Hollis Baptiste, sociopolitical urban realist, is a curator and programmer at Studio Visuals in Toronto. Currently his work is on exhibit at Studio Visuals Gallery until July 13, 2003. He was also Co-founder of the Futuro Collective, a group of African Canadian artists which included Afua Marcus (writer/administrative curator), Stephen Fakiyesi (wood block and print artist), Stella Fakiyesi (photographer), and Pedro Alderete (multimedia artist). The Futuro Collective aimed to highlight black artists in a range of disciplines through exhibitions, archival development and documentation, artist exchanges locally and internationally, audio visual presentations at venues like artist-owned SOF Art House, located in Toronto. Futuro Collective completed a show in the Fall 2001 at SOF Art House Inc.
One of Baptiste's latest series is Gun Play. Check out Baptiste's
Studio 1 and Baptiste's Studio 2
to see photos of excerpts from his Gun Play series. Studio 2 photos highlight
work exhibited during the Fall group show The Future is ... which took
place at Toronto's SOF Art House Inc..
Gun Play - Artist Statement
As a society we tend
to disown things when they go bad, i.e. children. These same children
are a product of our society. We conveniently forget that they need our
guidance from doing wrong. The subconscious and subliminal messages we
convey to them through, music, television, video games, cyber space, fashion
etc. guides them toward violence.
I am concerned with the small and apparently insignificant conscious gestures
which can result in a society that praises and rewards acts of violence.
The gun is a big part of our society, that has been given the power to
control.
This power is evident in the ways the gun has become part of our daily
existence. We have placed guns on pedestals glorifying them. They have
been inter-woven into the fabric of co-existence to a point that it has
become the very glue that holds society together. It has taken over our
lives. We wear guns, we play with guns, we sleep with guns, we think guns
and we have ultimately consume guns.
The end results of this are confused, frustrated, misled children prone
to use violence as an outlet of emotions and feelings.
By showing the direct association I am over emphasizing the strangle hold
the gun has over us.
Artist Statement
HOLLIS BAPTISTE is a Toronto-based multimedia artist. Born in Trinidad in 1962. He has resided in Canada since 1972.
He collects, assembles and, often recontext- ualizes found screws, wire, pieces of wood, and an assortment of household paint. Baptiste sees the action of picking up an object as a casual encounter. He often keeps the found object for several years before he includes it in one of his works. Baptiste sees beyond the shape and form of the object and tries to put it into the context of his thinking.
To Baptiste, the very notion of art should be a reflection of what is happening in the world; as seen in his works which always go beyond sheer aesthetic beauty.
ARTIST