REDUCED CURRICULUM VITAE
Andrew Forster
4624 de l'Esplanade , Montréal, Québec, Canada H2T 2Y5
(514)
849 3838
electronic mail:
a f (a) r e l u c t a n t. c a
Education:
-York University, Toronto (1978-79)
-Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (1979-82)
-Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, Netherlands (1984-85)
Exhibitions: (individual; selected)
-MOAT; Space, London, 2005
-Interiors
(photo works), Platform, Winnipeg; 2004
-The Wanderings of Alexander, SOX, Berlin (with Suzie Major);
2003
-The Wanderings of Alexander, Eye Level Gallery, Halifax; 2002
-Take
Off, Shore Gallery, Amsterdam (with David Miller) 2001
-to begin with: a river and a tree, AKA, Saskatoon; 1999
-Taxi, a room under the stairs, Montreal, 1998
-d'ici on peut voir les nuages dans le ciel, Articule, Montreal,
1996
-Say This I, Neutral Ground, Regina; OO Gallery, Halifax;1994
-My Favourite Things, Or Gallery, Vancouver; 1993 (pamphlet)
-de mémoire, Galerie Burning, Montréal; 1991
(artist's book)
-sans le moindre effort, La Chambre Blanche, Québec;
1991
-Museum Stories, The Power Plant, Toronto; 1988 (catalogue)
Exhibitions (group)
-radical; vaguely; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2003
-PUSH! (with Shauna Beharry, David Miller, Isabelle Bernier, PierreGiner)
Galerie B312, Montreal, 2003
-Laboratoires: Architecture-Ground Zero; Centre Canadien d'architecture (CCA),
Montréal (with Atelier Big City) 2002
-Hôpital; Hôpital Belchasse/Galerie Articule, Montreal; 2001
-Photography by Artists; Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto, 2001
-A Theatre of Presence (M. Yan-Miller; I. Bernier; M. Fernandes;
A. Forster) (Beaverbrook Art Gal. Fredericton, 1999) (catalogue)
-Moving & Storage: (I. Carr-Harris, G. MacGregor,
M. Miller, I. Standish, V. Greenwood); Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto; 1999
-Les Iconoclastes, Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur, Montreal; 1997
Performance:
-Cinéma; SAT (Société des arts technologique), Montreal, October,
2004
-3 performances (with Michael Fernandes); 'Couture of Contemporaneity'
/ Spasm festival, Saskatoon, June, 2004
-FLEX ; lignting intervention; Société des arts technologiques,
Montreal, November, 2003
-En masse (with Suzanne Miller); choreography for 75 people; Tangente,
Montreal, April 2003
-Man from the Islands (with Michael Fernandes); Beaverbrook Art
Gallery, Fredericton, 1999
-Operator & Agent (with Michael Fernandes); La Chambre Blanche,
Quebec; April 1998
-Samuel Beckett / That Time;
with Michael Fernandes; Centre interculturel Strathearn, Montreal, September
1996; Saint Mary's University Art Gallery ,
Halifax, ; University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge,
1997; Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, 1997
Publications:
-Contemporaneities, text for 'Couture of Contemporaneity' / SPASM
festival, Sakatoon, 2004(catalogue, essay)
-Un-work: David Miller's Museum Blackflash Vol.20.2 / 2003 (article)
-Installation at Endgame; for A Theatre of Presence; Beaverbrook
Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB, 1999, 24pp (catalogue, essay)
-Telling
Histories; for Gwen MacGreggor: Fernie's Curse; Southern Alberta
Art Gallery, 1997-98 (catalogue essay)
-Doug Fick: The Forest Primeval, New and Improved; Parachute, spring
1997 (review)
-Toby
MacLennan: How Will I Know I'm Here;
Burning Editions, 1993, 78pp (exhibition catalogue)
-Need
Me Like I Need You / Ron Huebner; Galerie Burning, 1993, 32pp (exhibition
catalogue)
-Sensible / Michael Fernandes; Articule/Burning Editions, 1992,
48pp (exhibition catalogue)
Curatorial
Projects:
-PUSH! (with Shauna Beharry, David Miller, Isabelle Bernier, PierreGiner) Galerie B312, Montreal, 2003
-Up & Coming! (part 2)(telephone project / event; Saw Gallery,
Ottawa, 2001 / Galerie Articule, Montreal,
1999/2000)
-A Theatre of Presence (Mindy Yan-Miller; Isabelle Bernier; Michael
Fernandes; Andrew Forster) (Beaverbrook Art Gal. Fredericton, 1999)
