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Art General

Derek Sullivan

We May Be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants but Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars

by (author) Joan Stebbins

Publisher
Southern Alberta Art Gallery
Initial publish date
Apr 2012
Category
General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781894699426
    Publish Date
    Apr 2012

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Description

With appropriation and recombination as a strategy, Sullivan uses the poster as a medium of communication. Installed in semi-public locations, his kiosk projects address their sites by virtue of those who use them. The continuous postering results in an ever-changing subject matter dependent on whatever happens to be visible. By testing the limits of formal and conceptual associations, the works generate unexpected meaning from the abstractions of patterns and colours. The title of the exhibition reflects the artist's methods. Sullivan takes two well-know phrases and conflates them into one: Oscar Wilde's "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars", and Sir Isaac Newton's "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." The publication's dustjacket is in itself a work of art that unfolds to reveal a large poster.

About the author