QUARTER PAST ELEVEN

IAN AUGUST

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF FINE ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

YORK UNIVERSITY
TORONTO, ONTARIO

APRIL 2011

 
 

QUARTER PAST ELEVEN

By: Ian August

a thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate
Studies of York University in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of

MASTER OF FINE ARTS

© 2011

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 Abstract

This dissertation accompanies my thesis work, consisting of a series of paintings.

In it I outline theoretical, historical, and contextual influences that shape my practice. I

argue that process is the central element in my painting, and describe how it has evolved

and unfolded in a reflexive fashion throughout the development of my thesis work. In my

process I gather source material through a practice as a flaneur. I then explore the

theoretical ideas behind the material (focusing on modernism), and its history. This has

reflexively inspired me to develop a break-through practice, model building, so that I can

depict events I did not witness. My paintings are works of translation from modernism to

the present day, focusing on details in building an image. I suggest that artists today are

on the eve of a major shift, it is the eleventh hour before a transition in history and art

history.

Table of Contents

Abstract.................................................................................................................................iv
 Table of Contents....................................................................................................................v
Table of Figures....................................................................................................................vi
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................1
I. PARIS: THE FLÂNEUR, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND PAINTING IN THE MODERN AGE5
THE FLÂNEUR: PRACTICE AND HISTORY.......................................................................................5
THE HAUSSMANNIZATION OF PARIS.............................................................................................6
SPECTACULAR SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF BAUDELAIRE.................................................................8
ÉDOUARD MANET.......................................................................................................................10
CAMERAS: THE END OF PAINTING?.............................................................................................12
CONCLUSION: THE PIVOTAL PRESENT.........................................................................................16
II. THE IMPORTANCE OF MATERIALS WHEN CONSTRUCTING AN IMAGE..........19
JEFF WALL: PARALLELS IN PRACTICE.........................................................................................19
A MATTER OF CONTROL..............................................................................................................21
MODERNIST TORONTO AND THE WEST LODGE TOWERS............................................................22
DISCOVERING “INTERESTING SPACES”........................................................................................25
LE CORBUSIER AND “THE STREETS”...........................................................................................27
A MATERIAL WORLD...................................................................................................................29
CONCLUSION: REPRESENTING CONTRADICTION..........................................................................32
III. MODELS AND MODERNISM...........................................................................................35
A HIGH MODERN GROW-OP..........................................................................................................35
MODELS: RE-CREATING AND TRANSLATING EVENTS BEYOND THE FLANEUR’S GAZE.................39
PANOPTICON................................................................................................................................40
TRANSLATION: THE MODEL’S STRANGE VIEW..........................................................................42
WHY MODERNISM? WHY NOW?..................................................................................................45
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................47
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................49
 Table of Figures

Figure 1: Edouard Manet (1832-1883) "Luncheon on the Grass”.....................................12

Figure 2: Jeff Wall (1946-) “Mimic” 1982, Transparency in lightbox ,198x228 cm........19
Figure 3: "Apartment" 2009, Oil on Canvas 214x153 cm.................................................25
Figure 4: "Fence" 2009, Oil on Canvas 214x153 cm.........................................................31
Figure 5 “Untitled: Grow-op” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm..........................................35
Figure 6: “Fan” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm.................................................................37
Figure 7: “Floral Room” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm..................................................38
Figure 8: “Model study for Parking Garage” 2011, Photograph, size variable................43
Introduction

This paper explores the historical and theoretical influences that have shaped the

evolution of my thesis work. Since completing my BFA in 2004 I have maintained a

painting practice using photographs taken during urban explorations as the primary

source material for small and large-scale oil paintings. During my Master’s studies, I had

a breakthrough in my practice. Maintaining the tactics of the flâneur, I incorporated a

more rigorous research approach by constructing three-dimensional models of the

locations discovered in my explorations. These scale models of building facades and

interiors made from wood, paper, scraps and everyday items are lit and photographed to

create the source material for my paintings. I use these models as a tool to re-create, set-

dress, and alter locations in a way that would not be possible using full-sized public and

private spaces. My final paintings are rendered so that all details such as the glue and

every day materials used in model construction are visible. These details act as clues for

the viewer and hint that the painting is depicting a copy, and not a real space. This can

produce an unsettling sensation that the world represented is coming a little loose at the

seams. My site choices are influenced by my research interest in utopian thought,

modernist architectural and planning ideas, modern materials, and mass production

techniques.

During my course of study my main concern has been to develop a new working

process, and this paper will describe in detail the development of that process. I wanted

to base this new process on the successful aspects of my existing practice, but also to give

myself more control over the elements involved in constructing the image, and allow

1
better integration of theoretical interests. While exploring these ideas, my paintings have

directed my theoretical research, which in turn has helped to contextualize the work

already made and has informed and inspired the way I gathered and processed the source

material. This intuitive, reflexive development allowed me to build a body of work

organically until reoccurring themes began to emerge and give the work a unified

direction. To that extent, my work is more concerned with process than the presentation

of a painting style. Stylistic consistencies do emerge in my work, but as a kind of

byproduct of the process. As such, this paper is structured to describe my process and the

chronology of influences and developments that helped me to arrive at it. Each section

will introduce the way that I have drawn on the ideas of theorists, work of artists,

historical movements, and the city around me. It will explore in more detail how my

work has evolved as a result. This paper will unfold in three main sections, and in each I

will describe what elements of my work have been developed.

In the first section I focus on the practice of the flâneur, specifically the 1863

essay, “The Painter of Modern Life” 1 written by Charles Baudelaire analyzing

Haussmann’s transformation of Paris. I describe this ‘modernization’ process, the exciting

possibilities it presented, the complex social realities that it generated, and what role these

played in the birth of Modernism. This period of great change was later identified as the

beginning of the “Spectacular Society” because it was a time when the increasing and

expanding reach of capitalism led to the commodification of everyday life. This critique

of the origins modernism was made by the Situationists one hundred years later – at the

1
Charles Baudelaire. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays (London: Phaidon, 1964).

2
exact time that modernism was a crumbling movement about to transition into the

postmodern period. I look at the sweeping social changes at the beginning of modernism

and postmodernism and question how the energy of change affected the creative minds

working in those times. This line of query is applied to Édouard Manet, the first

modernist painter and flâneur. I also look at how Manet’s famous innovations sparked

modernist painting, impressionism, and the avant-garde and I examine the influence that

the invention of the camera had on these developments. I review accounts of Manet’s use

of the camera and argue that while it may be responsible for the innovations that made

him the first modernist painter, it also prompted developments in his work consistent with

early postmodern art as well.

In the second section of my paper I continue to explore how photography and

painting merged with the spirit of the flâneur and play a part in the changing tides of

modernism and postmodernism. Looking at the work of Jeff Wall, a contemporary

“Painter of Modern Life” who works with a camera, I make comparisons between my

work and his with an emphasis on how we build images. My focus on modernism as a

theme continues with an exploration of how it has manifested itself in the city of the

Twentieth Century, particularly through the work of architect Le Corbusier. I have been

drawn to modernist structures, and in my Master’s work my practice as a flâneur drew me

to examine both its grand gestures and the mundane, everyday “stuff” born out of its

founding concepts. As I will show, it was my interest in a particular Toronto apartment

block, the West Lodge Towers, that opened the way for a breakthrough approach in my

painting process: the use of models as a new way to develop source material.

3
 Section three looks at the use of models as the breakthrough in my practice: how

they enhance the tactics of the flâneur and enrich the image-building process, and how an

increased control over process also allows for a better integration of theoretical influences

with my creative work. The process of painting from replicas makes visible the ‘cracks’,

and creates a tension that speaks to an underlying theme of ‘stress fractures’ in society.

Once I have described all of the influences and new developments that have emerged

throughout my time in the Master’s program, a clear view of my new process will be

evident.

