Prototype for a Model of a Theory (1999)

Before joining the firm(ament) of Wallace, Wall, Graham and Lum, Roy Arden was attracted to collage and its 3D cousin, assemblage. His 1985 essay on Al Neil, published when he was 28 years old, announces an intellect that continues to both inspire and enrage.

Around fifteen years ago, Arden returned to the mediums that first attracted him to visual art practice. Collage and assemblage, but also painting. (Sorry, here not there.)

Above is a sculpture Arden made in 1999, entitled Prototype for a Model of a Theory. I have seen variants of this work at the CAG and Monte Clark Gallery, but never in this form. Thank you to Christopher Brayshaw for sending it to me.

Gutter with Rags #2 (2002)

Yesterday's picture could be seen as an example of what artist Roy Arden has called the "landscape of the economy," a term he coined in the 1990s to organize a series of works that show the impact of the capitalist mode of production on the natural environment. Not the built environment itself, such as towers and roads and the intersections between public and private space, but the dross we heap atop it, like the discarded wood (from a film production?) at the centre of Robertson's picture.

The above picture is by Roy Arden, entitled Gutter with Rags #2 (2002), from the artist's website. The picture below is the same picture but from the website of a private gallery who represents Arden's work. Note the difference in resolution, the care the artist takes in presenting his work versus that of a commercial dealer -- a difference so great as to constitute an entirely different work, one that could well be dubbed the "cyberspace of the economy."

Arden On Dick

"I was talking to some anthropologists the other day, and art historians, and, you know, we basically agreed that Beau's probably the best west coast artist since contact." -- Roy Arden