Exhibition -

KMLA @ AUTOMAT

936 CHUNG KING ROAD

LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

info@katharinemulherin.com

www.katharinemulherin.com

is proud to present

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

featuring new works by

MICHAEL CAINES

HEATHER GOODCHILD

and

KRIS KNIGHT

DECEMBER 12, 2009- JANUARY 17, 2010

Opening reception: Saturday, December 12, 2009 , 6-9pm

I shall be telling this with a sigh


Somewhere ages and ages hence:


two roads diverged in a wood, and I—


I took the one less traveled by,


And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost, from The Road Not Taken, 1915

Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is sometimes mistakenly entitled "The Road Less Traveled" which comes from the final lines of his poem. The title for this exhibition relates to this "renaming" in that reinterpretation is at the centre of the theme of this exhibition.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED features new works by Canadian artists Michael Caines, Heather Goodchild and Kris Knight. Working in a variety of media, each artist approaches their image-making practices from their own constructed narratives…..tales woven from traditional imagery and symbolism, reworked to offer a contemporary context.

Michael Caines' images are all based on his upcoming book: "Revelations of Dog", slated for publication in the fall of 2010 from Mark Batty Publisher, (distribution in North America by Random House.) It will be the second in a series of five books by five artists, all drawing on the text of the Book of Revelation.

For inspiration, Caines looked to turn of the century illustration - Winsor McCay particularly, Goya's Caprices, and favorite childhood books like Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows.

Caines is particularly interested in how, historically, the book has been used as a kind of tabula rasa on which politics and religious conflicts can be projected - a kind of call to arms by Saint John the Divine to the Christians of the time to bare up under the yoke of the Romans. The seven-headed beast, as an example, has been interpreted as representing 7 Roman emperors, different popes etc.

The poetry of the book, ripe with wild imagery, has always resisted scholarly interpretation. The artist's version takes a scatter-shod approach that ranges from pure fantasy to the injection political images (Sarah Palin as the whore of Babylon for example), and largely uses animal imagery - God is a giant black poodle!

Heather Goodchild contributes two rug hookings from her recent series titled

" The Fire and the Knife" . Exploring her practice of storytelling through textiles, she continues a representation of her fictional Anna Ward Brouse society. In her previous exhibitions, Goodchild invented the society's origin story. The pieces are inspired by Sunday school banners, Girl Guide badges, Freemason regalia, stained-glass windows: items designed to intrigue and fascinate, but also to impart moral lessons through symbolic imagery.

Says Goodchild, "I am interested in the rituals and symbolic language of religions and other institutions. Like many people today, I don't belong to a particular religion, but I still feel drawn towards ritualized moral guidelines. Through imagining the Anna Ward Brouse society and its teachings, I am able to construct a set of values that resonate with me." Personal transformation demands sacrifice.

"Freemasonry is an example of an institution with a moral code that's all about the challenge of building yourself as a good, moral person. The Freemasons created rituals and symbolic languages to explain why self-improvement is important and to inspire members to continue to aspire to higher levels, despite the difficulties involved. The message is serious, but the rituals are theatrical."

The values that inform Goodchild's works are borne out not only in the paraphernalia of the society that Goodchild creates, but also in her practice. By deliberately choosing labour-intensive ways of making her works, Goodchild is practicing what her creation Anna Ward Brouse preaches. Large, intricately patterned rugs, hooked with strips of hand-cut wool on burlap, take hundreds upon hundreds of hours to complete.

Kris Knight's work draws from personal history that explores his upbringing in rural Canada. In his new series of portraits, Knight creates a distinctly "northern" look. These works continue to expand his themes of protection and vulnerability. Throughout his career, the artist has focused on these themes in various series of works, through the depiction of his characters' dress (hoodies, parkas, Nordic sweaters, blankets, furs) or setting (nocturnal forest for secretive rural queer teen love). Each painting is an attempt to create a thrilling uneasiness. The sweaters in these portraits depict both an exploration of process in paint, texture, and pattern, but also continue the protection/vulnerability theme. The palette for the skin tones draws from French 18^th century portrait paintings, reflecting another form of protection, when nobility hid their flaws behind ghostly caked makeup. Knight examines traditional portraiture, but places it in the contemporary moment.