This paper examines various transitions and shifts from the birth of modernism to

the transition to postmodernism. It also examines whether in the present day we as artists

are left maneuvering in a vacuum, or if we might be right in the middle of the next big

shift. I draw connections between these art movements and the periods of major social

change and revolution that accompanied them, and propose the possibility that we could

be living through a time of upheaval and transition right now. It is hard to know what

will be the extent of changes that we, in the present, identify. It is also difficult to

determine whether they will bring with them a co-operative solution and liberation or

whether they forecast doom. But if they are signs that the eleventh hour has arrived, then

right here on the streets of Toronto is as good a place as any to look for them.

4
I. Paris: The Flâneur, Photography, and Painting in the Modern Age

The Flâneur: Practice and history

I first began to use my own photographs as the source material for painting to

have more control over my creative process. I drew inspiration from my urban

surroundings, and soon street photography became an intermediate stage for translating

ideas into paintings. Walking the streets and taking photos, I had taken on the role of the

flâneur and became interested in its origins. The term flâneur translates from French to

mean someone who strolls or saunters. After the 1848 Revolution in France, poet and

essayist Charles Baudelaire began asserting that social and economic changes brought on

by industrialization rendered traditional art inadequate for the new dynamic complications

of modern life.2 In his essay “The Painter of Modern Life” he introduced the flâneur as a

gentleman stroller of city streets who, from the moment he wakes until the last song is

sung in the last establishment to close, absorbs city life with a perceptiveness that is acute

and magical by reason of its innocence. 3 Increased wealth affords the flâneur the leisure

time to spend exploring the Parisian streets and inspire his art. Baudelaire’s original

inspiration for the character of the flâneur was Constantin Guys, a little known French

artist and illustrator.4 A better known figure of the flâneur is the French painter Édouard

Manet (1832-1883), who passionately sought to record the true nature of life in Paris

through paintings of beggars, prostitutes, and the bourgeoisie.5 Manet explored new

2
Marshall Berman, All that is solid melts into air (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982) 132.
3
Baudelaire, 1964, 11.
4
Craig Burnett, JW, Jeff Wall (London: Tate Publishing, 2005) 11.

5
Burnett, 2005, 12.

5
subject matter, painterly values, and spatial relationships that were considered scandalous

and largely rejected by the Salon.6 He is widely regarded as the first Modernist painter

and was instrumental in stirring up the initial impulses of the avant-garde and

Impressionism.7 The work of the flâneur is more than that of a mere observer or a

stroller. Baudelaire saw the flâneur as involved in social change, through a sharp analysis

and timely commentary of complex and quickly evolving events. 8 As such, it is worth

examining the Paris of the mid-1800s in which Baudelaire and Manet were working in

order to understand the social changes that they both derived a great deal of inspiration

from.

The Haussmannization of Paris

All changes start in the streets.9 To better understand the changes that came out of

Paris in the middle of the 1800s, the important physical transformations that occurred will

be outlined. Some of Baudelaire’s most remarkable Parisian writings happened while

under Napoleon III’s authority and direction, Georges Eugene Haussmann systematically

tore apart and rebuilt Paris. Baudelaire wrote about the importance of being on the street

and mixing with the crowd as a spectator, participant, and protagonist during this time,

and how the modernization of the city could inspire the modernization of citizens’ souls. 10

The work of Haussmann involved blasting a vast network of boulevards through the heart

of the medieval city and enabling traffic to flow from end to end, a revolutionary plan

6
Burnett, 2005, 11.
7
Burnett, 2005, 11.
8
Berman, 1982, 35.
9
Berman, 1982, 226.
10
Berman, 1982, 147.

6
virtually unimaginable up until that point. This stimulated a tremendous expansion of

local business at every level and employed at times a quarter of the city’s labor force on

long-term public works projects, which in turn generated thousands of private sector jobs.

Long and extravagantly broad corridors were built to allow troops and artillery to move

effectively against future barricades and insurrections. 11 The new boulevards themselves

were lined with benches, cafes, restaurants and lush trees, as part of a comprehensive

system of parks, bridges, markets, sewers and waterways. Paris was transformed into a

visually enticing feast, inspiring generations of modern painters (starting with the

impressionists of the 1860s), but also writers, photographers, and filmmakers.12

To make all of this possible it was necessary for Haussmann to cut through dense

slums, destroying hundreds of buildings, and whole neighborhoods that had existed for

centuries. This destruction opened up breathing space amidst layers of darkness and

choked congestion, allowing for the city’s poorest citizens to walk out for the first time

and see how the rest of the city lived. 13 This worked the other way as well and the

bourgeois class was forced for the first time to see into the slums and come to terms with

the inhabitants.14 It is important to understand that the class structure of Paris at this time

was elaborate, regulated and ever-present. This ordered system was thrown into disarray

by the growth in large-scale industry and commerce and the physical relocation of

thousands of people. The class of an individual is linked to economic factors in a

capitalist society. Some went up, some went down, and no one was immune to the force

11
Clark, 1985, 66.
12
Clark, 1985, 66.
13
Berman, 1982, 151.
14
Berman, 1982, 150.

7
of change.15 Old rules went out the window creating new and complex situations that

would have been difficult to comprehend at the time. It was in this context of dramatic

transformation and modernization by “creative destruction” that Baudelaire conceived of

the role of the flâneur, and during which Manet emerged for many art historians as the

first “modernist” painter. 16

Spectacular society in the time of Baudelaire

The series of events happening in Paris during the 1860s gave us modernism, but

it is also proposed that this period of transition was the birthplace of something called the

“Spectacular Society.”17 The group that coined this term used it as a critical tool to

instigate the student revolutions that occurred in 1960s Paris that helped in part to usher

in postmodernism. I see the concept of “spectacle” as a crucial one, because it was

central to the social upheavals happening during the beginnings of both modernism and

postmodernism – pointing to a connection between social issues in the real world and

their direct effects on the art world.18

With the benefit of one hundred years of perspective on the modernization of

Paris, a new group of artists used the lessons of the past as a way to assert change in their

own time, only to find themselves in the middle of the next major turbulent shift. Art

historian T.J. Clark explores the social context of impressionist painting and the Paris of

Baudelaire’s time in his book Painting of Modern Life. In it he singles out Paris during

15
Berman, 1982, 16-17.
16
Clark, 1985, 3-4
17
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (Detroit: Black and Red, 1983). 144-145
18
Clark, 1985, 9

8
the Haussmann era as the beginning of the spectacular society. The concept of the

spectacle and first emerged in the mid-1960s as part of the theoretical work of a group

called the Situationist International. 19 It represents their efforts to theorize the shift

towards increasing and expanding commercialization of life under capitalism. According

to Clark, this shift indicated “a new phase of commodity production – the marketing, the

making into commodities, of whole areas of social practice and every day life.” 20 Guy

Debord, the leader of the Situationist International, in his influential essay “the Society of

the Spectacle,” argued that mass media and advertising have a central role in an advanced

capitalist society, which is to present a fake reality in order to mask the real capitalist

degradation of human life.”21 Debord argued that: “the spectacle is capital accumulated

until it becomes image.”22 According to Clark, the rapid transformation and economic

growth that accompanied it in Paris during the time of Haussmann make it the logical

birthplace of the spectacular society.23

One hundred years after Haussmann, in the 1960s, the Situationists would traverse

Paris in attempts to locate, document, and celebrate areas that were not yet touched and

ruined by spectacle. They designed the notion of the spectacle as a weapon to be wielded

against capitalism, which they actively deployed by playing an important part in the

general wildcat strikes and student uprising of May 1968 in France. 24 From this we see

that major revolutions in art do not occur in a vacuum, they are accompanied and brought

19
Clark, 1985, 10.
20
Clark, 1985, 147.
21
Debord, 1983, 29.
22
Clark, 1985, 8.
23
Clark, 1985, 9-10.
24
Clark, 1985, 9-10

9
on by broader revolutions in the economic and political sphere. The birth of modernism

accompanied the changes brought on by Haussmannization in Paris during the 1860s.

