{"id":7199,"date":"2012-01-30T11:32:42","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T16:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=7199"},"modified":"2012-04-08T10:07:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T14:07:35","slug":"douglas-couplandwelcome-to-the-twenty-first-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artoronto.ca\/?p=7199","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Coupland:Welcome to the Twenty-First Century"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Douglas Coupland, C Thomson, Pine Experiment<\/p>\n

January 26 – April 7, 2012<\/strong>
\nOpening: Thursday, January 26, 6-8 p.m.
\nDANIEL FARIA GALLERY<\/strong>
\n188 St Helens Avenue
\nToronto ON M6H 4A1
\nT: 416.538.1880
\nwww.danielfariagallery.com
\nHours: Tues-Fri 11-6, \u00a0Sat 10-6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Daniel Faria Gallery is pleased to present \u201c Welcome to the Twenty-First Century\u201d, <\/span>an exhibition of new work by Douglas Coupland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to explore how it feels to be inside the 21st\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>century brain as opposed to <\/span>the 20th\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>century brain,\u201d says Coupland of his new show, one that examines how art <\/span>and technology can decode the spirit of our age. Coupland\u2019s fusion of paint with contemporary codes, vector graphics and text-based slogans challenge us to investigate how technology has advanced our lives while leaving us feeling empty. Simultaneously poignant and irreverent, Coupland\u2019s work in this show meditates on the human condition and the natural world on many levels.<\/p>\n

The work analyses sensations created by information technology that are nearly universal in the western mind. At the same time it discusses our yearnings that are eternal to all of humanity, couched in the form of imprecations and pieties addressed to people living at this century\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n

In the past two years, QR barcodes have become a seductive way of obtaining information instantly with a single touch of our Smartphones, and completely eliminating the task of searching the Internet for more information about a product or service. As a commentary on this new technological phenomenon,<\/p>\n

Coupland presents us with large scale elegantly painted QR barcodes that function when scanned by a mobile device. While the viewer may anticipate a direct link to a website, statements about life and death created by Coupland emerge instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI began writing messages I would send to a person who died just before I was born, or to a person who will be born right after I die. How do you compress thoughts about life on earth into 250 ASCII characters? Ultimately they morphed into poems and pieties. They draw our attention to the past, the present and the future we may face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known for his cheeky yet eloquent diction, the text promises both humor and melancholy, presenting the possibility to slowdown even as the viewer is being transported to virtual life. Each of Coupland\u2019s paintings, sculptures and graphics proudly invite viewers to launch themselves into the 21st\u00a0 C<\/span><\/span>entury, for better or <\/span>worse.<\/p>\n

Douglas Coupland lives and works in Vancouver. He is a graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, as well as the Hokkaido College of Art and Design in Sapporo, Japan and the Instituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Italy. Coupland\u2019s work has been exhibited in numerous group shows internationally, most recently at the ART LABOR gallery in Shanghai, China as part of By Sea, Land and Air, We <\/span>Prosper: New Art From Vancouver, Canada.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 26 – April 7, 2012<\/strong>
\nOpening: Thursday, January 26, 6-8 p.m.<\/p>\n

DANIEL FARIA GALLERY<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to explore how it feels to be inside the 21st century brain as opposed to the 20th century brain,\u201d says Coupland <\/p>\n

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