Art Metropole

#10992

With Alec in Mind,

Artist

J.J. Kegen McFadden

Date

2012

Publisher

As We Try And Sleep

Format

Artists' Books

ISBN

978-0-9783946-5-3

Size

11.5 × 18 × 0.5 cm

Length

102 

Description

With Alec in Mind, is a limited edition artistbook by J.J. Kegan McFadden published by As We Try & Sleep Press on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (19 April – 09 June, 2012). As a multi-venue project, With Alec in Mind, also included off-site components exhibited at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre and La Maison des artistes visuels francophones . Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art published a compendium text as the literary feature in their magazine, Prefix Photo (issue 25, vol. 13 #1, May 2012).

In addition to archival photographs, imagery of artifacts from the estate, and an inserted postcard of the crime scene at current day, this book contains reproductions of artwork by: K.J. (Jack) Butler, Kelly Clark, Sarah Crawley, Shane ‘Mini’ Davis, Helene E. Dyck, William Eakin, Jeff Funnell, Allan Geske, Larry Glawson, John Gurdebeke, Patti Johnson, Laura Letinsky, Arnold Saper, and Diana Thorneycroft.

Description of Artist:

J.J. Kegan McFadden is a Winnipeg-based artist, curator, and writer. His work, in exhibition and print form, often questions how memory functions in society. With Alec in Mind, was a multi-facetted curatorial project incorporating storytelling as a methodology to consider the 1995 murder of Alec by his grandson that took place in rural Manitoba. Using nearly 100 works of art in the collection of the Manitoba Art Bank by more than fifty artists, Kegan juxtaposed drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics, and sculpture with material from Alec’s estate as well as an audio walking guide to attempt a creative analysis of the traumatic event.

Description of Press:

Established in 2002, As We Try & Sleep Press explores the overlapping points between the literary and visual arts on a project basis. Previous publications range from poetry chapbooks to comic books, flipbooks, broadsheets, photo albums, travelogues, serial mail outs, and children’s tales. To date, As We Try & Sleep Press has released publications by: Crystal Wilkes, Kegan McFadden, Michel Saint Hilaire, Doug Melnyk, Larry Glawson, butch of wpg., C. Graham Asmundson, Dave Grywinski, Jeanne Randolph, Roewan Crowe, Kevin Kelly, Kristian Enright, Denis Lessard, and Michell Elrick. Often collaborating with other organizations to produce editions as part of larger contexts, As We Try & Sleep has piggy-backed off of: The Annex (unplugged), aceartinc., PLATFORM, Gallery 1C03, The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Oseredok, and Paul Petro Contemporary Art.

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