During the 1960s, high modernism had became stale and began to crumble. At this time

the sudden and rapid shift into the postmodern period was brought on by political and

social events, and dramatic economic restructuring that was sweeping the globe.25

Édouard Manet

At the same time that the Society of the Spectacle was born in Paris, Clark argues

that there was a decisive shift in the history of art, which sent painting upon a new course.

This shift was centered around Édouard Manet. The change was born out of Manet’s

skepticism concerning the nature of representation in art, which until that point had been

concerned primarily with constructing a likeness. Manet observed 17 th-century painters

failing to hide gaps in their painting procedure. For him these gaps marked where the

illusion almost ended, and made the likeness – where it was achieved – all the more

compelling. The result of reproducing the image did not impress him nearly as much as

the evidence of frank inconsistency in the depiction. Manet shifted his own attention to

stress the material means by which illusion and likeness were made, and proposed a new

form that representation should take.26

His concern with addressing the presence of a painting’s surface and exposing the

apparatus of illusion was described in an 1876 article, which noted that: “the scope and

aim of Manet and his followers is that painting shall be steeped again in its cause.” 27
25
Berman, 1982, 16-17
26
Clark, 1985, 13-14
27
Stephane Mallarme, “The Impressionists and Édouard Manet” Art Monthly Review Sep. 30 (1876):
222. Quoted in [T.J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1985) 10.]

10
These concerns have emerged repeatedly during the course of modern painting and

continued to be of interest for generations to come, as made evident by the similarly

worded quote by Clement Greenberg asserting, nearly a hundred years later, that art ought

to “determine, through the operations peculiar to itself, the effects peculiar and exclusive

to itself,” lest it declines into entertainment or edification.28

Manet was the first modernist painter, and the shift that he brought about in

painting and art was fueled by, and intertwined with the changes happening in Paris.

During this tumultuous period, a new technology was introduced that would instantly

change how images were made and considered, and forever have a close and complex

relationship with painting: The perfecting of the photographic process. Manet was among

the first painters to come to grips with the potential of this new technology.29

28
Clement, Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” Art and Literature 4. (Spring 1965) 194. Quoted in [T.J.
Clark, The Painting of Modern Life (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1985) 11.]
29
Alexi Worth, “The Lost Photographs of Edouard Manet.” Art in America. January (2007) 60-62.

11
 Figure 1: Edouard Manet (1832-1883) "Luncheon on the Grass”
1863, Oil on Canvas 208 x 264.5 cm
Cameras: The end of painting?

Douglas Crimp described photography as a threat to painting since its invention

during the founding moments of modernism in the mid-1800s. 30 Through its ability to

mechanically capture an image of the natural world, photography threatened the

hegemony of painting as the main means to render reality, leading many to pronounce for

the first time: “painting is dead.” This statement has resurfaced repeatedly throughout the

era of modernism, and inevitably been followed by some announcement of its triumphal

return.31

30
Douglas Crimp, “The End of Painting.” October V.16 (1981) 69-86.

31
Crimp, 1981, 75.

12
 Manet himself was a child of five years in 1837 when Louis Daguerre succeeded

in producing the first Daguerreotype image titled L’Atelier de l'Artiste in Paris. By the

1850s photographs had become widely available, and their influence on painting was a

subject of passionate and divisive public controversy.32 Baudelaire accepted the camera

as nothing more than a note-taking device and wrote a diatribe against it:

As the photographic industry became the refuge of all failed painters with too
little talent, or too lazy to complete their studies, this universal craze not only
assumed the air of blind imbecile infatuation, but took on the aspect of
revenge…the badly applied advances of photography, like all purely material
progress for that matter, have contributed to the impoverishment of French
artistic genius.
- Charles Baudelaire33

Unquestionably, the use of photography by painters was already widespread by

this time. Delacroix proposed that “photography could be an aid to painters if they used it

wisely,”34 but in the 1860s, painters were already being publicly criticized for working

from photographs.

The extent of Manet’s own use of photographs has been a matter of debate, as no

physical photographic source of his own making has been found. Michael Fried describes

The Mocking of Christ (1865), as Manet's "most straight-forwardly photographic

painting,”35 and suggests as evidence various issues of scale and foreshortening. Fried

claims that Christ's overlarge feet suggest that actors in costume posed in an

uncharacteristically unified mise-en-scene, set up in the artist’s studio.36 Arguing in

32
Worth, 2007, 60.
33
Annie Le Brun, “The Feeling of Nature at the Close of the Twentieth Century,” Camera Dec (1984)
20.
34
Aaron Scharf, Art and Photography. (London: Penguin, 1968) 145-146
35
Micheal Fried. Manet’s Modernism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) 333.
36
Fried, 1996, 333.

13
defense of Manet in two articles in the 1980s, Kirk Varnedoe attempted to clear away the

long held assumptions that innovations of these early impressionist painters came from

their trying to mimic the new look of photography, with its accidental language of blurs

and cropping. He argued that the few photographs used by them were "terminally

utilitarian," and "totally dissolved in the creative process.” 37 Varndedoe claimed with

equal certainty that Manet, and his peers’ versions of realism were not directly influenced

by the camera lens, but rather, they shared with photographers of the time a vision of the

world around them.38

Alexi Worth presents the possibility that Manet embraced the camera and that it

was instrumental to the revolutionary pictorial approaches he introduced. 39 She argued

that Manet’s signature look was made possible by a frontal lighting technique being

favored by photographers at the time. Frontal lighting produces an effect similar to flash

photography, in which shade concentrates at the edges of forms, light areas bleach,

surface texture and detail are suppressed, and backgrounds go dim or black. Worth posits

that Manet made stylistic decisions with a knowledge of photographic practices and

borrowed this convenient technique in order to develop his famous, startling nocturnal

brightness, elimination of middle tones, and reduction of figures towards a flat and

washed-out appearance. This result allowed him to avoid the common criticism at the

time that using photography produced an allover focus and a high level of detail that was

both unnatural and off-putting.40

37
Kirk Varnedoe The Artifice of Candor: Impressionism and Photography Reconsidered (Art in
America, January, 1980) 72.
38
Varnedoe, 1980, 70.
39
Worth, 1973, 66.
40
Worth, 1973, 62.

14
 I would argue that the use of photographic source material helps to explain how

Manet arrived at his characteristic flattened picture plane and rejection of chiaroscuro.

The translation from three dimensions to two is accomplished with a photograph, and if

one translates the elements directly from a photo to canvas without putting special effort

into emphasizing the illusion of depth, then the background and foreground elements will

appear to be on the same plane. This is one of the radical innovations present in paintings

such as Luncheon on the Grass (1863) (Figure 1, 12). The arguments made by critics,

both for and against Manet, focus on particular paintings and are inconclusive and on

going. Manet could have made any of these paintings without the use of photography,

but many of the pictorial changes that he introduced were done at a time when the

relationship between painting and photography was brand new, and highly contested.

Perhaps Manet was thinking about the new possibilities for image making that

photography had introduced and this alone affected the shape of his innovations. If we

think of Manet as the first painter to successfully paint with the aid of photography, it

would have played a varying role of importance in each painting. From replacing the

sketching process, to helping with lighting and cropping, and to perhaps the use of a

complete mise-en-scene with actors and costumes at his direction in a photo studio.

