Times of Reflection

press release

Times of Reflection

Robert Kananaj

Sculpture, installation and more

30 April, 2022 - 30 July, 2022

PRESS RELEASE - for immediate release

Over the past two years, the ongoing pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, encouraged us at RKG to reconsider much that had been taken for granted.  After ten years' continuous work, the forced closure of public spaces starting in 2020 became an invitation to Robert Kananaj the artist to step into his own practice of sculpture and installations with two consecutive exhibitions, "Local Light",  and the current "Times of Reflection".  The artist who opened the gallery in service of other artists in the community and abroad, now himself becomes part of the gallery's journey.

Since its inception in 2011, the gallery has been reflecting on art, community, and the community of art. Robert, an artist looking for studio space in those less threatening times, felt a call to serve the community as a gallerist, to reflect the pulse of energy generated in the art scene locally and beyond; and so RKG was born.

Before the pandemic galleries could emphasize and highlight the chosen work of a few select artists in spaces given in service to that mission. Nowadays that is a luxurious model, and we have seen this with galleries and art institutions all over the city.   

The ongoing “Social Commentary Project” directs attention to artworks by unknown artists neighboured with each other, shoulder to shoulder as are so many city  inhabitants, individuals, buildings, condos and subways: art imitating city life. More than eight hundred pieces of all kinds occupy the entrance of the gallery, unknown artworks configured as an ever-changing installation in the manner of a garage sale. Each one of these pieces as it comes, unique as it is, not exceptional yet carrying the maker's particular affinity, rests here before continuing on its yet unknown journey.

There is something profound about creating an interactive project that has its own merit, regardless of any individual piece or person involved. This "no status" project of unknowns lures passersby to approach and browse, open to being adopted by an orphan piece.

“Globe in Watch” suspended from the ceiling in the midst of Social Commentary Project, an eight-foot satellite dish projects from its centre a ten-foot wire mesh roll cocooning a seven-inch pendant office globe dangling at waist level and beaming light down onto an empty medication bottle lying on the floor.

"Times of Reflection” is a sculpture made of mirror and a row of ten fuel containers. From the nozzle of the container closest to the mirror, a white rope emerges, extending along the floor, brushing  past installations the length of the gallery and arriving at the base of a cello. An old damaged cello with its face sealed with plaster, "Mute Cello" substitutes for a soundtrack of the show.

“The Interior Landscape” is an artist's palette as the head on a mirrored body.

“One More Box” An unopened 4 in x 4 in x 1 in box “yet to become an open thought”, is placed at the tip as the head of a towering ten-foot human-like figure built of similar but open cardboard boxes, randomly placed one upon the other in no particular order, acting as individual’s revealed thoughts.

“Tribute to Ukrainian Flag” - When the war in Ukraine started, I responded with an

11 ft x 23 ft wall installation in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.  At the bottom of the flag sitting side by side along the floor, twenty-four office globes wrapped in yellow plastic, symbolize global solidarity in support of Ukraine. Above these globes, the sky is mad up of alto-relief twirls of blue strapping.

To the side leans the wooden shaft of an old farm implement rolling a flattened globe like a hoop, symbol of these uncertain times.

“The Cooking Pot Society” installation is comprised of many pots collected during a two-year period, which were previously used by families or individuals. The idea connects the pot and individuals or members of households, as in society. The outbreak of war in Ukraine makes it feel like a Cooking Pot Society.

“Braid of Thought” and “Memory is Deaf, Memory is Blind” are two memory-related sculptures. Memory outlives our fragility. To show that side of memory I chose plaster as material, to identify with impermanence but rigid in unalterable state; as it sets it is fragile. But as long as memory lives in us it doesn't listen or see, not altering to any other thing; it is deaf and it is blind. It is brought as colourless, white, as a ghostly influencer and presence in one's life, and I relate the subject rendered in plaster to classical sculpture. As the memory is formed, so is the sculpture, and lives in unaltered state as we live. The difference is that the sculpture depends on different individuals' care, while memory is the property of, and under the care of, a particular individual. The sculpture in this case is the property of everyone, a metaphor of what a lasting memory in society is, and its fragile state.

“Tribute to Building” - I have always  been fond of building and still am fascinated by it. I have realized sculptural buildings only. Using reclaimed building material, mainly wood and ceramic tiles, I have formed an eleven-foot high  structure, a sculpture of an individual deconstructed figure; in the middle section is erected a tower of exterior interior.

“Pill Bench (Healing Bench/ Medicine Bench”) Two human-scale circles like pills (medication pills):  one upright, and the other placed as a healing bench inviting people to sit on it, both with empty medication bottles attached.

“The Weight of My Older Brother” - Two old chairs, children's chairs, remind me of my childhood with my brother. The weight of losing my older brother is like suspension of my childhood; so one chair is suspending the other.

“The Bird Trap” - Mirror, rusted mesh, and a spear. I am haunted by a childhood experience of setting bird traps. Now it’s me cornered by traps of ideas.

“The Dog and His Master's Voice” A life-sized plaster dog sits on the floor in front of a five-foot wide coil of aluminum cable.

“Rising Baseboards” - baseboards rise eleven feet high, a reference to rigidity, elaboration, and politically correct thinking

“The Gravity of Feeling” - in a structure of wood and metal body parts merged in disarray, perch two birds above a suspended nest of wire.

“Order in Chaos” materials, objects, and tools left randomly in an island formed the workstation for the space, and this has been kept to create a dissonance with the rest of the installations.

“Heaven’s Gate” a 4.5-foot mirror, plywood and metal sculpture suspended above the floor, hung from the ceiling on a necklace of steel chains in a 16 x 24 foot installation.

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