Seth: Dominion at the Dundas Museum and Archives opens this Friday

[Barbara Hobot]

*RENDER presents Seth: Dominion at the Dundas Museum & Archives*

*February 7 through March 31, 2009*

*Opening: Friday February 6**th** at 7:00pm*



RENDER is pleased to present a new version of Seth's exhibition
*Dominion*at the Dundas Museum & Archives. Part of a tour of public
galleries and
museums organized by RENDER, the Dundas *Dominion* project will open on
Friday, February 6th and will run until March 31st. On Friday February 27th,
the Dundas Museum & Archive will host Seth in conversation with Andrew
Hunter (RENDER Director/Curator) at the old Dundas Town Hall. Also being
presented at the Dundas Museum and Archives is a program of vintage
documentary films curated by Seth.


*Dominion* is the elaborate, ever expanding, work-in-progress of the
renowned Canadian cartoonist Seth. An imagined place combining elements of
numerous early modern Canadian cities, *Dominion* captures the spirit of the
booming small metropolis at a time of community boosterism and growth that,
to the contemporary eye, can seem at times quaint and alien. It is a place
that embodies the confidence of many Canadian cities in the post Depression
and World War II era when the North American economy expanded, manufacturing
spread, and many cities were characterized by a level of civic engagement
(through service clubs and politics) unheard of today.


Developed over the past decade, *Dominion* takes Seth's distinct vision of
urban space off the printed page and into the format of an installation that
serves to both present the artist's growing collection of model buildings
and captures aspects of their interiors (the institutional décor of the city
hall, records office, archive and library, for example). As with all of
Seth's works, *Dominion* is infused with melancholy and an air of ambiguous
nostalgia tinged with a healthy dose of cynical humour. *Dominion* is a
cartoon space supported by an elaborate narrative vision that includes a
detailed history and character studies that can be funny and amusing but
equally dark. Dominion sits seemingly frozen at the cusp of the 1950s and
60s and one can imagine many of its buildings crumbling and fading in the
voracious urban "renewal" of the 1960s and 70s.


Visit the Dundas Museum and Archives website for more details (
www.dundasmuseum.ca). Dominion will be presented at the Confederation Centre
Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI, in the spring of 2009 and is available
for touring to other venues.


RENDER contact:

Andrew Hunter, Director/Curator

renderprojects at gmail.com

Barbara Hobot, Curator-In-Residence

renderevents at gmail.com

www.render.uwaterloo.ca


Dundas Museum and Archives contact:

Lisa Hunter, Curator

vdundasmuseum at on.aibn.com

www.dundasmuseum.ca



Images:

*Please Visit Dominion*, Seth, 2008


-- 
Barb Hobot
Curator-in-residence
RENDER
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave W
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1
render.uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 x33575
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://artslist.uwaterloo.ca/pipermail/artsannounce/attachments/20090202/305aa98e/attachment.html