Exhibition -

The Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, 143 Simpson Avenue, Bowmanville

Curated by: Maralynn Cherry

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday: 11 am to 5pm, Thursday: 11 am to 8 pm, Sunday: 1 pm to 4 pm

The exhibition Two Cities by Toronto artist, John Dickson presents a selection of sculptural works spanning from 1994 to the present. Two major kinetic works in this show portray vastly different representations of cities: one is dark, in ruins and from the past, while the other is from the present, extending into the light and the clouds. The other works in the exhibition inhabit a space somewhere between these extremes.

Early work explored the sculptural and conceptual possibilities of water. In these sculptures and installations, water represented a natural force associated with randomness, chaos, the body, and the unconscious. Dickson's interest in water arose from its unpredictable and irrational nature, which is often at odds with humanity's desire for stability and constancy. This conflict often manifested itself through representations of calamity and disaster. Similar themes continued into later work, where the organic complexities of water were replaced by mechanical systems that imitated natural phenomena. In all the work, there is a tension and blurring between the natural and the cultural.