Much has been written about the significance, both figuratively and theoretically, of the dot in art. Pointillism, championed by such greats as Pissarro and Seurat, used dots to convey a new way of seeing. A personal favourite work by Winnipeg artist Jake Kosciuk is minimally constructed of five coloured dots pulled down the canvas. Paul Klee once charmingly wrote that a line is a dot that went for a walk. In local painter Frank Livingston's work dots function formally and figuratively as expressions of memory from a self-described "childhood filled with silences, secrets, and gaps". The artist spent his early years moving through foster homes and CFS custody, and it was these experiences that acted as impetus for his current body of work.
Frank Livingston
A recent graduate from the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, Livingston marks his first solo exhibition, now on view at Zsa Zsa West, with Memory Maps. The work is ambitious and organized into several loose themes: teeth, creatures, landscapes, and – most intriguing – a series of five portraits (My hero mom, Brother devil/angel, Grandpa Snapdragon, Grandma Petunia, and My cowboy Dad). The portraits anchor the exhibition because the depicted characters make an overriding interwoven narrative possible. Multi-coloured dots augment raw drawings, some additionally adorned by thread sewn into the canvas. Cleverly installed, the five family members gaze upon eight canvases titled Into the Woods #2-9 on the other side of the gallery. Ranging in scale, the trees are brightly coloured and abstractly rendered. Imbued with the dots created from those stories revealed to Livingston, they suggest the old adage of not being able to see the forest for the trees.
The effects of trauma can be lasting: periods of time confused, blurred, or lost altogether. This exhibition is, in essence, the record of an attempt at reconstructing a life through the stories that are not one's own. While each dot is a signifier of a particular moment or place in time, as a collective they assemble a new narrative. Livingston is undoubtedly working through and with intense memories but his art conveys a sense of fragmented healing.
Zsa Zsa West: https://www.facebook.com/events/483643121765113/?context=create
Frank Livingston: Memory Maps continues until March 29.
Lisa Kehler is a writer and curator from Winnipeg. She most recently co-authored the forthcoming publication Art Tomorrow: 40 Years of the Future Now (Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art 1972 - 2012). She holds a Masters in Cultural Studies: Curatorial Practices from the University of Winnipeg and is currently the Special Projects Director at Border Crossings. She is Akimblog's Winnipeg correspondent and can be followed @LisaKehler on Twitter.
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Frank Livingston at Zsa Zsa West
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