Friday, January 11, 2008 to Saturday, February 16, 2008
The Forest City Gallery is pleased to present Jolly Rogers, an exhibition featuring artists Les Newman, Mark Laliberte, Beth McEachen, Chantal Rousseau and Stephanie Davidson. The title Jolly Rogers infers a dialogue with the renowned pirates of the 16th century. Pirates terrorized the Atlantic Ocean forcefully taking cargo, ships, and crew as their reward. In modern society the term ‘pirating’ conjures a much different picture. The Internet has fostered an environment dependant on an open exchange of information. These techno environments have created a generation of ‘users’ who see the exchange of material forms not as copyright infringement, rather as a dialogue of growth and adaptation. DJ’s and artists re-mix past forms to create new ‘beats’ and visual forms. In Jolly Rogers artists exchange images, varying from Stephen King novel covers to CSI Vegas murder scenes, as forms of visual communication mirroring the exchange common in the landscape of the Internet. The web-browser – us – downloads and re-assembles music, videos, biographies, porn, accounts, and conversations through the act of pirating. The aggressive ‘thievery’ once associated with the pirate is now a common activity amongst today’s generation – a part of our visual language. The exhibition Jolly Rogers presents artists who embrace contemporary ‘piracy’ as an important form of cultural exchange.
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