Perhaps because the printing press made such a giant step by bringing about the industrial revolution, print-makers, within fine arts, are a special breed.
Not only are they concerned with creativity, ideas, and aesthetics, they must equally consider the mode of production. The planning of a print is like the building of a home where the materials and techniques lend shape to the product. First, the brain must work in reverse, always thinking in the mirror image, like reading backwards or trying to find a direction on a flipped map.
On display at the Headbones Gallery in Vernon from April 13 — May 27 is the work of print maker Don Carr. As an artist based in Toronto and Italy, Carr is ambitious in his vision, having produced many layered works that live along the road between science and the arts. Carr creates complex lithographic prints and then moves them into digital photo-montages.
Carr’s imagery blends science fiction and socio-political commentary, telling stories of the human condition reminiscent of images created following perestroika in Russia, a time of re-structuring the way Russian society was organized.
“The lithographs don’t refer to specific political or social issues,” said Carr. “More accurately, they arise from a general discontent with entrenched power relationships and the human condition.”
Carr further actualized his imagined worlds by moving into the third dimension, a step that furthered the imagery through science.
He created a hologram, which Headbones Gallery will present, titled Wired Dionysius. Referencing classical thought in the same arena as advanced technology, Carr confronts patrons with an image from the future. The hologram was a collaboration between Catherine Hahn, theatre designer, and Michael Page and the technicians of Photon, a hologram facility.
Carr’s prints and hologram are on display at the Headbones Gallery from April 13 — May 27. Located at 6700 Old Kamloops Road in Vernon, the gallery is open 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday and by appointment. For more information, visit www.headbonesgallery.com or call 250-542-8987.