Tatjana Pieters, Ghent
Derek Sullivan
For Art-o-rama 2023 Tatjana Pieters proposes new and recent work on paper by Toronto-based artist Derek Sullivan.
A central concern of Derek Sullivan’s work is that books—through the act of reading, translation, and interpretation—are malleable framing devices which allow one to float or consider a set of ideas, to momentarily freeze a subject in flux. The works are presented on a zig-zag wall display structure which builds upon previous installations merging the architecture of a building/gallery with the architecture of the book, a framework that makes one more conscious of looking/reading as a fully embodied act.
The structure is used to display new and recent works on paper, in the form of pages from potential print publications. These are developed as a consequence of research conducted whilst walking: as a way to catalyze notes, experience, observations. Between July 2021 and June 2022 he conducted research into an abandoned Richard Serra in the outskirts of Toronto (CA) and its proximity to the suburb he grew up. The work explores how the Serra might be utilized as an “orienting device” to examine a locus of issues: colonial appropriation of land, agricultural use, property development, tactics of preservation, trespassing, community use, imported artistry, alongside my own presence and reflections on his experience of growing up gay in the suburbs of Toronto (CA) in the 1990s.
Works on paper for Art-o-Rama includes new and recent works developed from the Serra-suburbs research, as well as new works developed through recordings /reflection on other parallel walking research conducted during the last few years in Toronto (CA).
