Kyle Terrence: ’Berta Boys
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Latitude 53 10130 100 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 0N8
Kyle Terrence, "’Berta Boys," 2019
Opening reception for members and guests: Friday, April 19 at 7 pm
The artist and collaborators in discussion: Saturday, May 11 at 2 pm
This spring, Latitude 53 introduces new film and installation work by Kyle Terrence. In ’Berta Boys, the artist and his collaborators delve into the remnants of Alberta's cowboy-oilfield masculine mythology, embodied in the accoutrements of pick-up-truck culture and character performances.
Terrence worked with collaborators Aaron Brown and Gabriel Esteban Molina to develop characters and actions based in and critical of the cowboy mythology of Alberta, and its icons: truck nuts, lift-kits, oil slogans, and the activity of hunting. In the gallery, the work takes the form of a short film as well as several sculptural installations that connect to scenes and images within it. Each of these three artists brings a specific attention to the subject from their own experiences and practices in Alberta.
Terrence describes the subject of ’Berta Boys as “the teetering instability of Alberta's hypermasculine identity”. This playful work has a curious relationship to the messy political space where Terrence and his collaborators make their homes: their campy, ironic performance, built around humorous interpretations of the fetish objects of this masculine cult, is also a space for them to look at themselves, and their own jocular, competitive performances. But for these three artists, this performance is perhaps also a way of coping with the tragedy of life in a place that celebrates men re-performing frontierism in ways that punish their own bodies and psyches.’Berta Boys then is an attempt at reckoning with the anodyne privilege of Alberta men, and the ambivalence towards an increasing crisis with our ecological and political landscape.
Kyle Terrence is a visual artist and filmmaker from Alberta, Canada. His practice explores the discourses of ecology, masculinity and theology, with a particular interest in the violent crossovers between them. Terrence received a Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia from the University of Alberta in 2016, where he developed his thesis work “Pilgrimage: being in the End times.” Terrence’s newest work “'Berta Boys” is concerned with the consequences of the aesthetic fusion of masculine and economic identities in the region of Alberta, which he explores through an overlapping range of media including video, performance, sculpture, drawing and writing. Terrence is based in Edmonton where he currently teaches a variety of studio courses at MacEwan University and the University of Alberta.
Aaron Brown is a multidisciplinary artist from Edmonton who holds a BA of philosophy from the University of Alberta. His practice utilizes a variety of mediums such as film production, performance and writing to engage with the intersections of transgression, desire and subjectivity. As a co-performer and co-writer of the 'Berta Boys project, his primary focus has been on how socio-economic class radically underpins hegemonic masculinity.
Gabriel Esteban Molina is a Canadian visual artist from Edmonton, Alberta who graduated from the University of Alberta in 2013 with a BFA in Fine Arts. In 2015, he completed his Masters of Art in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Arts in London, United Kingdom. He has had numerous exhibitions in Edmonton including a recent solo at Parallel Space and a solo exhibition in 2017 at Yamamoto keiko Rochaix in London, United Kingdom. He recently completed the Emerging Artist 2018 Residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will be undertaking a residency in Iceland in 2019.