This artwork is quite interactive, as you can see your own reflection overtop of the Gorgon. The inviting lights of the mirror feel like a cunning trap, beckoning you to indeed “face the gorgon” of your own reality, however unpleasant it may be. 

Klimp’s artworks feel more contemporary and critical. Spatial Distortion is austerely industrial. A pile of scrap metal in the corner, it feels almost untouched. Klimp tests the distinction between artwork and chaos, and showcases a completely raw side of waste. Consumption may be viewed as a luxury, yet these rusty byproducts of consumption appear anything but luxurious.  If the packaging is around for longer than its contents, then what is truly being packaged? 

Klimp’s Green Wash consists of a burger wrapper embroidered with threads and painted with acrylic. The threads are in perfect symbiosis with the wrapper, making it feel as they were there to begin with. The wrapper is modified yet not entirely transformed.

Klimp challenges our perceptions of what is real and what is merely suggested. In addition, she forces us to wonder: are we consuming the burger, or the wrapper? Which is a more accurate representation of its contents?

Altogether, This Show is Trash is a nod to the unpredictable nature of material as well as cultural inheritance. Today’s generations must decide for themselves how to reconcile with yesterday’s “trash” as it resurfaces. There is potential for beauty, as seen through Macdonald’s collection of beautiful artifacts. However, there is also potential for ignorance and deception, as suggested by Klimp’s references to the potentially misleading powers of perception.

You can admire This Show is Trash at the FAB Gallery until December 14.