{"id":20508,"date":"2021-01-25T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20508"},"modified":"2021-01-25T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T18:58:54","slug":"artist-kegan-mcfadden-looks-at-love-and-loss-in-a-separate-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/01\/25\/artist-kegan-mcfadden-looks-at-love-and-loss-in-a-separate-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Kegan McFadden looks at love and loss in A Separate Peace<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s first striking about the work of local artist and A Separate Peace, and other bouquets<\/em> curator Kegan McFadden is how ordinary the images selected for the sprawling title piece of the show are. A Separate Peace<\/em> is a collection of 500 images of men facing away from the camera, caught in moments very different from the tragedy that popular media often associates with queer representation in art.<\/p>\n

These snapshots could have come from any given day over the course of a relationship\u2014which, of course, they did. McFadden screen-grabbed each one over the course of a year from Instagram; during that time, McFadden and his longtime lover decided to end their relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last year or so, I realized that that piece is actually a monument to my relationship that had ended after 20 years,\u201d says McFadden, \u201cand what I did over the last few years is write a long essay about what it was to leave each other after 20 years and how I was at the same time collecting images of what we no longer were, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Separate Peace<\/em> by Kegan McFadden (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This testament to the impossibility of describing the breadth of a love that lasted decades surrounds gallery-goers: it\u2019s 13 by 20 feet. The moments preserved in the images range from the banal to the bawdy, with family, friendships, and erotic love represented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I wanted to do and what I always do as an artist is\u2026 just hold up a mirror to something that\u2019s already taking place and kind of point to some activity there,\u201d says McFadden. \u201cWhat I love is every time I show this piece, there\u2019s people that gravitate towards different parts of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show is intimate, although that intimacy is not limited to that shared between two lovers. McFadden explores the complexity of intimacy through the lens of seven meaningful relationships he has had with men over the course of his life, using his work to memorialize love past.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach piece is sort of an homage to a different man in my life,\u201d says McFadden. \u201cSo, for example, there\u2019s a quilt that I handstitched together of all these old T-shirts\u2026 It was a memorial for an uncle of mine that passed away in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

For McFadden, the relationships that give rise to his work don\u2019t necessarily have to be long-lived. For example, one piece in the exhibit is a mirrored sculpture adorned with a bell, inspired by those acquaintances whose conversation intoxicates you into forgetting the world around you. McFadden describes these hypnotizing conversations as feeling like \u201cmasturbating in public\u201d\u2014which he has cheekily named the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that if you have self-pleasured that day, you\u2019re welcome to ring the bell,\u201d laughs McFadden.<\/p>\n

In addition to his own work, McFadden has commissioned three writers to elaborate on the themes within the pieces; the latest addition is by renowned Canadian cultural critic Jeanne Randolph. These will be published in and other bouquets, and available from the show opening. To close out the show, McFadden has partnered with local publisher flask to present A Separate Peace in book form, along with his accompanying essay. A Separate Peace<\/em> has also been made into a video, available on the Deluge website, with McFadden reading his essay as a \u201cdisembodied voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the third and final time this set of work has been shown\u2014it was up first in Edmonton, and later in Alma, Quebec. McFadden has elaborated on it each time, planting a garden of pansies for his mentor outside the gallery in Alberta and asking the children who attended the wintery Quebec show to draw flowers for him, which have now been made into a zine for this last presentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t always have to be fixed, which I think is also sort of a queer approach to artmaking in a way, where there can be room to go at it sideways, or upside down, or whatever,\u201d he says. \u201cAs long as the idea is still being worked with\u2014that\u2019s the important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Separate Peace, and other bouquets<\/em>
\nUntil Saturday, February 20
\nFree, Deluge Art Gallery
\ndeluge.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s first striking about the work of local artist and A Separate Peace, and other bouquets curator Kegan McFadden is how ordinary the images selected for the sprawling title piece of the show are. A Separate Peace is a collection of 500 images of men facing away from the camera, caught in moments very different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20512,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20508\/revisions\/20512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}