Catch + Release is a two-part installation of recent work by Joey Morgan. Catch + Release (1) is comprised of a series of painting assemblages, primarily graphite, oil and powdered pigment on mylar (each approx 71 x 30 inches) attached by tiny magnets to iron frameworks (2 inches deep). Catch + Release (2) is a series of very short video vignettes –ad hoc assemblies of disparate images and narration. These two parts are connected by a large video projection of a bonfire.
The Title: The phrase refers to catching a fish–pulling it out of its mysterious depths, and then releasing it–allowing it to fall back home. It’s thought to be a humane gesture. There is a tease there, a lure, and a clear declaration of power. The phrase can pivot to seductive play or political threat or to how you try to hold on to a subconscious thought as your waking body forces you back into the quotidian world.
The Objects: Formal with the weight of the iron framework, they seem to have been placed a bit high on the wall. Bits of copper catch the light. The face can seem full of energy, battered metal but strong, and then tentative and vulnerable–translucent in parts. There is tension as the magnets stretch the surface and hold one part to the other.
The Videos: Each begins with the same introduction (have I seen this before?) and spirals into a short burst of exploratory memory or obsessive thought. The space between image and text invites a further reckoning.
The Fire: In Vermont people designate a winter jacket to be worn to the bonfire; over the years the sparks burn holes. The warm embrace of a fire burning all night long, the violent pulse of flames, the scattering of ash – one’s mind wanders.
However abstract the conceptual framework may be, the first punch is emotional. Scale and points of attachment tether a piece to the analog world; but gaps are the essential components, giving the work breath. The piece may address shared experience from a particular voice, but it is received, interpreted and essentially altered by the visitor. What meaning there is resides with the viewer. These romantic precepts have endured, I think, throughout the body of my work.
- JM
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Joey Morgan has developed public artworks and multi-disciplinary installations which have been shown in site specific contexts and gallery exhibitions in the United States, Australia, Europe and Canada. She represented Canada in 1992 in the Sydney Biennial and represented Vancouver in 1996 in Copenhagen's 96 Containers, Art Across Oceans.
Solo and major exhibition venues have included Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, France; the Passerelle in Brest, France; the National Gallery of Canada; the Power Plant and Mercer Union in Toronto; the Musée d'art Contemporain, Centre International d'Art Contemporain (CIAC), Optica Gallery, and the Darling Foundry in Montréal; the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff; the MacKenzie Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Presentation House, and the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Major installations have been acquired by institutions including the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Musée d'art Contemporain in Montréal, MacKenzie Gallery in Regina Saskatchewan, the City of Vancouver, and the Art Bank of Canada.