JEFF&GORDON / Mikiki
JEFF&GORDON (LA), and Mikiki (ON/NL) use their work to look at how culturally stagnant aspirations of individual success have led to personal exasperation and loss, and the large scale failure of community. In the face of the seeming impossibility of a richer fuller life for all, the dream of social mobility has been immobilized.
Read the exhibition essay by Jason Penney.
Artist talks + Opening reception: September 16th at 7pm
JEFF&GORDON – Play Against
On an elite squash court and desolate foreclosed properties in idyllic California, artists JEFF&GORDON explore the culture of “winner take all.” Adopting the metaphor of sport culture the artists examine the deeply ingrained values and belief systems within society at large that fosters economic inequality. Often disarmingly humorous view, this work consists of large scale video projection and video on monitor.
JEFF&GORDON is the collaboration of Los Angeles area artists Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko. In their video and performance based work, the artists examine the social customs and cultural idioms that are so much a part of the “air we breathe” that we often ignore how they shape our lives, for better or worse. Together they have exhibited at such venues as the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, the UC Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2012 they were awarded the Investing in Artists grant by the Center for Cultural Innovation.
Mikiki – Cloud Ascension
Cloud Ascension is a community-driven, collaborative performance in which a political march of unclear motivation takes place on the South Side Hills in St. John’s. Engaging the events surrounding the death of a working-class St. John’s teenager, the city’s natural and industrial landscape and sampled references from the history of performance and relational art, Cloud Ascension seeks to create a curious emotional mood that invites the participants and audience to reflect on community and individual relationships to home and agency. Mikiki will also showcase some past ephemera and projects in the Rogue Gallery at Eastern Edge throughout the exhibition.
Mikiki is a queer video and performance artist from Newfoundland. They attended NSCAD and Concordia before returning to St. John’s to work as Programming Coordinator at Eastern Edge Gallery. They later moved to Calgary to work as the Director of TRUCK Gallery. Their work has been presented throughout Canada in self-produced interventions, artist-run centres and public galleries. They abandoned arts administration in 2003. Mikiki has since worked as a Sexuality Educator in Calgary’s public schools, a Bathhouse Attendant in Saskatoon, Drag Queen Karaoke Hostess in St. John’s, all informing their work in Gay Men’s Health. This work brought Mikiki to Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto where they now coordinate a Homeless Outreach team and provide HIV Testing.