-Toby MacLennan: How Will I Know I'm Here (Galerie Articule, Montreal,
1994)
-Ron Huebner: Need Me Like I Need You (Galerie Burning, Montreal; 1993)
-Michael Fernandes: Sensible (Galerie Articule, Montreal; 1992)
Reviews:
-Moving & Storage, Fuse Magazine, spring 2000
-Moving & Storage,
Parachute, fall 1999
-Les Iconoclastes: Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur,
Le Devoir, Montreal, December 14, 1997
-Light in the Head, review
by Cathy Courtney, Art Monthly, London, issue #193, February 1996
-Artist's Book Beat (book review) The Print Collector's Newsletter, March-April
1996
-Artist Book Reviews, Umbrella Vol. 19, #1, May 1996
-Disasters and Self-perception by Greg Beaty, Regina Leader-Post,
April 18, 1994 -Xénophobie, Romantisme, Agriculture by Sylvie
Fortin, Bulletin 20, La Chambre Blanche, 1994
-P. Lacerte et A. Forster, stratégies conceptuelles by Claire
Gravel, Le Devoir, April 13, 1991
-At Home with Repetition by Gordon
Lebredt, C Magazine, spring 1990
-Museum Stories, The Power Plant, Toronto by Martin von Mirbach,
Parachute, spring 1989
artistic practice
My early work used strategies of forgery, falsification and other forms of deception to explore the grounds of identity and the creation of value within the art world. These ironic strategies included a retrospective exhibition and catalogue with fake work and biographical data, the outright copying of works by well known artists (exhibited under my name) and explorations of artworks whose substance had been altered after the fact (a slashed Rembrandt; an abstract painting by Malevitch to which the artist subsequently representational elements). A number of these works were gathered in an exhibition entitled Museum Stories (works 1982-1988) at the Power Plant, Toronto in 1989.
More recent work abandons ironic strategies and the exploration of the mechanisms of the art world in favour of a more poetic approach to the searching out of the grounds of identity and expression. Work since 1989 involves installation or site-specific work which evolves slowly from exhibition to exhibition, improvised as part of the exhibition process. The work uses wall sized photographic blowups, audio elements, slide projection, video and various sculptural elements. A series of exhibitions (water flowing effortlessly, de mémoire, My Favourite Things, We Can See the Clouds in the Sky and Say This I) represent a peripatetic exploration of notions of experience, of place , of memory and nostalgia, of moments of epiphany and of tragedy. Alongside this, there seems to be a consistent preoccupation with exploring the nature and limits of expression.
Performance work began with a production of Beckett's That Time, a piece for recorded voice and one performer in 1997 and has continued with several collaborative and solo pieces.
Writing and photography have always been at the centre of my practice though rarely manifested as such except occasionally in artist's books. These books are generally offset printed. Some are books purely of images, others incorporate lengthy texts juxtaposed with images. The most recent bookwork is FACING co-published by Burning Books, Montreal and Nexus Press, Atlanta in 2001. It is a 144 page book of photographic portraits of people looking at themselves in the mirror. Another recent photographic work is a series of large colour pictures called Interiors, taken'out of focus' of people in museum interiors.
My interest in collaborative working structures has given rise to the Bastard Project, a series of collaborative installations, performance and other projects aimed at creating a kind of virtual company or laboratory , now called PUSH, in which a coherent but changing group of artists can work together both at a distance and insitu on a series of rigorously conceived projects. A kind of mobile, dispersed collective with a coherent artistic direction and a polemic personality.
© 1999-2006 andrew forster (all rights reserved)
