The featured exhibit runs February 1 – 28, 2025 in Metro Gallery in the Garneau Theatre lobby.
Artist Reception: February 1 at 2:00 pm
Artist: Andrew Thorne
Artist Statement:
On August 9th, 1948 Paul-Emile Bourdas, along with 16 other Quebecois artists publish the manifesto Refus Global. The publication would become highly controversial, costing Bourdas his position at École du Meuble de Montréal.
At the time, Bourdas represented Montreal’s Automatiste movement, who took their direction from André Breton and Surrealists who had left Paris during the War. However, Bourdas could possibly be better described as an anarchist, calling for a complete abolition of the Catholic Church and the Duplessis government in Quebec. While describing the Quebecois, Bourdas highlights a quality which exposes a fundamental trait of Canadian identity: fear. A fear that adheres us to a colonial construction of reason. Bourdas calls for a rejection of this rationale, and reason altogether.
In 2025, there are humanitarian crises in the DRC, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and the ongoing genocides in Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar. We can again ask ourselves, what is the rationale that brought us here? There continues to be a rising trend in fascism and conservative fundamentalism in our own country and across the world, further justifying the exploitation of people, and land. We are inundated by the noisy rhetoric and reasoning of political talking heads.
This is my attempt at making an irrational art. I have been drawn towards the rippling of colour, the soft granulation of sumi inks and watercolours. Observing the quiet, letting paper and material perform under their own will. Using stencils and collage while making my prints, I am trying to reject my own aesthetic conditioning by crumpling paper, and letting material lay where it lands. The resulting images are the accumulation of these explorations.
Andrew Thorne is an early career artist based out of Treaty Six territory, Edmonton. His practice has also been informed by his home in Mi’kmaki, or Moncton, New Brunswick, and experience living in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. Thorne received his BFA from NSCADU in 2020 and relocated to Edmonton in 2021. Recent projects include, large scale musical instruments built for the 2023 Works Art and Design Festival, and Unstructured at Lowlands Project Space in Edmonton. In 2023 Thorne had exhibitions at Harcourt House Artist Run Centre and the Grande Prairie Art Gallery. Also in 2023, Andrew had the privilege of participating in the Nina Haggerty RBC Emerging Artist Residency as well as St Michael’s Printshop Visiting Artist in Residence in St. John’s, NL. In 2024 Thorne has work at Hermes Gallery and AC World in Halifax, NS. Thorne was the featured artist for the SNAPline issue “Noise/Silence”. Andrew is also a regular collaborator with Anna Wildish, performing under many pseudonyms such as Oil City Demolition, and Anna/Andy.
