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 22.02.2006 - 10.04.2006 Miles Collyer TrackTop Masks   Miles Collyer Blue Down, 2005, 8'' x 10'' digital ink jet print  Miles Collyer White Puff, 2005, 8'' x 10'' digital ink jet print  Miles Collyer Yellow/Brown, 2005, 8'' x 10'' digital ink jet print  Miles Collyer Green/White, 2005, 8'' x 10'' digital ink jet print I have over 300 balaclavas and 45 tracksuit tops. The balaclavas were more of a long-term collection that started as a kid basically having them to use in the Canadian winters. And then I kept expanding my collection just through an interest in visual associations with simple things like superheroes. I'm a thrift store shopper and these are just things I came across. I worked in a factory that basically sorted used clothing. So the track top was one of millions of garments that would come across my path everyday. I would throw t-shirts in the t-shirt bin and keep the track tops for myself. This work came from a slow progression. It didn't happen all in one day. It wasn't my intention to find them. It wasn't until the project was finished that I realized what I had and what I was working with. It wasn't until I stopped collecting them that I made the association between the two. I had fewer track tops than I had masks. The track tops were the main element. They had the design, they had the colors. The track top and the balaclava in recent years, at least to me, have been huge elements in everyday culture. You see them all the time. Those two things kind of just came together, not for any particular reason, but just to me because they co-existed together and I wanted to match them up. And they were also interesting to me because they had two different sides. The track top is passive, it's all about style, it's all about fashion, it's visual. And then there's the mask. It can have much more serious underlying issues where it comes from, be it terrorism or crime. A lot of people connect it with that. I personally don't, but it's there in the subtext. This work may have underlying currents of social commentary, but I'm not trying to expound on those. In this series it was basically two elements coming together; a collection of them both. If you put on a mask, you aren't yourself anymore, you aren't representing yourself. And, depending on how you use it, you could become whatever you want to be. It eliminates the personality and creates its own personality. In this case it doesn't really matter who's behind there. It's strictly stylistic. It's strictly visual. It's about this person and how they've ornamented themselves with these two things. I am the subject of the photographs, but they're not about me. I'm not trying to portray myself. I'm just the vehicle. It's just out of convenience. It's easier to use yourself than it is to recruit people. It's hard to direct people. I've never been comfortable being in the studio and telling people what I want. In this case since it wasn't about the person, it wasn't about if it was a guy or a girl, it had nothing to do with that, it was just as good to use me as it would be anybody else. I can tweak it because I know what I'm looking for. I'm not trying to say something about myself. It's strictly about the masks and the track tops. Miles Collyer Miles Collyer 1983 Born in Toronto, Canada 2006 BFA from the Ontario College of Art & Design, Faculty of Art Group Exhibitions 2003 SMIJ, Latvian Cultural Center, Toronto, Canada 2004 SMIJ, Latvian Cultural Center, Toronto, Canada 2004 The Build Up, The Let Down, XPace, Toronto, Canada 2005 Hero’s & Icons, Base Gallery, Toronto, Canada 2005 SMIJ, Latvian Cultural Center, Toronto, Canada 2005 Groin Magazine, Adrift, Toronto, Canada (Curated by M. Collyer & A. Coutts) 2006 Semblance, OCAD Student Gallery, Toronto, Canada Awards 2002 1st place in the Toronto District School Board Photography Challenge 2002 1st place in Photography at the Ontario Skills Challenge Competition 2004 Polaroid Canada Scholarship, OCAD 2005 Diana Myers Book Award, OCAD 2005 Mark McCain Tuition Scholarship, OCAD Print Publications 2004 Photo Life Magazine - Building/Worker 2005 Groin Magazine - Mask Buttons 2005 Look-Look Magazine #5 - TrackTop Masks Digital Publications 2005 www.inquiringmind.ca - Photos from the mind of Miles Collyer «close |
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