Intersection NYC VII

Provenance:
Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver

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Private Collection, Vancouver

Literature:
Grant Arnold, Daina Augaitis et al., Ian Wallace: At the Intersection of Painting and Photography, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2012, pages 177 and 181, four photo-based paintings entitled At Work 2008, which feature an Intersection NYC work, reproduced pages 271 - 275
Notes:
Ian Wallace is internationally recognized for his juxtapositions of monochrome painting and documentary photography. Wallace began documenting urban scenes in his photographic work in late 1969, influenced by the photoconceptual sensibility of that time, which saw the city as a source of resonant images derived from both living events and everyday objects. Since then, the forces of globalization have transformed the city in so many ways, in the mix of people and the transformation that continues to take place in their social order, and the way in which they experience the city and themselves. The subject of the street has recurred throughout Wallace's oeuvre, such as his New York series in 2001 and the LA series from 2002. He stated that "the image of the urban intersection and crosswalk remains a key theme in my work.....The street, and more precisely, the stage of the sidewalk on which the pedestrians are poised to cross, is both a metaphor for reality in general and the location of specific experiences of the modern city."

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The idea of intersection is echoed in the format of the work, which combines photography and painting - cool monochrome painted panels contrast with and intensify the photographic image in the centre, which focuses on the visual informational overload that is the urban experience. The image contains an awareness of the different potentialities of the viewer's and the artist's perception. Wallace considers the crowd, the traffic, the architecture and the signage as part of his artistic working material. In this cooly captured moment of everyday urban life, objects can take on a resonance beyond their normal use - such as the black form of the garbage can, which could be seen as a Duchampian readymade sculptural object, and the sign "Don't Block the Box / Fine + 2 Points," a road sign with a functional purpose, but also an enigmatic text message open to interpretation. The signs, insignias and ads of well-known brands such as Dior and Nike bombard the passersby, symbols of our consumer society. Wallace is aware of the spatial elements of the composition - the lines of roads and crosswalks and the angles they form, and the vertical monuments of architecture. Under, over and through this grid the crowd flows, open to change at the place of the intersection - a place of choices in direction and random encounters amid the erratic ballet of the crowd.

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Wallace's work is informed by his interest in art history, literature and philosophy. By continuing to include elements of abstract monochrome painting, he acts as a bridge between the post-war modernists of the 1950s and 1960s and the contemporary artists who question the limits of ideological imagery. Regarding his urban street works, Wallace stated, "It remains my feeling that these images established a presence in art, for the cities, the people I pictured, and ultimately for myself as an artist." Intersection NYC VII is an outstanding example of this body of work, a potent observation of contemporary urban culture.