K8N
The K8N Collective, comprised of Steve Armstrong, Elizabeth Fearon, and Rupen, is interested in issues around the ongoing influence of Modernism and Minimalism. These include human scale, the human touch, evidence of our personal existence, chance and intentionality, and surface and substance.
In 2016, the collective began as 4A with Steve Armstrong, Bunny Bates, Gary Michael Dault, and Elizabeth Fearon and developed into K8N by 2019. The members of the K8N collective do not collaborate on individual works, each has their own practice, but they have a shared interest in the tradition they have inherited.
Visit them at their Facebook page
K8N
HISTORY
K8N consists of Elizabeth Fearon, Steve Armstrong and Rupen.
Armstrong’s work is primarily concerned with surfaces, which is ultimately the only thing we have access to. For example, drilling a hole in an object doesn’t reveal an interior, all it does is increase the surface area. He mostly works with plywood and considers paint, and the grain of raw wood to be completely equivalent. His application of paint avoids the ‘painterly’, and instead the paint appears to be literally substantial, to be seen as an object just as much the plywood. Nonetheless, it is inevitable that the surfaces will tend to have a virtual, illusory depth. The goal is to encourage the ambiguity of seeing something in two conflicting ways at the same time – an impenetrable surface and something that can be looked through.
In Fearon’s sculptures the compositional decisions assert a claim, or proof of her existence. The raw physical effort inherent in the reductive practice of carving is a mark of the hand and a measure of time. While the hand’s efforts are momentary, the resulting marks are captured in the permanence of the stone. Though Fearon’s hand manipulates the stone, the veins in the stone speak of a hidden interior which can never be revealed. These new works are just as diaristic as her realistic sculptures, though they explore existence rather than lived moments. Specifically, they talk about her existence in the modernist/minimalist language she has grown through.
Rupen’s most recent project begins as a blueprint-like drawing of forms, spaces, divisions, angle lines, etc. When that part of the work is complete, gouache paint is applied to selected areas. It is with this finished painting that he decides if the work will also be formed into a wall hung sculpture covering an area of about 4’x4’. Visually these works may be identified with a post minimalist practice. They also support the concept of copyright and chance formations.
Exhibitions:
Nov. 2021, Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street West, Toronto
Jan 6-30, 2021 Gallery 121, 48 Bridge Street East, Belleville, cancelled
July 19-28, 2019, Natural Light, 265 Old Weston Road, Toronto
Sept 17 – Oct 2, 2016, K8N pop-up gallery, 21 College Street West, Unit B, Belleville
INVITATIONS
