Art Metropole

#14944

Mitch Robertson: 5,6,7 Economies of Good & Evil

Artist

Mitch Robertson

Plug-In ICA and Oakville Galleries

Price

$18.00

Date

2007

Publisher

Plug-In ICA and Oakville Galleries

Format

Catalogues

ISBN

978-0-921381-32-7

Size

8.5 × 10 inches

Length

96 pp

Description

5 6 7: Economies of Good & Evil is a catalogue of work by Toronto-based artist Mitch Robertson, placing his most recent project in the context of his career by way of images, texts, and an interview with the artist. This publication features full-colour reproductions of work spanning Robertson’s young, but prolific career, along with texts elaborating the conceptual foundations of his practice. To introduce readers to the artist’s early work, and reflect upon its evolving confrontation of industries surrounding celebrity, tourism, and popular myth, long-time curator Robert McKaskell speaks to Robertson about the life and legacy of his irreverent approach to art-making. From loud, crass gestures of self-promotion and the banality of mass production to cynical subversions of the souvenir market and his inquiry into the icons of exoticism, McKaskell and Robertson discuss the motivations behind what the latter playfully dubs, “family-friendly conceptualism.” His recent venture into symbolic archetypes of good & evil, and Christianity’s controversial corporate makeover, is the subject of Plug In ICA curator Steven Matijcio’s essay “Economies of Faith.” Charting the conflicted relationship between Church and commerce through history, Matijcio analyzes Robertson’s current body of hand-tinted photos, rubbings, paintings, and a modular church through the lens of contemporary religious practice. His analysis, in concert with a trajectory of images and McKaskell’s interview, produce a platform from which to view the punning, yet poignant practice of one of Canada’s most provocative artists.

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