
Lakeshore: Aurora Dixie Cup
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52731
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Work by John Armstrong
directional indicator / panneau indicateur
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52719
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
character / caractère
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52714
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
cloth / tissu
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52692
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
newscast / les infos
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52690
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
hammer / marteau
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52688
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
chair / chaise
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52687
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
hand / main
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52686
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
musical instrument / instrument de musique
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52709
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
sujet libre
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52726
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
poet / poète
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52725
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lucy Hogg
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52724
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
water / eau
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52723
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
travel advertisement / publicité touristique
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52721
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
florist / fleuriste
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52718
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
word / mot
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52715
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
hat / chapeau
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52707
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
boss / patron
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52694
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
garbage can / poubelle
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52699
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
painted sky / ciel peint
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52708
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
toilet / w.c.
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52711
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
car / voiture
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52685
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
tree / arbre
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52698
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
critic / critique
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52727
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
number / numéro
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52720
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
arts administrator / administrateur d’art
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52722
Description: From the series, Jim ¡ú. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim ¡ú (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par l¨¤"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of P¨¨re-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/¨¦preuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
phrase
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52716
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
draped cloth / tissu drapé
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52693
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Jim –>
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52681
Description: From the series, Jim →. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim →(pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb. Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject. Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
view of Canada / vue du Canada
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52729
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
mustard pot / pot de moutarde
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52682
Description: From the series, Jim ¡ú. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim → (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par l¨¤"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of P¨¨re-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/¨¦preuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
curator / commissaire d’expositions
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52717
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: bw photos, Original CCCA
fish / poisson
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52695
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
view of France / vue de la France
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52728
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
colleague / collègue
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52706
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
George Seurat
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52701
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
air vent / bouche d’aération
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52713
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
bicycle / vélo
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52700
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
floor / sol
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52697
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
phone / téléphone
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52712
Description: From the series, Jim -->. Through a series of 98 paired photographs, Paul Collins and John Armstrong set out to explore the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of our shared and individual experiences. The title of our project is Jim --> (pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là"). This references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb.
Armstrong and Collins initially drew up a list of 49 words to serve as the 49 subjects of a series of photographs. Armstrong would shoot in Canada, and Collins in France, where he has been living these past 20 years. The resulting images were brought together, presenting two points of view of the same subject.
Some of the subjects relate to motifs in our individual art practices; some are shared banalities and enthusiasms; others are figures that populate the professional life of an artist. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment or place. The viewer is naturally drawn into a guessing game, trying to identify the settings or locations pictured: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto? John or Paul?
Measurements: 124.46 prints/épreuves : 27.94 x 35.56 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002
Materials: selenium-toned gelatin silver print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Niagara Falls STEP
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52742
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: WORLD TRADE CENTRE
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52755
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Red Coat Cup
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52749
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Niagara Falls SLOWLY
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52744
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: more Lebensraum
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52740
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Niagara Falls I TURN
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52745
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: What is the matter
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52754
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: WAYS OF SEEING
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52753
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Pompidou
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52748
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Niagara Falls BY STEP
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52743
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Baghdad begins
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52732
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: 0.1
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52730
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Aurora Dixie Cup
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52731
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Michael
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52739
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: OUR WINDOW
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52746
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Renseigements Généraux
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52750
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Look-out
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52737
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: BATH
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52733
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: hotel
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52734
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: I don’t buy it
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52735
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: Kenya
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52736
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: mors ultima ratio
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52741
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Lakeshore: M Wintrob & Sons
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 52738
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2002-04
Materials: oil paint on C-prints
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
forget about amerika
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60736
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 68.58 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
khakireshaped
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60743
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 86.36 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
PAIL-SEAU
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60742
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 83.82 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Niagara Falls (I TURN)
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60745
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 91.44 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Niagara Falls (SLOWLY)
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60744
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 88.9 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
par votre démarche
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60735
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 66.04 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
armée du salut
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60733
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 60.96 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
OR
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60748
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 99.06 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
four-banger grocery getter
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60731
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 55.88 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Niagara Falls (BY STEP)
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60747
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 96.52 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
red wine glass
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60740
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 78.74 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Hearst
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60737
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 71.12 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Grumble
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60739
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 76.2 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
This Area is Alarmed
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60738
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 73.66 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
red green yellow
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60729
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop t
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
MIND YOUR HEAD
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 60741
Description: Lakeshore consists of an ongoing series of one hundred 50 x 75-cm colour photographs with short texts or images painted on them in oils. The photographs serve as supports for the painting, and depict landscape, architecture and a variety of other subjects. The texts are predominantly in either English or French (as well as in German and Latin), and all the photographs are taken in Canada, France, Germany or Kenya. The painted texts recall the traditional role that captions play in the interpretation of photographs, used traditionally to direct the viewer to a specific message conveyed by the photograph. In this work, we are attempting to upend, extend and imbricate some of the conventions in painting, photography and language.