Painting from photos did not gain popularity until the 1960s when the hegemonic

project of modernist abstract painting was on shaky ground.41 It was at this time that

Gerhard Richter decided to return to the source of crisis in painting. He addressed the

displacement of painting from its naturalistic representational function by the invention of

41
Crimp, 1981, 76.

15
the photographic image.42 Richter’s answer to the questions of how, what, and why to

paint after photography was to put painting in the service of photography. He considered

his paintings based on photographic sources to be actual photographs, and likened the act

of painting them to the mechanical process of a camera.43 Richter was not the only one to

be thinking along these lines, this was the same set of circumstances that lead to

widespread experimentation with photography in the 1960s. Conceptual artists turned to

photography, video, and other inexpensive accessible media to undermine the hierarchy

of high modernism. If we could think of Manet as making paintings and using the

photographic process as an integral part of both the conceptual and formal revelations that

he developed, than we might consider him to be not only the leading innovator of

modernist painting but also the first postmodern painter as well.

Conclusion: The pivotal present

The motivations and historical events experienced by Baudelaire and Manet have

helped me to interpret the events of my own time. In the nineteenth century, Paris was the

capital of the world and hosted monumental changes to almost every aspect of

civilization. Processing and presenting the grandness and the complex realities facing

people from all walks of life was the remarkable achievement of artists working in this

time. There is no doubt that the energy, excitement, and change occurring around them

was of great use and inspiration to Manet and Baudelaire. The broader shifts they were

responding to, and the way these affected life on the street did more than give them drive

42
Peter Osborne. Painting Negation: Gerhardt Richter’s Negatives (October, V.62, 1992) 104.
43
Osborne, 1992, 104.

16
and purpose – it was their subject. Manet developed a new way to make paintings, but

not without the aid of outside factors. The camera was introducing new ways of seeing

modern life, and Manet used it to do just that. Indeed, social change played an important

role for these artists. The imperative to present a new and alternative vision as developed

by Manet became a mainstay of modernism, and a defining feature of the avant-garde.

One style routinely un-seated the previous in a long linear evolution until high modernism

reached its end game when the change required to unseat it was so great that it led to the

implosion of modernism itself.

The Situationists, who looked back to when and where “Spectacle” was occurring

were themselves in the middle of the student revolutions in France, which sparked the

worldwide sea change in 1968. This marked the turning point to the postmodern era, in

which conceptual artists used photography, video, and other accessible media to

undermine the hierarchy of high modernism.44

Without the benefit of hindsight it is hard to know when or where large shifts

(revolutions in thought, technology, social change, and art) are going to occur. In our

own time, the site of major change is not isolated to the ‘capital of the world’ (if one

could even be named), now that the internet and global capital have changed the way

power centers are built. In the 19th-century, Paris was arguably the capital of the world,

and if a major shift was going to happen anywhere, it would be there. Now that

information is increasingly easier and faster to share, it is possible for agents of change to

be located off the beaten track.45 While New York could have been considered the centre
44
Jeff Wall, et al. Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art)
2007 203.
45
Manuel DeLanda. A new Philosophy of Society. (Continum, London and New York, 2006) 111.

17
of the world after WWII, it would seem that the passing of the world super power baton is

underway. Instead of images of stability, the mention of New York today conjures up

Wall Street’s responsibility for the global economic crisis, or perhaps 9/11 and the

perpetual security crisis and vague “War on Terror” that resulted from it.

There are many current world crises simmering near the boiling point, suggesting

that we may be in the midst of a major shift. There are governments being challenged

one after another on a weekly basis as people in North Africa and parts of the Middle East

rally in the streets in unprecedented numbers to protest oppressive regimes, inequality,

and rising food prices. An additional crisis is the global environmental threat of climate

change, which may cause food shortages in the world’s most densely populated countries,

and challenge the way of life that is enjoyed in developed nations. Perhaps in this world

of dispersed power and mass communication, a spark can come from anywhere, and signs

of the stress can be found in unsuspected places. As the Situationists searched the city

exposing signs of spectacle, my walks in the city have turned up signs of stress forming in

present day spectacular society.

18
II. The Importance of Materials when Constructing an Image

Jeff Wall: Parallels in practice

Figure 2: Jeff Wall (1946-) “Mimic” 1982, Transparency in lightbox ,198x228 cm

To better understand Baudelaire’s vision of modern life I decided to make a

thorough examination of the oeuvre of a contemporary artist who has based the bulk of

his artistic practice, over 30 years of work, on “The Painter of Modern Life.” Jeff Wall

is a photo-conceptualist from Vancouver who believes the expression “The Painter of

Modern Life” to be fundamental to modernism and adopted it as a way to characterize his

own aims as an artist.46 Wall views painting as the most open, flexible, rich, and complete
46
Craig Burnett. JW, Jeff Wall (London, Tate Publishing, 2005) 10.

19
pursuit. Yet during the late sixties, high modernist painting in the lineage of Pollock and

Stella was running out of momentum, prompting Wall and other young artists to begin to

view painting as closed to them. Wall felt that if he wanted to stay in the realm of

imagery, photography was the only open space and that he was, in a way, exiled to it.47

I did not initially set out to find connections between my work and that of a

photographer, but because of Wall’s strong identification with painting, the barrier

between painting and photography began to break down, and I began drawing parallels.

Wall’s motivations, concerns and process have never been far from those of a painter. 48

He was a painter from childhood till the age of twenty when he put artistic production on

hold to study the history and theory of painting from an expert on Manet. In 1977, when

he found his way back into image-making (by way of re-creating old masters’

compositions), he did so using photography, but only after having figured out a way to

make it match the size and visual intensity of painting. The presentation of Wall’s large-

scale light boxes offered the competing interplay of illusion and surface that is inherent to

painting. They are also printed in editions of one, making them precious objects like

paintings and purposefully going against the reproducibility and accessibility of the

medium of photography. It is paradoxical that he chose to emulate Manet, the first

modernist painter, as a way to break with the high modernist painting that was his legacy.

Wall’s first light box piece, Picture for Women, 1979 was in fact done as an homage to

Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Bergere (1882).49

47
Wall, 2007, 203.
48
Diarmuid Costello. After Medium Specificity Chez Fried, Jeff Wall as a Painter; Gerhard Richter as a
Photographer (Photography Theory. Ed. James Elkins, New York, Rutlage, 2007) 75.
49
Costello, 2007, 75-76

20
A matter of control

The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering,

stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the
city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. The adept joys of watching,
connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world picturesque
- Susan Sontag50

Wall and I start much of the creative process of image making on the street with a

camera. The experience of the flâneur is important to us as an impetus for the work, but

the real similarity in our work lies in the laborious and very controlled transformation of

the image that comes after. That is what sets us apart from street photographers in the

vein of Walker Evens or Harold Herzog, who rely on the capturing a spontaneous or

fleeting moment.51 In my case, the completed oil paintings are the result of many hours in

the studio and of the thousands of small decisions that are necessary to build the image

slowly. The source photos that I use to paint from are chosen from dozens of images

taken of the same subject or scene. Each is from a slightly different angle, often taken on

different days with different lighting. In painting, I will edit out elements, add in things

that were not there, and alter the colors to suit the composition.

Jeff Wall worked in a similar manner because the large format camera he used to

create film negatives capable of producing high picture quality (necessary for large-scale

light boxes) was too cumbersome to allow easy mobility. 52 Artists working like myself or

Wall can still aspire to the freshness and spontaneity that make street photography
50
Susan Sontag. On Photography. (London, Penguin, 1977) 55.
51
Jeff Wall, “Marks of Indifference: Aspects of Photography in, or as, Conceptual Art” Reconsidering
the art object: 1965-1975. Ed. Ann Goldstein and Anne Rorimer. (Cambridge: Museum of Contemporary
Art and MIT Press, 1995) 32.

