September 9 – December 10, 2011
Opening:Friday, September 9, 8-10pm.
YYZ Artists’ Outlet
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 140
T: 416-598-4546
yyzartistsoutlet.org
yyzbooks.com
Hours: Tues – Sat 11 a.m. to 5 p.m
Foolproof Four: Superheroes of the Forest Floor is an installation of four large ceramic sculptures of mushrooms, each sitting on its own plinth. On the walls are four different posters of blank, speech bubble templates: downloadable, freeware graphic tools for comic book designers. Around the base of each mushroom and on the floor are over 8000 custom-made buttons. There are three sets of buttons. One illustrates superhero logos for each of the mushrooms and another features empty speech bubbles in four different styles taken from comic book templates. The third set suggests possible «superpowers» of the Four with terms taken from scientific descriptions of the life-cycle of mushrooms: Autodeliquescence, Telemorph, Spore Liberation and Cytoplasmic Fusion. Perhaps Shaggy Mane with its curious character of autodeliquescence (self-digestion) is a force to be reckoned with. And surely they have the united power of spore liberation. The buttons themselves look like mushrooms multiplying and popping up from the floor, spreading and intermingling with the buttons of the other mushrooms. Viewers are invited to take a button, allowing the project to travel spore-like outside of the gallery to other locations.
ANNIE DUNNING received an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Mount Allison University and a MFA from the University of Guelph. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and abroad in Japan, Germany and the United States. Dunning’s practice includes collaborative projects, teaching, artist residencies and lectures and has been funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.