« If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. »
_________ THINK TENT
Interested in finding, highlighting and addressing the relationships between the seemingly unrelated, Patrick Thompson a.k.a Evoke, presents his latest creation THINK TENT. A think tank comprised of 10 artists, designers, writers and teachers who brainstorm with the artist on new ideas in education.
Following the artist’s month-long residency in August at Le Labo, this exhibition will present multimedia works based on this research as well as recent creations made in Nanjing, China that will be presented to the public for the first time.
The works presented share tokens of Thompson’s experience that continue to criss-cross and draw lines between one another, eventually coming together as physical pieces. Thompson’s creation develops through a self-coined process he refers to as « mistakism », whereby the artist allows a memory, feeling, sentence, or some other bite of information to spark the beginning of a particular work. Imagery follows, inspired by the ‘in-between’ places found throughout the Canadian landscape, converging into dreamlike scenes. This union creates a pictorial space where imaginary characters, forms and marks can interact in a place that is whimsical as well as charged.
For Thompson, the practice of finding connections is a great way to learn, and that investigation has the potential to engage people / youth in ideas or subjects that they have otherwise ignored, because there is a way to connect it to something they already find interesting.
« The think tank is built upon the brainstorming I have been doing myself, about finding ways for education to effectively engage youth and encourage this creative exploration of making connections. » Patrick Thompson
_________ PATRICK THOMPSON
Born in 1978, Ottawa-based artist Patrick Thompson is part of the Canadian school of street artists. His installations, paintings, wall drawings, printmaking and sculpture are investigations of the idea of information explored through mass media, architecture, history and the dynamics of culture.
Known for his large-scale mural works, some of his famous works are Mural Painting, for the Quest University, (Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, 2008), and Iqalut Cultural Mural, Qikiqtani General Hospital (Iqaluit, Nunavut). His work also featured in key exhibitions of major Canadian museums such as Housepaint project (Royal Ontario Museum, 2008) and OFFGRID (Ottawa Art Gallery).
Thompson has always valued travelling as a source of inspiration and perspective. In the past 8 months he went from living in Nanjing, China to travelling around Thailand, Myanmar and Laos and finally spending a month and a half in Canada’s Arctic. Each journey is a new step in his creative process.
His work has been presented throughout North and Central America, Europe and Asia, including; The Royal Ontario Museum; Institute for Contemporary Culture in Toronto, Luminato, the Singapore Contemporary Arts Museum, Desert Generation at Artist House Gallery in Jerusalem, Lombardi Gallery in Austin Texas and INOPERABLE Gallery in Vienna, Austria. Wall painting installation work includes Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, SAW Gallery in Ottawa, Canada and Hualien, Taiwan.