52
Burnett, 2005, 20.

21
powerful, but because of our respective processes we are free to create the special events

witnessed, imagined, or remembered without having to have hit the shutter at a crucial

moment. By acting as director, set decorator, cinematographer, location scout, casting

agent, and wardrobe coordinator we can treat an everyday event monumentally and with

all the pathos and pictorial force of an old master’s painting 53 (Figure 2, page 19). Our

methods of creating an image are born out of a similar need for near complete control

over every aspect of the image. One of the advantages that building an image has over

spontaneous street photography is that it allows every element of the work to be fully

considered.

Modernist Toronto and the West Lodge Towers

Upon my arrival in Toronto I spent time getting accustomed to the city by visiting

galleries and attending talks. A reoccurring theme I encountered centered on the

optimism that had existed in Toronto in the mid-1960s, and the sense that a similar energy

might be returning. At one talk I attended, the curator of the Art Gallery of Ontario,

David Moos, mused that the construction cranes and condos being built along the city’s

waterfront could be signaling another age of prosperity, as well as a re-invigorated local

art scene. To illustrate his observation, he used a photo work from 1965 of Toronto’s

City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, looking south to the Mies van der Rohe-designed

TD Centre. Both projects were under construction but nearly completed in the photo,

acting as symbols of the hope of the time. These buildings stood as fine examples of the

new possibilities of modern architecture, and Toronto’s participation in the exciting

53
Wall, 1995, 251

22
global modernist movement. Resuming my discovery of the city, I was thinking about

this while walking down the train tracks in Parkdale, when I came across a striking view

of the West Lodge Towers apartments looming above the blocks-long, five-storey cement

wall of its connected parking garage. I was struck by its size, and the strong curved lines

created by the unusual semi-circular shape of the towers facing each other, bearing a

strong resemblance to Toronto’s City Hall.

The West Lodge Towers are an example of Corbusian-style modernist architecture

and exemplify one of its defining characteristics (which also doubles as one of its most

glaring faults): progress. The perpetual need to keep building and developing defines

modernism, and far outweighs examining and reflecting on what has been built. The

West Lodge Towers opened with great fanfare by Premier John Robarts in 1965, the same

year that Toronto’s City Hall was completed. The towers graced the front page of a

prominent architecture magazine that year and were initially intended for wealthy

residents.54 West Lodge boasted Canada’s country music television personality Tommy

Hunter as one of the first residents of the penthouse floor. While still awe-inspiring

today, it is impossible to not be struck by the extent of its disheveled state. By the 1970s

the buildings were falling into disrepair, leading to rent strikes throughout the decade and

court battles between the tenants and the owner. By the 1980s the complex housed

exclusively low-income tenants and although ownership changed hands a few times the

owners invested nothing in maintenance. In 1994 the owner let the heat go off in the

winter and then abandoned the buildings, giving the Tenants Organization an opportunity

54
West Lodge Tenants Association, Parkdale, Tronto, (7 May 2003, Web) Sep 12 2010.

23
to bid on the building and improve it for themselves. The city offered it instead to the

original owner for a promise to pay back-taxes, fines, and do major repairs. They instead

implemented rent increases of up to 300% and issued mass eviction orders, attempting to

clear out existing tenants and charge higher rents. 55

The buildings are still in a deplorable state of disrepair. At a glance the towers can

tell a tale of grand, large-scale utopian optimism and the reality of what happens without

the constant effort necessary to maintain it, or worse, the tale of what happens when such

buildings fall into the hands of an awful slumlord. The painting of the West Lodge

Towers (Figure 3, page 25) was the first I painted during my Master’s studies. Looking

back, I realize that it has turned out to be the impetus for the entire body of my thesis

work. It sparked my interest in modern architectural history and theory that became the

dominant undercurrent for my thesis work, and proved to me that visually interesting

paintings can come out of this material.

55
West Lodge Tenants Association, 2003, Web

24
 Figure 3: "Apartment" 2009, Oil on Canvas 214x153 cm

Discovering “interesting spaces”

For me the success of this piece lies in the tension in the dichotomy of a building

functioning simultaneously as a sculptural piece of architecture and as a residence. I

struggled with the task of presenting the aesthetically pleasing aspects of its form while

being careful not to overlook its shortcomings as a residence. This required subtle

complexity; I did not want the painting to be reduced to a simple example of a failed

utopia or a triumph of modernist ideals. To succeed as a painting this image had to

oscillate between contrasting viewpoints. It had to offer both hope and failure, a sense of

isolation and community, vast empty space and overcrowding, affection and repulsion.

An oscillation between these readings had to occur for it to work – but it was not as

25
simple as painting a handsome structure in a dilapidated state, because rust and decay

would just become another kind of glorified aesthetic. I believe the solution to making

this painting work is the inclusion of the wall, which cuts the painting in half. It severs the

apartment building from its surroundings and makes these oscillations possible. The wall

and the space it created were not planned at the outset of the painting. After I had painted

the apartment, however, it became apparent that the roughly blocked-in cement wall in

the foreground could produce some interesting effects if left undeveloped. From this

experience, I have tried to be alert to spotting interesting spaces like this in future

paintings. It is difficult to predict their presence in source photographs before a painting

is started, but may become apparent after the painting is under way, during the process of

building the image.

When I tried to understand what rationale led to the creation of a building like the

West Lodge Towers, all signs point to Le Corbusier and the huge influence he had on

modern architecture. I also found that the situation there was not an isolated case.

Similar cases abound the world over and they illustrate one of the glaring faults and

defining characteristics of modernism, the need for constant building, development, and

progress. It does not matter how noble the intentions of the architect are, if these are

abandoned once they move on to the next project. Modernism cannot stop to deal with

what it has created, for it must continue to build and to progress or else it is dead.56

56
Berman, 1982, 78.

26
Le Corbusier and “the streets”

Le Corbusier is perhaps the most recognized and influential architect of the 20 th

century. He was instrumental in developing what is now known as Modernist

Architecture or The International Style, despite building relatively few actual buildings.

He wrote simultaneously as an architect, city planner, historian, critic, and prophet. His

innovations have influenced every generation of architects that followed him. Physical

evidence of his theories can be found around the world, yet his urban designs have drawn

overwhelming scorn from critics.57

The “Radiant City” is arguably Le Corbusier’s most significant invention,

although it was never built. It was his design for a city (and indeed, a society) in the new

modern world. The Radiant City plan consisted of a massive street grid, lined with

identical large towers (each housing huge numbers of people), as well as some space for

businesses. In each block, towers would be separated by green space and footpaths, and

these spaces would be separated completely from large highways and train lines, which

would be set back in a transportation corridor so that the noise would not interfere with

the health and happiness of the people.58 Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin proposed to create

this “Radiant City” in Paris, by knocking down the entire Marais district on the Right

Bank and replacing it with rows of these identical towers set between freeways. Corbusier

tried for forty years to have the plan implemented to no avail. A similar planning model

was later adopted by post-WWII American planners and resulted in such urban

57
Berman, 1982, 167.
58
Berman, 1982, 168.

27
monstrosities as the infamous Cabrini–Green housing projects of Chicago and scores of

things similar to it.59 The West Lodge can be understood as a descendant of the Radiant

City planning ideal. It is separated from the surrounding neighborhood by green spaces,

the blocks-long parking garage, and the train tracks. One feels as if they are entering a

canyon when they walk or drive into the only entrance to the towers and their contained

parking garage. The compound is shaped like a large cul-de-sac.60

Le Corbusier’s vision of the ‘towers in the park’ had political implications. At the

end of Toward a New Architecture, he stated: “Architecture or revolution. Revolution can

be avoided.”61 He also wanted to do away with the urban street. The slogan: “The streets

belong to the people” was asserted by urban revolutionaries as early as the 18 th-century.

The street is the symbolic space of ‘the people’, and the place where protest actually

happens. In the great revolutionary uprisings at the end of WWI, Le Corbusier declared:

“we must kill the street.”62 Le Corbusier’s modern architecture created a new pastoral – a

spatially and socially segmented world of people here, traffic there; work here, homes

there; rich here, poor there; with barriers of grass and concrete in between. While the

boulevards of Baudelaire’s time had introduced the chaotic romantic streetscape that

started the modernist era, in Corbusier’s time ‘the streets’ became what modern

architecture aimed to put an end to.

