Monday 28 September 2015

A Casting of Shadows - John Koyounian

October 6-31, 2015
Feeding Thoughts & Illusions

Opening Reception: 
Friday October 16, 7-9 pm

John is a graduate of the Fine Arts program at Fanshawe and holds an Honors Degree in Visual Art from Western as well as a Bachelor of Education. Currently John teaches visual art at Beal Secondary school in the Beal Art Program.

John explains his art in his own words:


The use of narrative has always been a large part of my creative process. Communicating ideas in a visual manner is a central component of my practice. Quite often themes and symbols are developed as a reaction to the stringing of words that can be found in not only my writing but also phrases gleaned from poets and various forms of popular culture.




Talk of the Town

We are all creatures of our experiences and observations. These experiences shape our world view and our concerns manifest themselves in our daily life and influence our perception of events. It is in moments of meditation that I find myself exploring those experiences in a visual manner. However there is a grey line between events and our perception of them. In the interior of our psyche we can at times infer events that conflict with our rational experiences and it is those projected thoughts that I am exploring. Not unlike the story of Plato’s Cave and the experiences of silhouettes that are casted shadows on a wall that represent the concrete world.







Iconoclast
The inclusion of contour lines plays with the idea that these projections are not truly there but are mere shadows. Their existence represents subconscious symbols which are a reaction, when projected upon our reality tell a different or new story.


Often times within these compositions the faces are hidden or intentionally cropped in order to develop a more universal experience for the viewer, this is done in order to allow the viewer to identify and see themselves or past experiences of their own within the work.