Bruce Pashak
At the source of Vancouver artist Bruce Pashak's work rest the basic questions of how we know things: a) how we construct knowledge within specific contexts that are inherently changeable by nature; and, b) how we transfer that knowledge from generation to generation via communication mediums such as art, technology, etc.
All knowledge paradigms establish a set of rules that determine value according to a specific context. What is valued in one system may not be valued in another and, further, any given system is vulnerable to changes and influences from external systems that permeate its boundaries.
Pashak's art places assumable knowable subjects (the human body, various animals, creatures, insects etc.) into altered contexts that make us question how we know the subject and to what extent we value it.
Subjective meaning has been established through historical constructs
(contexts) that has been transferred through generations. Subjective meaning therefore, is linked to its history and altered by current paradigm shifts (contexts that are influenced by other contexts).
Pashak's artwork invites the audience to question what is known and, more specifically, how we know something and according to whom and what context.
Where Are You From (ed. of 3)
72 in x 48 in
3-D lenticular process from painted/drawn image mounted into a custom-built light box
The 3-D lenticular process is a new form of art-making that allows the viewer to experience an image in 3-D without the aid of 3-D glasses. The process is a complex one that involves multi-layered printing procedures. The use of lenticular printing in my latest series adds another layer to this process that further broadens the experience for the viewer. It is the combination of 3-D lenticular processes with my painted/drawn images (the union of studio practice with technology) that challenges our perceptions of art and its effect on culture. It is this unique union that gives this series its strength and integrity.
Lenticular printing is a technology used to produce images with an illusion of depth. It is a multi-step process consisting of creating a lenticular art form from at least two images (in my work, there are three images) and combining it with a “lenticularcorto” lens. Once the various images are collected, they are flattened into individual, different frame files and then digitally combined into a single final file in a process called “interlacing”. The interlaced image is printed directly to the back of the lens. The resulting effect is a 3-D image visible to the naked eye.
'Where Are You From' depicts a woman of colour in profile gazing optimistically into an environment composed of swirling meteoric disks, birds and lizards. Floating in front of her is the text, “WHERE ARE YOU FROM” juxtaposed ominously deep into the viewer’s space.
The optimistic gaze together with the futuristic ground implies a sense of journey that is put into jeopardy by firstly, the prescribed meaning of the stark, white text and secondly, the historical garb worn by the woman.
The use of the text “WHERE ARE YOU FROM” is taken from the phrase uttered by serial killer Mark Stroman before shooting his victims in Texas post the 9/11 disaster. Stroman took it upon himself to “do the duty of his country” by avenging the twin tower catastrophe with the deaths of innocent victims he deemed to be responsible because of their assumed Muslim beliefs and racial profile.
The historical outfit worn by the sitter is that of a domestic bringing to light the history of repression created by racial barriers in North American society.
The statement “WHERE ARE YOU FROM” in this context, becomes loaded and fuels the flames of racial tensions and attitudes that prevail in America today.
Bird of Paradise (ed. of 3)
59 in x 46 in
3-D lenticular process from painted/drawn image mounted into a custom-built light box
The 3-D lenticular process is a new form of art-making that allows the viewer to experience an image in 3-D without the aid of 3-D glasses. The process is a complex one that involves multi-layered printing procedures. The use of lenticular printing in my latest series adds another layer to this process that further broadens the experience for the viewer. It is the combination of 3-D lenticular processes with my painted/drawn images (the union of studio practice with technology) that challenges our perceptions of art and its effect on culture. It is this unique union that gives this series its strength and integrity.
Lenticular printing is a technology used to produce images with an illusion of depth. It is a multi-step process consisting of creating a lenticular art form from at least two images (in my work, there are three images) and combining it with a “lenticularcorto” lens. Once the various images are collected, they are flattened into individual, different frame files and then digitally combined into a single final file in a process called “interlacing”. The interlaced image is printed directly to the back of the lens. The resulting effect is a 3-D image visible to the naked eye.
“Bird of Paradise”, depicts a dynamic hummingbird hovering over a multi-coloured surface containing layers of various textual fonts and sizes. Floating delicately in front of the bird and surface text are popish coloured bubbles. From the dominant text “EFFUSIVENESS” that circles the hummingbird in a halo-like light to the ephemeral bubbles that float randomly in the foreground; the elements in this work take on a quality of illusiveness. They portend a fragile Utopian state that is both fleeting and ethereal. What seems euphoric and blissful is also unattainable, like grasping bubbles, like the fractured moment of perceiving a hovering hummingbird; we are often deeply challenged on the road to the unattainable realm of desire.
Dreaming in German (detail)
90 in x 54 in
oil and graphite on prepared canvas
Dreaming in German
90 in x 54 in
oil and graphite on prepared canvas
Kokura
60.75 in x 39.5 in
graphite, mixed media on board
Stop
61 in x 44 in
graphite & mixed media on canvas
Nude Drawing (From the Back)
42 in x 24 in
graphite on paper
Why Contemplate
24 in x 24 in
mixed media on board
On Becoming You
77 in x 53 in
mixed media on canvas
Moksha (triptych)
20 in x 60 in
oil & acrylic on canvas
Saturday, Sunday
36 in x 48 in
oil & acrylic on prepared canvas