59
Beatriz Colomina, Privacy and Publicity Modern Archatecture as Mass Media. (Chicago: MIT Press,
1996) 146.
60
Le Corbusier, 1031, 60.
61
Le Corbusier, 1931, 265.
62
Berman, 1982, 167.

28
A material world

It is the thinnest decorative layer that produces space.

-Gottfried Semper63

In addition to the West Lodge Towers, my work explores other contemporary

examples of modernist theories and ideas put into practice. I am interested in the

particular importance of modern materials to the movement. By examining the role new

materials play in creating the International Style, I underscore how the legacy of using

efficient and cost-effective building materials is carried on today.

In his 1923 book Toward a New Architecture, Le Corbusier expounds his

technical and aesthetic theories through his views on industry, economics, the relation of

form to function, and mass-production spirit. He professed a love of basic forms such as

triangles, cubes, cylinders, spheres, and his ideal combination of them in the perfect

proportion. He possessed a youthful enthusiasm for cars, planes, ocean liners, and other

technical marvels of the day. Le Corbusier was especially excited about cars because

they are fast, efficient, and above all, can be built on an assembly line. 64 He liked volume

and the way light fell on and in a space, to create emotions of joy or sadness. When it

came to his grand plans for the future of housing, apartments were his focus. He called

apartments ‘machines for living’65 and proposed that the example of the automobile could

63
Gottfried Semper, The Four Elements of Architecture and Other Writings, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989) 24.

64
Le Corbusier, 1931, 4.
65
Le Corbusier, 1931, 241.

29
teach us how to mass-produce all of the necessary components needed to assemble

them.66

Le Corbusier’s employment of glass, steel, and concrete as building materials,

pushed their capabilities to the limit, and in the process made the raw, stripped-down, and

exposed appearance of these materials synonymous with modern architecture. Today the

sight of these materials immediately harkens back to this period. In the process of

creating my thesis work, I have wondered what materials today could be taking their

place. Le Corbusier was originally drawn to modern materials because they were

abundant, cheap to produce, and lent themselves to a mass production system. I looked

for what kind of common, everyday modernism-in-disguise could fit this description –

and found plentiful examples right under my nose. One of the cheapest, most mass-

produced building materials available today is siding, including aluminum siding, and the

more recent vinyl siding. Because this material is used on both new houses and as a

solution to cover the imperfections of older houses, architecture spanning many decades

has been blurring together, lending credence to Gottfried Semper’s claim that

“architecture is actually defined by the cladding.”67

Over the past year I have been documenting materials commonly associated with

modernism and ones that I have found to be carrying on this tradition. Some of these

material studies have made good sources for paintings. Many of these paintings show

depictions of faux-wood siding in combination with chain link fencing, two of the

cheapest and most common ways to clad your home and create a barrier around your

66
Le Corbusier, 1931, 158.
67
Gottfried Semper, 1989.

30
property. The chain link fence is produced on a roll and can be made to fit any space

from a small yard to an entire airport. It is truly the ubiquitous barrier of our time: what

lies on the other side is perfectly visible but off limits. The much talked about fence

surrounding the 2010 G20 convention in Toronto was a chain link fence, as were the

cages of the temporary detention centre constructed in a Toronto film studio. The

domestic chain link that appears in my paintings is coated with a comforting green plastic

layer (Figure 4, page 31).

Figure 4: "Fence" 2009, Oil on Canvas 214x153 cm

Almost all of the aluminum siding that I encountered had a wood grain pattern

imprinted into it, but never rendered at a very convincing level of detail. It is obvious that

the manufacturers do not intend that the product be mistaken for actual wood, so I

31
assumed the suggestion of wood grain was meant to produce a familiar, comforting

reaction. I took an interest in the mimicry present in everyday architectural modernism

and began to notice fake wood grain in other areas of inexpensive fabrication. It is

present on interior paneling, flooring, and appliances. To reference this popular use of

false wood, I began to use it in the construction of my models. It appears frequently in

their construction as a way to poke fun at how easily these spaces can be replicated with

small scraps of found wooden materials. In my explorations, I discovered wood grain

patterns left behind from the plywood forms imprinted in the surface of large cement

Brutalist buildings – providing a perfect collision between the style of Modern

architecture and the effects of its mass-production techniques. The presence of wood

grain in what is arguably the most homely (and inorganic) of all modernist architectures

prompted me to recall Berman’s assertion that “modernism emulates what it is replacing

until it is destroyed.”68

Conclusion: Representing contradiction

My approach to painting in many ways mirrors the approach taken by Jeff Wall in

his approach to photography. While our inspiration comes from the streets, from being a

flaneur, it is the process of building an image, of laborious transformation, which is

central to both of our work. While Wall was inspired by Manet as the first modernist

painter, I found inspiration in Toronto’s modernist architecture in my strolls around the

city. Built at a time of great optimism, when hope was high for the potential of

modernism, I discovered the West Lodge Towers apartment block to encapsulate

68
Cal Millar, Pot grow-op high above Parkdale. (Toronto Star, March 9, 2004)

32
modernism’s contradictions. My painting of this apartment turned out to be the impetus

for all my later Master’s work, and allowed me to discover, in its creation, the importance

of finding what I call “interesting spaces,” which emerge in the process of building an

image. In addition, my interest in this structure inspired me to look more closely into the

thinking that inspired it, and learn more about the work of Le Corbusier. Ironically, this

modernist thinker was intent on destroying ‘the streets’, which inspire my work as a

flaneur, and which inspired Baudelaire and Manet as early modernists. Le Corbusier was

also interested in efficiency and materials, and I have focused on the “mundane” materials

of modern fabrication as both subjects of my painting (siding and fences) and objects in

the construction of my models.69

Through the introduction of modernist architectural thought (particularly of Le

Corbusier) into my work, I have found that understanding the ideological (and sometimes

utopian) vision at the heart of modernist thought has helped me to work through the huge

amount of writing that has been done on the subject, much of which focuses on either

celebrating or damning it altogether. Modernism’s boosters tend to focus on the technical

advancements in construction that it has made possible; the well-meaning, utopian visions

at the root of its grand plans, and the areas in which these goals have been achieved.

Modernisms’ detractors point to the ways that these plans and structures have failed their

inhabitants, and the tendency of modernist interventions to dictate to people what is best

for them, without asking them for input. I have recognized that the physical legacy of this

history is all around us, and in my work I am not trying to side with the boosters or the

69
Berman, 1982, 168.

33
detractors, but to present both realities of modernism simultaneously. In my experience,

contrasting viewpoints are usually present at the same time, and a balanced understanding

of a situation involves accepting this dichotomy. These contradictions need to be present

in the kind of paintings that I want to make, ones that allow multiple interpretations,

contain layers of meaning, and discourage viewers to arrive at an easy conclusion.

34
III. Models and Modernism

In this last section I tell the story of an event that happened in the West Lodge

Towers that inspired me to make more work about that location, and how difficulties in

realizing that work led me to arrive at the addition of model building to my process. I

explain how the use of models has been a breakthrough in my work by helping to enhance

the tactics of the flâneur, enrich the image-building process, improve control over visual

elements, and allow for better integration of theoretical influences. I also look at the

theory of the panopticon, its unusual incarnation in the West Lodge, and how it actually

aids illegal activities. I discuss why artists working today are looking back to modernism,

and what they are finding there.

