Derek Sullivan
We May Be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants but Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars
- Publisher
- Southern Alberta Art Gallery
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2012
- Category
- General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781894699426
- Publish Date
- Apr 2012
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
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.