Chapter VI: Greysville - THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE

Chapter VI: Greysville
THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE
Lisa Lipton

September 8 – October 27, 2018
Opening Reception: September 8, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Super Crawl: September 14-16, 2018 (extended hours)

Multidisciplinary artist Lisa Lipton’s experimental feature film, THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE, was created over four years during a research journey across North America. Informed by interviews and collected stories throughout the artist’s travels, the unconventional narrative unfolds through the eyes of nine intriguing characters, each living in a different city. The resulting chapter-based film is borne of Lipton’s fearless exploration and immersion in each community. Created site-specifically through local collaboration, THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE is presented alongside sculptural installations, costumes and props, paintings and musical compositions that reflect living within a particular time, place, and community.

The sixth chapter, Greysville, on view at Hamilton Artists Inc. was filmed in Middle Sackville, NS. Greysville documents the halfway point within Lipton’s narrative. It is the arrival home from running away, being brought back to a beginning that places you in your parents' basement and the existential state of your 16-year-old self. It is the grey zone, a feeling of uncertainty, hopelessness and mediocrity under a haze of broken dreams. In Greysville, the underdog team is being counseled to fight in order to win.

This exhibition is accompanied by a publication with essays by Ryan David Allen and Ivan Jurakic, which can be downloaded HERE. (PDF, 3.7 MB)

Maritime-born Lisa Lipton is a multidisciplinary visual artist, musician and director who received her B.F.A. from NSCAD University and M.F.A. from the University of Windsor. Her projects explore the potential for crossing genres of film, mixed media installation, performance, theatre and music. Her visions are reflective of an interest in directorial and curatorial practices, collaboration and social interaction, as well as working within non-traditional contexts in order to explore the boundaries of performance and filmic production. She has exhibited her work on both a national and international level, and most recently served as the Shortlist representative for the Maritime Provinces within the Sobey Art Awards (2015), as well as Longlisted in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013 & 2012. She recently released a new sci-fi project – Soon All Your Memories Will Be With Me at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art + Design, where she is also working as an Assistant Professor in Sculpture.

Ryan David Allen is a writer living in Montreal his wife Taylor. He has collaborated with Lisa Lipton on several projects over the last eight years and hopes to collaborate with her again in the future.

Ivan Jurakic is the Director/Curator of the University of Waterloo Art Gallery. He received his MFA from SUNY Buffalo and an Honours BA from the University of Guelph. Since 2004 he has curated numerous exhibitions, sat on the curatorial panel for the 2009 Sobey Art Award, and co-curated Romancing the Anthropocene for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2013. His writing has appeared in numerous publications. He is also a principal of TH&B, an artist collective whose projects address the intersection of urban and rural environments. He lives in Hamilton.

Lisa Lipton’s Chapter VI: Greysville is presented in conjunction with her solo exhibition THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE, on display at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery from September 13-October 27, 2018.