A high modern grow-op

Figure 5 “Untitled: Grow-op” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm

35
 In researching the history of the West Lodge Towers I learned of a remarkable

story that could be further developed in my work. In 2004 the Police investigated a

break-and-enter on the top floor of the West Lodge Towers to discover a full scale

marijuana grow operation within the unit. They suspected that organized crime was

responsible and a rival gang most likely carried out the robbery. 70 Only once they began

dismantling the equipment did they discover the full extent of the operation. Police

discovered large holes drilled through the concrete floor allowing electrical wiring and an

irrigation system through to a similar operation in the unit below. They followed the trail

to eight more units that had been converted, and through tips, an additional four more

were discovered for a total of twelve units. All were located on the top two floors in the

penthouse suites (Figure 5, Page 35). There were no occupants and the units were set up

strictly to grow, harvest, and package marijuana. All of the windows were boarded over,

some doors were nailed shut and makeshift walls were constructed out of wood, metal,

and plastic sheeting. Two feet into the doorway, visitors were met with hanging live

electrical wire; there were hundreds of feet of cable throughout the apartments,

connecting to electrical ballast boxes, fans, timers and industrial grow lights. Each

apartment was also equipped with an elaborate exhaust system to vent odors to the

outside, and air fresheners and mothballs were used to mask fumes and disguise the

operation. There were also large bags of soil brought into the apartment building, enough

to fill a farmer's field. A total of 1,250 plants valued at $600,000 and equipment worth

$80,000 was confiscated. There were an estimated $225,000 in property damages due to

70
West Lodge Tenants Association, 2003, Web

36
moisture and mold, changes to ventilation, exhaust, and electrical systems, and structural

damage from the drilling and demolition.71

Elements of this story appear in a group of paintings depicting interior views of an

apartment (Figure 5, page 35; Figure 6, page 37; Figure 7, page 38), and a parking garage

(Figure 8, page 43). The grow-operation occurred inside of the West Lodge Towers, and

the additional paintings relating to the building serve as companion pieces. The paintings

need not work together to form a detailed narrative, there is no intended order to view

them and each work is able to stand alone. While the viewer would not need to know

how the works were related, I liked that the paintings could work together if time was

taken to piece it together. The practical problem emerged that up until this point I had

based my paintings on photographs that I myself had taken of the locations visited, but

these grow-ops had already been dismantled, so it would be impossible to photograph the

grow-op full of plants, in the process of being set up, or dismantled.

Figure 6: “Fan” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm

71
Cal Millar, Pot grow-op high above Parkdale. (Toronto Star, March 9, 2004)

37
 When painting from a photograph I am not conceptually rigid in regards to

faithfully re-producing every aspect of the image. I have often omitted elements that I

thought would not help the painting, or added in elements from other photos to improve

the composition. I began to find that I was becoming frustrated at the limitations that this

approach was providing. Shooting from multiple angles in the field did not always yield

what I needed to work from in the studio. I wanted more control over the inclusion and

placements of items, and was getting picky about vantage points and framing and wanted

to be able to work them out while setting up the painting and not be at the mercy of what

was already shot. But I had ruled out the option to paint from my imagination, or to add

in elements that did not come from source material, and I was attached to the way that

real locations could be used to give historical and social context to events and scenes

depicted. All of these concerns and frustrations were at play when I found the solution

was to create and work from a model.

Figure 7: “Floral Room” 2010, Oil on Panel 23 x 31 cm

38
Models: Re-creating and translating events beyond the flaneur’s gaze

To create source material for my paintings, I decided to create miniature scale

models of the apartments that had been converted into marijuana grow operations. Rough

floor plans of the layout were obtained and the floor and walls were built out of plywood.

I left the ceiling and fourth wall missing so a camera could be maneuvered around and

inside what looks like a small theatrical set. I cut floor tiles to scale, printed off a small-

scale wallpaper pattern, and installed plexiglass sliding doors leading out to a balcony

with a barbecue grate for a railing. I carved a sofa in Styrofoam and upholstered it with

thin fabric. Various furniture and items needed to set up a grow room were made from

scraps and everyday items.

I did not want the paintings to be read by the viewer as the original location from

the real world. The actual location was not accessible and I did not want to give the false

impression that I had been there myself. I constructed a model with all of the components

that I considered to be important for the retelling of the event, and I wanted to present that

process for what it was. As such, it was important to me that the painting of the model be

read as a painting of a model. As long as the key elements of my ‘set’ were in place, I

did not care if slight imperfections, and traces of construction were visible. These

irregularities when depicted in the painting become details, the clues that allow the nature

of the model source to be evident. In the photos of the models it is quite clear what they

are made from, but after these images undergo the transformation into painting, there is a

danger that the result might look like a loose painting of a real room. For this reason,

39
rendering the details has become very important to these paintings and a big part of what

makes them work. The richness of textures is another detail that is accentuated through

my process. I think that these details are more apparent because of my intimate

relationship with the miniature space. I can get in close, and see so much more visual

information from six inches away than when taking in an entire room from ten to twenty

feet away. This difference in details comes through in the painting and produces a

tension that makes the paintings both unusual and interesting. The paintings depict entire

rooms, but with the sensibility and texture of a still life – making them seem distant from

a real experience yet at the same time more crisp than reality.

The alteration that happens to the original image as it undergoes translation is also

a big part of this process. The shift from three-dimensional object to a two-dimensional

painting seems more dynamic here than my paintings done directly from photographs.

This shift, along with the other details, has contributed in new and unexpected ways to

produce more interesting paintings.

Panopticon

The story behind the Apartment painting (Figure 3, page 25) sparked an interest

that I have in surveillance and the panopticon. In the case of the West Lodge Towers,

neither surveillance, security, nor the self-monitoring impulse resulting from implied

surveillance had any deterring effect on criminal behavior. The bizarre situation of a 12-

unit grow operation and the ways in which the panoptic structure somehow worked in

favor of the criminal element are of great interest to me, and have come out in my

paintings by way of the use of models.

40
 The unusual shape that the towers share with the Toronto City Hall closely

resembles the circular tower of a panopticon designed by the 18 th-century utopian

philosopher Jeremy Bentham. His prison designs had a guard tower housing a monitor in

the middle, who was capable of looking into all of the cells – also presenting the

possibility of constant supervision needed to induce paranoid self-policing. 72 The West

Lodge has no guard tower in the middle, but tenants would, however, have a view across

the gap into each other’s suites, the ability to hear if anything unusual was happening next

to them, and a peephole from which they could view activity in the hall. It is clear from

the presence of the grow-op that the possibility of neighbors noticing something and

reporting it was not much of a deterrent for this group of criminals. The amount of

drilling through cement that they did would have created noise for neighbors that would

be like living next to a construction site, but there were no complaints. There was also a

security guard on duty with access to a network of video cameras on every floor, capable

of observing all comings and goings. Contemporary social critics often assert that video

surveillance technology has allowed for the deployment of panoptic apparatus invisibly

throughout society by bringing the gaze of a superior into the daily lives of the

populace.73 Cameras were installed in the hallways and entrance to the buildings but

these did not deter the criminals from bringing loads of equipment and soil up elevators to

the top two floors.

In the West Lodge I was very surprised to find that one of the strongest

embodiments of a physical and theoretical panoptic structure was also home to this
72
Steve Graham, ed. The Cybercities Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003)

73
Steve Graham, ed. The Cybercities Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003)

41
extraordinary example of a flagrant criminal endeavor. This puzzled me, and I attempted

to figure out how this could happen. I could not imagine one investing so much money,

time and effort into such a risky operation, but it seems they would have succeeded, had it

not been burgled (itself another major crime to be carried out without yielding a suspect.)

The original modernist logic in the building’s design was to create an ‘exclusive’

space, set apart from the surrounding neighborhood accessible only from the secure inner

doors. Unwanted traffic was kept out in the name of privacy and security and this

seclusion benefited the criminal element, who must have figured out that the guard tower

had been abandoned. Perhaps in a panopticon where everybody knows there is no guard,

the fear of detection and punishment is still present, but operates in the reverse of how it

is intended: tenants might be intimidated to report suspicious behavior for fear of reprisal.

