Art and Design Professor, Allen Ball, Presents Solo Exhibition "The Wordless Book and other deserts"
24 October 2012
View the Invitation
Associate Professor Allen Ball will be presenting a solo exhibition, entitled, “The Wordless Book and other deserts”, at Gallery @ 501 in Sherwood Park, from November 2 – December 21, 2012. The opening reception will be held at 7pm on Friday, November 2, 2012. This project interrogates the question of how an artist can represent their experience of modern warfare, and directly engages with the recognized challenges of documenting global conflict in our image-saturated context.
Bridge Walker, 2007
Compelled to gain a deeper understanding of Canada’s global commitments by directly experiencing Canadians at war, Ball accepted a volunteer post in the Canadian Forces Artist Program. In June 2007, he undertook a tour of duty in Egypt under the auspices of Operation CALUMET at the Multinational Force and Observers North Camp, El Gorah, northern Sinai. His mission, as an official Canadian War Artist, was to witness and document the daily lives of Canadians serving at the base.
This exhibition is the culmination of 5 years of work combining photographic images, taken while on his tour of duty with the Canadian Forces Artist Program, with a series of paintings based upon “The Wordless Book”. This catechism created by Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in the late nineteenth century, “The Wordless Book”, is still in use today, acting as a visual aid in the evangelical teaching of basic Christian principles. Together, these two bodies of work explore the historic associative and symbolic power of colour and sign to represent meaning in a contemporary context.