day for night
Kyle Beal / Anna Hawkins
January 13 – April 21, 2023
College Art Gallery
Curator, Leah Taylor
This exhibition brings together two Alberta-based artists, Anna Hawkins and Kyle Beal. Their respective artistic practices share conceptual considerations, questioning human relationships to screens and devices, 24/7 online existence, and the effect these have on contemporary culture. The artworks in Day for Night employ various mediums to point to the blurred lines between our public versus private lives.
Hawkins’ film Blue light Blue utilizes the visual language of horror films, casting the blue light emitted by smartphones, laptops, and tablets as a threat that has been unwittingly invited into our most intimate spaces. Beal’s large-scale installation Business Class is comprised of 24 “open” signs, exact to the everyday sign that can be found in the window of businesses. The meaning of the word points to the fact that we are increasingly and unthinkingly making our lives open.
About the Artists
Anna Hawkins works primarily in moving-image and installation. Her work centres around the ways that images, gestures and language are circulated and transformed online, as well as the impact of technology on the intimate spheres of daily life. Hawkins’ has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She is an Assistant Professor in Studio Art at MacEwan University on Treaty 6 Territory ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan), Edmonton, Alberta. She completed a BA in Art History at the University of Pittsburgh and received an MFA from Concordia University.
Canadian artist, Kyle Beal, challenges convention through his conceptual art practice. Using a multidisciplinary approach, he incorporates a wide variety of media including drawing, sculpture and installation. Beal holds a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design (2001) and an MFA from the University of Victoria (2004). His work has been exhibited across Canada and the USA.