Whatever the exact circumstances that made this scenario possible, it is clear that

the power of the panoptic structure, like other structures of modernism, requires

maintenance or else it crumbles and dissolves.

Translation: The Model’s Strange View

Learning the story of the grow-up led me to use models in my process, and the use

of models in turn suggests, through visual means, the presence of a panoptic system. This

occurs because the use of models allows me to take advantage of unusual vantage points.

In Floral Room (Figure 7, page 38) we are looking in to a living room from an angle not

possible in the real world unless you are having an out-of-body experience or the roof had

been torn off. Although the viewer’s gaze is voyeuristic it doesn’t seem intrusive or

42
 Figure 8: “Model study for Parking Garage” 2011, Photograph, size variable

un-invited. It suggests rather that the viewer is greater than the room – that they loom

over it like a dollhouse and would have the power to manipulate its contents with ease.

This simple change in angle shifts the viewer’s perception of the room from that of an

inhabitant to that of the panoptic observer.

The Parking Garage (Figure 8, page 43) painting proposes a different relationship

of association by raising the vantage point of the viewer to slightly above the typical

standing height of a person in that setting. This viewing angle suggests the perspective of

a closed-circuit surveillance camera, instilling in the viewer, on the one hand, a detached

feeling of safety and control and on the other, the apprehension that a crime has just

43
occurred or is about to occur. There is no clear sign of violence or wrongdoing but there

is a feeling of sinister undertones in this image of a jeep being unpacked.

Playing with these unfamiliar viewpoints has also made it easier to spot the

‘interesting spaces’ that I have been attempting to discover in my paintings - spaces

similar to the bottom portion of the Apartment painting (Figure 3, page 25) Being able to

transform our perspective of the model allows me to create unusual and evocative spaces

and effects.

Of the shifts and revolutions I have been concerned with, the one that I am

perhaps most concerned with is the revolution that I am looking for in my own work, and

I believe that I have found it in this aspect of translation in my process. I look for ways

that modern theory translated into built form, evolved and developed, and then I

transform the findings into a small three-dimensional model in preparation for the final

translation through photography again and into a painting. The translation to model

allows me to keep all of the connections that the original location has to history, to

emphasize the connotations as I see fit, to access the subject from new angles, and to use

these tactics to load the image with layers of meaning.

The translation of these miniature facsimiles also create intricate imperfections,

rich textures, and unusual vantage points which become the details that work together to

create amazing source material for paintings. Here the materials used to build the small

replicas are as crucial to the process and deserve as much consideration as real architects

give them. It is a time consuming and labor-intensive process, but the transition through

each stage is crucial because it contributes to what for me is a new kind of painting.

44
Why modernism? Why now?

Young artists working today wish to be a part of a critical project. They want to

participate in and believe in a movement that would promote new and meaningful ideas

and propose effective strategies of making art. For these reasons, I think that the notion

of the avant-garde is newly appealing today. The making of manifestos and the offering

of progressive art practices as alternatives to the status quo again seems fulfilling and

exciting. It is impossible, however, for artists in the postmodern era to attack this project

in the same way as the postmodernists did – because there does not exist one clear model,

one wave of ideas and methods, for the new generation to dismantle. The linear

progression that for decades saw one movement replacing the last has given way to a

multiplicity of waves, moving in different directions, with no clear homogeneous

characteristics that we can focus on and oppose. If artists today look back to the last time

there was a big movement to question, they must to go all the way back to the goliath of

modernism.74

However, instead of finding a single opponent, artists today who look back at

modernism find that a multitude of artists were working with sincerity and devotion in a

wide range of areas. The idea of believing in something, and being strongly devoted –

central to modernism – is appealing in of itself, perhaps more so than being in opposition.

For artists today, continuing to fight against modernism does not make sense anymore:

postmodern movements have already torn it apart, and embraced its polar opposite in

order to dismantle and discredit it. The postmodernists were stimulated in their opposition

74
Wall, 1995, 245.

45
to the restrictions of high modernism and through it found the cause that they desired. The

urgency has long since disappeared from that fight, and with it the shared motivation that

came from toppling modernism. This marked the last time that all genres of art

production shared a common goal. The freedom to make art out of anything and

everything, which postmodernists fought for and won, has remained. But now, years of

making art about ‘anything’ has left some artists searching for something more.

In the 1990s Nicolas Bourriaud proposed “altermodernism” as the movement to

emerge out of the wake of postmodernism. Altermodernism was to be an alternative to

modernism or an “altered modernism.” He claimed “history is the new continent to be

discovered,”75 and that artists are now seeking a new modernity that would be based on a

translation. Bourriaud claims through the “reloading process” of addressing modernism

according to the 21st-century,76 artists are looking back to modernism and finding avenues

that can be resurrected and explored further. When these historic ideas and approaches

are used today, new connotations are added and what was history becomes something

new. In my work, I am not mining the past for formal or aesthetic styles to incorporate

into my paintings. What interests me is to learn about what ideas were influential in the

past, and look at how these influenced the way things were built and created, and then

find evidence and remnants of these in the present. I find it engaging to search through

both books and the city to find these remnants.

During the first year of my BFA in 1999, my sculpture professor made the

exasperated comment: “I fought the system for years to allow smashing a cement block
75
Nicholas Bourriaud, “Altermodern Manifesto: Postmodernism is Dead.” TATE Britain. TATE Britain,
(n.d. Web, 10 Sept. 2010)
76
Nicholas Bourriaud, 2010.

46
with a hammer to be considered art, and now that I am in a position to allow this, you

want me to show you how to carve busts.” The work that he had made in his time was

exciting and relevant because it was breaking new ground, and challenging how art could

be conceived and displayed. But now, there is a danger in simply repeating this type of

work – of stagnating and becoming doctrine, losing the potency it once had.

At that time in my career, I did not want to carve busts, and I did not see myself as

wanting to return to classical techniques, and looking back, I recognize the pertinence of

his comments. I knew that I wanted to paint, to learn and perfect techniques in order to

create contemporary images, and to create a long-term project for myself. The project

started by creating rules and parameters to work within. The rules have changed and been

broken many times, but my priority has always been to develop a system of working that

could encompass all of my interests and skills. Series of paintings would come naturally

out of working through this process. I realize now that perhaps the perfecting of my

process has always been my subject.

Conclusion

My process is my subject, but a process cannot function by itself, it needs to

engage with subject matter. This paper has explored the mechanics of my practice and by

identifying the subject matter, I can reveal what drives me to make an image. The

buildings, streets and spaces I encounter and find remarkable as a flâneur at the very start

of my process, serve to criticize, celebrate or both. The desire to create a socially

conscious image lies at the heart of my drive to make a work, and the various stages of

my process allow me to incorporate into the work what I need to make a good painting.

47
 I am stimulated by Bourriaud’s claim that the next major movement would be

identified by the translation of modernism into the contemporary mode. I engage with

modernist history by locating incarnations of its practice and theory on the streets of the

present day city. These findings are the subject matter that feeds my process. Translation

and the attention to details that point to translation have produced a breakthrough in my

practice and are responsible for my strongest work to date.77

When Manet introduced revolutionary approaches to pictorial space in his

paintings, he did not publicize the innovative strategy of incorporating photography that

made them possible and his paintings were considered remarkable because of their

contribution to the history of painting. I have paid a great deal of attention to discussing

in detail all of the steps of my process and what they individually contribute because they

are all necessary in order to make my new kind of painting possible. Whether, ultimately,

I divulge the inner workings of the process to the viewer or not, does not matter because

their contributions are incorporated in the completed painting and for me the painting is

the most important thing.

77
Nicholas Bourriaud, 2010.

48
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