| Jaimie Henthorn and Faith La Rocque | April 23 – April 25, 2015 |
Toronto-based artist Faith La Rocque and Denver-based artist Jaimie Henthorn have been working collaboratively, at a distance, since 2009. Their disparate locations have always been a defining characteristic of their collaboration and thus, communication within the artistic process is a major consideration. On April 23, 24, and 25 G Gallery will present their current project, The Divers, which explores communication through artwork – first as a collaboration tool, and subsequently as a form of investing and conveying meaning.
Recently, the artists have been working on a series of pencil drawings generated by the Dadaist methodology of “exquisite corpse” exchanged via post, which has yielded an unexpected depth, unachievable with the extensive verbal planning that usually scaffolds collaborations. The drawings have been exhibited at Denver’s Groundswell Gallery (2013) and at De Luca Fine Art in Toronto (2014).
In The Divers, La Rocque and Henthorn apply this anachronistic methodology to the topic of transformation, desired or otherwise. These potential transformations may be gradual or sudden, generated by force or passivity. G Gallery will host art objects, installations, video works, and a continuous live performance by La Rocque accompanied by Henthorn via live web stream.
Jaimie Henthorn and Faith La Rocque met in 2004 in the M.F.A. program at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland, and began working collaboratively in 2009. They first showed the performance/installation “Massage Portal” at the Concertina Gallery, Chicago in 2010. They then embarked on a multi-faceted project based on the legends of the “she-wolf,” exhibiting works in Japan, the U.S., and Canada.
Faith La Rocque’s work focuses on the use of alternative health practices and products as both material and subject matter in order to convey ideas about human behaviour, the body, emotions and senses. Recent solo exhibitions include chisel to carve light thoughts at De Luca Fine Art (2014) and High Acceptance at YYZ Artists’ Outlet (2013) in Toronto. La Rocque has received several grants and prizes, including the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize (2010) awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Henthorn works with the moving body as performance, or photographing and video works, most often looking at the relationship of the body to built space. She has recently completed a PhD in Creative Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, U.K. Past performance venues have included the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and Mies van der Rohe Carr Chapel in Chicago and Henthorn has worked with various other artists including Gelitin, Cerith Wyn Evans, Oscar Tuazon, and Ei Arakawa.
