SCENES FROM SUBURBIA: DENNIS EKSTEDT, ARNI HARALDSSON, SUSAN DOBSON

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1 SCENES FROM SUBURBIA: DENNIS EKSTEDT, ARNI HARALDSSON, SUSAN DOBSON John Toohey This exhibition examines the ways contemporary Canadian artists have considered the suburb, a zone defined by Statistics Canada as being regions of low density housing outside the central business district but within the metropolitan area. 1 Most Canadians either live in or have come from the suburbs and as an image of contemporary Canada, the suburb has replaced the natural landscape for many artists. This exhibition has a linear construction, beginning with works that view the suburb from a distance and steadily moving in, through the streets and into the houses to end up in the most intimate corners of bedrooms. Dennis Ekstedt (b. 1961) views the suburb from a distance, often reducing it to a pattern of lights. Arni Haraldsson (b. 1958) regards the suburban landscape from a similarly detached point of view, though he moves closer, making each building identifiable. Susan Dobson (b. 1955) literally goes indoors to focus on the most private spaces of the suburban home. What emerges through a consideration of these works is a more complex and fractious debate than we recognize in the popular image of the suburb. Frequently depicted as a place typified by its monotonous architecture and comparable lifestyle, as we move in closely the suburb also becomes the inhabitant s personal territory, where individual identity is distinguished by small gestures such as the choice of wall paper. It is what Wes LaFortune reviewing Dobson s series has described as a noble, or sad, effort to break free of places that trap their creative souls inside. 2

Dennis Ekstedt House oil on wood 75 x 90 cm 2005 http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagepref=en&url=/c/images/big/e/ekstedt/eks033.

2 Dennis Ekstedt House oil on wood 75 x 90 cm ght=dennis+ekstedt&mkey=60013&link_id=9404 For Dennis Ekstedt the suburb is a life form, sometimes seen as a vast electrical or amoebic grid. I am interested, Ekstedt writes in his artist s statement for Saatchi Galleries, in how an illuminated cityscape can resemble a luminous organism, with electric light acting as a kind of nervous system or pulse a manifestation of human presence. I want to represent the moment of our perception of electric light and its effects (shadows, silhouettes, reflection) as a sublime moment, as a kind of phenomenon. For me,

3 urban spaces provoke a particular kind of melancholy - conflicting feelings of intimacy and distance, inclusion and exclusion. 3 The distance Ekstedt maintains prevents the viewer from making any absolute judgements. With House for example, it would be easy to assume that an image of a residence viewed through curtains at night contained some voyeuristic element, particularly if we imagine that the amorphous shapes indoors represent people, but the effect he produces is more mysterious. The house appears to be perched on a hill, isolated from and overlooking the maze of city lights below, its details obscured to the viewer. We can barely guess at what goes on inside. Arni Haraldsson A Drive Through the Suburbs of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam Video, 18 minutes

4 Arni Haraldsson argues the city is the essential concern for landscape photographers. A Drive Through the Suburbs of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam is part of a larger project documenting urban development outside of Vancouver. Like Ekstedt he regards the city as a living organism though he is more concerned with recording its birth and growth. In making the video, Haraldsson was struck by the predominantly chivalrous, even militaristic allusions in the names of the suburbs. 4 References to Georgian and Victorian grandeur in names such as Citadel Heights and Canterbury Place were also reflected in the architecture, which aspired to present a façade of the English country house. Here we have a large duplex under construction. Its size, the fact it appears to be on a hill and the forest behind indicate an expensive property but there is also a sense that when finished it will not be too different in appearance from its neighbour. Is the appearance of wealth and comfort as superficial as the gentrified British allusions in the names of the suburbs?

Arni Haraldsson Citadel Heights, Port Coquitlam, BC C Print 41x49 in. 1991 http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagepref=en&url=/c/images/big/h/haraldss/hara017.

5 Arni Haraldsson Citadel Heights, Port Coquitlam, BC C Print 41x49 in cright=arni+haraldsson&mkey=16945&link_id=1837 The caterpillar tracks and upturned earth indicate a site about to be transformed into a new housing estate. The raised pad for a house has already been marked out. Behind it we see a line of already built houses. On close inspection they appear to be large but uniform in design. If Haraldsson wanted to give a sense of the arid blandness of outer suburban estates he has succeeded. Though proper construction has not yet begun we can assume the houses that will eventually materialize will look no different to those already built.

Susan Dobson Open House Series Lightjet print (C-print from digital file) 76.2x101.6 cm 2002 2005 http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?

6 Susan Dobson Open House Series Lightjet print (C-print from digital file) 76.2x101.6 cm ies&artist=dobson,+susan&link_id=10971 Open House is series of photographs Susan Dobson took of the interiors of a housing estate between 2002 and 2005, documenting the personal details that the residents saw as their stamp of individuality in a tract development where every house was built identically. The project involved collaboration with the residents, which raises questions as to the factual accuracy of the images; how much they reflect actual conditions and how much the aspirations of the inhabitants, who could have rearranged their rooms to suit

7 the photographer. Dobson however was not after essential truths so much as expressions of personal identity. If the bedding in this scene was rearranged so that the blue quilt mirrored the water in the wallpaper and the picture to represent a stream it is a deception the occupant could argue depicts his or her dream to escape the confines of suburbia and return to nature, hence it is a more truthful representation of inner life than an unadulterated scene gives. Susan Dobson Open House Series lightjet print, 76.2x101.6cm ight=susan+dobson&mkey=63040&link_id=10971

8 A near bare room with a bed, an outfit on a tailor s dummy that hovers like a ghost and a slightly askew floor lamp; the scene suffused with the pale light coming through the Venetian blinds. At first glance it may be a study in minimalist interior design but the black marks on the wall are pieces of duct tape, the bedding is polyester and the window frame is made from cheap aluminium. The occupant appears to have more self-respect than money. There is a sense that despite the downmarket appearance the occupant wants clean order to the room.

9 NOTES 1 Martin Turcotte, The City/Suburb Contrast? How Can We Measure It? Life in metropolitan areas, accessed December 11, Wes LaFortune, Super Snooper: Photographer Susan Dobson Peeks into Private Spaces, Fast Forward Weekly (January 13, 2005) accessed December 10, Dennis Ekstedt, Artist s statement, Saatchi Online, accessed September 13, Arni Haraldsson, Notes on Contemporary Architecture and Landscape, Arni Haraldsson: Projects on Vancouver Architecture and Landscape (North Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, 1995).

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY Dobson, Susan. Artist s statement. Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Accessed December 10, Ekstedt, Dennis. Artist s statement. Saatchi Online. Accessed December 10, Enright, Robert. Anxious Desires: The Photography of Susan Dobson. Border Crossings 30:3 (September 2011): LaFortune, Wes. Super Snooper: Photographer Susan Dobson Peeks into Private Spaces. Fast Forward Weekly. January 13, Accessed December 10, Haraldsson, Arni. Notes on Contemporary Architecture and Landscape. Arni Haraldsson: Projects on Vancouver Architecture and Landscape. North Vancouver: Presentation House Gallery, Haraldsson, Arni. So, To Speak. Ed. J-P. Gilbert, Sylvie Gilbert, and Lesley Johnston. Montréal: Artextes Editions, Turcotte, M. The City/Suburb Contrast: How Can We Measure It? Life in Metropolitan Areas. Accessed December 11,

Artist: Peter Harris. Statement:

Artist: Peter Harris. Statement: Artist: Peter Harris Statement: My work takes as its starting point the urban landscape that I see daily - the most interesting to the most banal architecture in the city;; empty pockets in the built environment;;