There is a strong tradition of landscape painting in Canada; Canadian artists (both historical and contemporary) have long been preoccupied with the variety, the beauty and the occasionally hostile terrain of our geography. As Canadians we are defined by our landscape; it is a very deep and rich vein of content and identity for many, and is particularly relevant to me. However the landscapes most of us see today are made up on highways and traffic, not pristine lakes and forests. To me this is a poignant development in the evolution of our relationship to the land. I feel a strong impulse to represent this authentic and contemporary landscape as a counterpoint to the rich history of landscape painting.
I also see the subject-matter as archival: I believe that (if not now) there will be a future where such consumption and disconnection will be remarkable. I predict future generations will be aghast at the societal choices we make: the failures of urban planning; why we choose to continue to develop cities in ways contrary to human values; why we are always moving around; and by the frank and unapologetic consumption of finite resources.
Road Works and other Traffic / October 14, 2016
Ottawa artist Diane Hiscox has a very painterly exhibit at the Patrick Gordon Gallery … of highways, cars, traffic. The work captures sensations of transitory moments most North Americans have experienced while traveling on highways.
Diane has used this encounter, an omnipresent experience of urbanscape and countless seemingly mundane rapidly passing moments to create drama and beauty with competing perspectives, luscious and luminous surfaces, dynamic compositions, and glorious elements of light. The geometric and machine fabricated elements (such as automobiles, trucks, road signage, exit ramps, and asphalt roadways) are juxtaposed with the lyrical romanticism of a daybreak sky, late afternoon, or evening light, or night travel or of a few lonely trees standing meekly along a stretch of flat southern Ontarian landscape.
Hiscox frames views from above and from afar. Many include ribbons of the vapours of exhaust, steam, fog, and motion time-lapse photography. Hiscox is an intelligent artist whose painting historically nod to several others, including Canadian painters of the Ontario landscapes, David Milne and the 1960s Magic Realist, Jack Chambers, and to British painter David Hockney. A very few are reminiscent of Sisley’s or Turner’s palettes. With its underlying commentary on the impact of road transportation systems and fossil fuels weighing so heavily on our planet’s future, Hiscox has cleverly created layered meanings of both art and social commentary in her latest works with beautiful results.
Review by Dawna Moore, MFA