“Stephen Andrews’ new work tracks an idea from conception to realization. He has assembled drawings based on images culled from Google searches as the artist was looking to piece together a narrative using images from completely different sources for a new animation titled Cartoon. The animation is an adaptation of a car commercial and is a companion piece to the animation shown at Platform in 2005, The Quick and the Dead, which was based on footage of American soldiers in Iraq. These works, when shown with their component animation drawings, reveal time telescoped into the frames that constitute the manufacture of the minute in time. Andrews’ interest lies in unpacking the meanings of what has become the apex of popular visual culture. More time and money is invested in a 30-second advertising spot than in almost anything else. The commercial format is also the locus of all of our contradictions vis a vis the environment, class, unsustainable urban development, the fight for oil, and our unconditional love of the automobile. Ironically it has become the new landscape painting.
Stephen Andrews was born in 1956 in Sarnia, Ontario Canada. He has exhibited his work in Canada, the U.S., Brazil, Scotland, France, India and Japan. He is represented in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, as well as many private collections. His work is included in the 2007 Biennale de Montreal which opened May 10.
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