The big box mall is an institution in control of its access and activity. Marshall McLuhan talks about buildings as self-contained communication systems in which the very architecture is a dynamic medium that conveys the message of a high demand for social order under the hierarchy of a supreme power (in this case, corporations) He says that ‘architecture shapes and rearranges the patterns of human association and community.’ How does something as imposing as a big box mall or the monolithic hydro towers with their river of current and chaos of elegant lines fall so beneath our notice as to become almost invisible? Institutions operate to control what we are able to see. To view a building as a medium enables us to see it’s social function.

My interest in cultural landscape began close to home, investigating the suburban sprawl around Toronto Into the 905:The View From the Car 2002-05. I am drawn to the places where there is no context for paying attention. The experience involves stepping outside of social expectation and conditioned response in order to be present. These images are intended to express a deeper meaning than the mere recording of appearances: the underlying political topology that is normally overlooked or misunderstood.

High Tech Road was exhibited at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, 2007; The Cameron House, Toronto 2009; and will be shown at the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre September 12 – October 31, 2009.

20 paintings, oil on wood, 16” x 16”

Images