Currently on view: Montreal
Wanda Koop: No News
at Galerie Division
19 November 2011 – 12 February 2012
Wanda Koop “Friendly Fire (No News Series)” 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 79.5″ x 119″. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Division
No news is good news as we say, to suggest we only hear of a particular place or situation when something bad is happening. This is symptomatic of the deeply-rooted western narrative traditions which center on dramatic tension, taking origin in Greek tragedy but very much actualized in contemporary mass media. In other words, happy feelings tend to signal the end of a story. In this line of thought, Winnipeg artist Wanda Koop’s new painting series entitled “No Newsâ€, feeds on contradicting these assumptions with her catchy pictures.
Koop’s current show at Montréal’s Galerie Division traces a continuation from previous series such as Green Zones (2003–09), manipulating images from daily TV news reports which she constantly scribbles down on post-it notes to later transfer onto canvas. The artist’s use of painting justly draws enough distance with broadcast technologies to establish a discourse of critical awareness that would seem uneasy via video art. But the electric colors, graphic overlays and fragmentation of the painted surface into multiple storylines nonetheless confirm a vocabulary pertaining to television.
Wanda Koop “Slave Lake (No News Series)” 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 36″ x 48″. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Division
Thus Friendly Fire (2011) incorporates a surprisingly agreeable experience in stating the above. The huge bright yellow color field, populated at the center with splashes of white and striped colors at the bottom, at first inspires a cheerful tone. The work’s title warns however of the violence that lies within its retinal spectacle. A closer inspection of the canvas reveals proportions that outline those of a VHS cassette, while the white splashes indicate the tape reel positions and the color bars now read as SMPTE test patterns. These elaborate articulations over what is effectively the largest painting in the show, act as a primer to remind the viewer of the daily media bombardments, which also tint our perceptions on this side of the screen. Likewise Fukushima Plant (2011) and Slave Lake (2011) are framed within the typical rounded corners that outline a TV screen. Many other paintings incorporate similar geometric lines and shapes over vaporous landscapes. This has become Koop’s signature compositional style; overlaying geometric shapes, patterns and translucent color to aestheticize but also obscure the reality we are meant to witness.
Wanda Koop “Nature Reserve (No News Series)” 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 79.5″ x 119″. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Division
The image motifs floating behind such geometric façades are often associated with war and the environment, their details appearing blurred, simplified and submerged, alongside the odd drip lines to add hallucinatory effects. Koop evidently added layers upon layers of paint to generate subtle and atmospheric ambiences, sometimes oversaturated with pigments to enhance the artificial quality of her subject matter. In the contrast between these profound color fields and the clean-edged geometric patterns flatly standing on the plane of the canvas, we are continuously distracted from the news worthy imagery beneath which require a violent force of the will to stay focused on them.
Koop’s paintings offer a reflection on the relationships we entertain with mass media and how we have allowed its technology to stand between our senses and the outside world. Whether it regards the cathode tube or YouTube, mediated content has grown into this second nature that we inhabit metaphorically, making content owners into the new landlords of our wired environment, to marshal the way we interact with this augmented reality. Thankfully Koop’s work freezes a fleeting frame of this process, to momentarily grasp its features until the next news item takes over.
Wanda Koop “New Museum (No News Series)” 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 40″. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Division
Wanda Koop, artist’s website: wandakoop.com
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