superyoung
to
Kamloops Art Gallery 101-465 Victoria St, Kamloops, British Columbia V2C 2A9
Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke, "Dear Lorde," 2015
colour video with sound, 27 minutes, Courtesy of the artists and Vtape
Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke // Mark Clintberg // Sarah Gotowka // Emily Gove // Terrance Houle Roselina Hung // Sarah Anne Johnson // Jenny Lin // Hazel Meyer // Marc-Antoine K. Phaneuf // Walter Scott
Curated by Zoë Chan
A fascination with youth’s attributed imaginary is vividly articulated throughout the artworks in superyoung, a companion exhibition to Kids these days. Displaying an aesthetics of youth, the featured artworks capture and embody an overarching youth-inspired perspective, mindset or way of communicating. Unlike many of the artists in Kids these days who predominantly assume the role of observer, the artists in superyoung unreservedly adopt and appropriate attitudes, styles, vernaculars and modes of expression commonly ascribed to youth and youth culture. This youth-inspired performativity also manifests itself less explicitly through the creation of artworks made within a coded sensibility of youth—as if made by youth themselves.
Comprised of drawings, collages, textiles, sculptures and videos, superyoung presents a wide range of work marked by aesthetics, styles and strategies that broadly evoke youth and youth culture. These works often display an unpolished, unschooled aesthetic or conversely, a naïve, romantic expressivity. Some recurring tropes are heightened emotionality, nostalgia, humor, playfulness, irony, cynicism and an appreciation of D.I.Y and pop culture.The curatorial research for this exhibition was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.