For us, lakeshore refers to Ontario's myriad lakes in Ontario, and most immediately to Lake Ontario, the lake we both grew up beside. These lakes have served as motifs for important streams in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian art; and, this is a backdrop to our work. Lakeshore also signifies an intermediary state, a space between two bodies, a space that has three possible reference points: a vanishing vista, a point of possible departure, a destination at the end of a voyage.
We have used the idea of lakeshore in a figurative and personal manner. Although some of the photographs do depict lakeshores, most have to do with our routine comings and goings, artistic and quotidian. The photographs are set in both rural and urban locations. We pointedly have not represented any lakes: this reinforces our metaphorical focus (and eases our task, as France has very few lakes). Our painted text passages are idiomatic and common expressions, maxims, and phrases from popular culture. The painted words do not serve as captions for the images, but rather further our exploration of the metaphorical idea of a lakeshore. The images painted on the photographs are of glasses, pails and basins of water, and offer the only explicit bodies of water in the artworks. The addition of the painted elements to the photographs creates a flicker effect between literal and figurative meaning, a semantic instability and indeterminacy.
By blue Ontario's shore,
As I mused of these warlike days and of peace return'd,
and the dead that return no more,
I listened to the Phantom by Ontario's shore,
I heard the voice arising demanding bards.
Underneath the lessons of things, spirits, Nature, governments, ownership,
I swear I perceive other lessons.
Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario's Shore, 1856
Lakeshore has a second component: one hundred one- or two-paragraph texts on the theme of lakeshore that accompany an exhibition of the actual photographs in the form of a PowerPoint Show set on a continuous loop to be exhibited on a computer screen.
Lakeshore's exhibition schedule is as follows: L'Hôtel Galerie d'Art, Caen, France, March 2003; Truck, Calgary, November 2004; Platform, Winnipeg, January 2005; Robert Birch Gallery, Toronto, May 2005. This project is ongoing.
Measurements: 81.28 x 76.2 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2005
Materials: oil on chromogenic print / dye coupler print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: The Last Lakeshore
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70812
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: A SLOW WAY TO GET RICH
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70793
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: CHURGIEN EN GREVE
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70794
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Betty Boop
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70795
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: The Last Vitrier
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70814
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Cache-misère
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70799
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Election night
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70800
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Green Kitchen
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70801
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Nouilleville
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70804
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Pleine lune
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70805
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Précedent sans suite
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70807
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: sans précédent sans # 590B54
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70808
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Water Supply
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70815
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Répétition
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70806
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: BRIDELIGHT
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70797
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Horta House
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70803
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Canard
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70798
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: STRENGTH THROUGH JOY
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70809
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: The Ajax dwellers
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70811
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: La Guardia
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70802
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: The Last Pony
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70813
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: Thanjavur
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70810
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA
Cache-misère: AB
Artist: John Armstrong
Work ID: 70796
Description: Cache-misère translates into English as 'band-aid solution,' and refers to a coat worn to hide shabby attire.
Cache-misère is the title of a series of colour photographs on which we paint images, text and swatches of colour. Our photographs and painted images record places, events and objects we come across in the course of our daily activities. The photographs are compositionally completed by the addition of painted elements that, to varying degrees, obscure the underlying picture. The painted images most often represent domestic bric-a-brac painted either from observation in the manner of a traditional still life or copied from illustrations. Our painted photographs are no longer seamless windows onto reality, but assume a new logic where any editorial narrative is complemented by the associative synergy found in abstract painting.
Measurements: 50.8 x 76.3 cm
Collection:
Date Made: 2007-2008
Materials: oil on chromagenic print
Virtual Collection: Original CCCA

