Artist’s Statement – Tony Cooper
I practice a kind of constructive collection of images and objects, many of which are on-site, plein aire paintings. This multi-faceted approach leads to an almost cubist or filmic reconstruction of experience, over time and through space. The works engage memory and the visual imagination, often incorporating the exhibition space and architecture with a self reflexive sculptural presence. Scale changes, as the smaller panels are combined and large installations combine support structures and framing devices that are important cues to activating the sense of spatial judgment. Scaffolding intersects and gravitational tension hoists the cross-referential panels within the parameters of the gallery spaces in site- specific installations. It is important for me to make these configurations in relation to the exhibition space when possible as the immediate sense of surrounding space adds to the visceral visualisation process that the work calls forth.
I work physically on the land, to maintain a presence and to observe directly the changes and effects of the elements over time. I choose to document sites repeatedly, building up a composite of viewpoints that attest to the dynamic experience of place. Nature as subject and medium is integrated with the body in the act of oil painting on site, under the constraints of time, personal endurance and the elements themselves. These “test exposures” have risk and necessity attached to their creation, (not retouched or photomediated in any way). The paintings are an immediate and lively response to the environment, a type of abstract expressionism. When combined with other pieces into arrays, the arrangements allow for abstract elements, blank spaces, sections of raw material or drawings to be juxtaposed, creating a complex, cross-referential whole. These disparate works punctuate the representational imagery and set up comparisons that function like free-verse poetry, finally being resolved in the mind of the viewer. Some final installations have involved boulders quoted directly from the environment, that through the use of pullies and under tension, counterbalance the other elements.
Much of my work continues to explore and bear witness to the wilderness both near (local riverbeds) and far (Haida Gwaii, northern Ontario), but I also have an extensive body of urban/industrial site documentation. I have been revisiting a major construction site in Thornhill this year, this is an ongoing project that I am presently much involved in.