Functioning, as de Haan says, “within and between the poetic, conceptual and absurd”, Like Dust brings together nine new works on paper, four sculptural works and an editioned set of photographs. These works, made of crystals, salt, marble, wood, metal, foil, “speculatively haunted” mirrors and brick, collectively suggest, often through slight gestures, various situations relating to time and material. Among other possibilities the exhibition proposes gazing into the grave plot directly above that of Marilyn Monroe’s; the containment of the Northern Lights; an energy generator composed of several dozen small selenite obelisks; and activity in outer space. Also notable is a new large work from the Salt Beard series which de Haan has previously built in Mexico and Iceland. These are mineral growths that are deposited onto the busts of various figures, based partly on the story of Rip van Winkle — the fictitious man who fell asleep under a tree for a number of years and awoke to an unfamiliar world. The Salt Beards aim to re-animate material, persona and style, allowing the sculpture to exist again as new while looking both forward and backward through time. The title, Like Dust, is therefore relative in one form or another to each individual work in the show, alluding to what, where and when we are, relative to the natural, the historical, the yet-to-happen and even to metaphysical realities.
Related press: Canadian Art – JDH at Clint Roenisch, Globe and Mail, Canadian Art top shows of 2010, Press Release
