In Search of Desire: Dead Meat and The Ratspectacla
Program, P.2044
- Identifier
- P.2044
- Type
- Artist talks;Openings;Solo exhibitions
- Category
- Visual Arts
- Date
- January 9 – 31, 2009
- Description
- Open Space presents screenings by Clark Ferguson, a Saskatoon based artist who fuses cinematic histories—particularly horror and sci-fi genres—to examine issues of gender, sexuality and common existential questions in eccentric narratives. In his recent work Dead Meat, a young man travels to the desert seeking an epiphany. Ferguson’s protagonist wanders through a shape-shifting terrain of miniatures and low-fi blue screens, implicating the spectator in a DIY spirit quest played out in a wilderness of illusion.Two recent works, Dead Meat and The Ratspectacla open January 9 and continue to January 31. The Ratspectacla is the type of ‘spectacle’ that capitalizes on society’s generalized conceptions of the morbid and unknown to create anticipatory and visceral anxiety. Ferguson toys with the spectator. Whether it is the horror genre, the freak-show, or just the promise of abnormalities, Ferguson “elongates” suspense to the point of absurdity. Is the narrative’s climax enhanced by the spectator’s individually performed ‘play-terror’ or is it the cathartic release of relieved disappointment?Opening and artist talk January 9