Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized, enlarged cartoon print detail, 38''x38'' print, edition of 9, 1991.
Seized (1991) on Seizures wallpaper (1996), installation detail, wallpaper (8.5’’x14’’ strips) and 9 38''x38'' prints, in Working Papers: Have a Good Time exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 1997. Photos: AGNS.
Seized (1991) on Seizures wallpaper (1996), installation detail, wallpaper (8.5’’x14’’ strips) and 9 38''x38'' prints, in Working Papers: Have a Good Time exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 1997. Photos: AGNS.
Seized (1991) on Seizures wallpaper (1996), installation detail, wallpaper (8.5’’x14’’ strips) and 9 38''x38'' prints, in Working Papers: Have a Good Time exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 1997. Photos: AGNS.
Figures over Seizures wallpaper (1996), installation detail, paper tags and wallpaper (8.5’’x14’’ strips), in Working Papers: Have a Good Time exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 1997. Photos: AGNS.
Figures over Seizures wallpaper (1996), installation detail, paper tags and wallpaper (8.5’’x14’’ strips), in Working Papers: Have a Good Time exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 1997. Photos: AGNS.
SEIZURES, poster detail, wallpaper series, Art Metropole, Toronto, 1996.
(left) The Suit (1988) over Seizures wallpaper (1996), (right) The Canadian Contemporary Collection — The Average Size — The Average Colour (1978), 32 framed 50.8 x 60.1 cm boards, exhibition view from Work of Four Decades, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Halifax, 2000. Photo: AGNS.
The Suit over Seizures wall paper, installation, exhibition view from Work of Four Decades, National Gallery of Canada (NGC), Ottawa, 2000. Photo: NGC.
Seizures, Canada Line train installation detail, Endlessly Traversed Landscapes public postering project for Vancouver Winter Olympics, Vancouver, 2010.
Seizures/Seized (1991)
Seizures and Seized are part of Kennedy's larger body of works which centre the workplace dynamics of administration. These works are recurring, often exhibited alongside one another and other thematically related works such as The Suit (1988).
In 1991, Kennedy began developing the work when he self-published a duo of artist books: Seizures, a collection of Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s magazine and The New Yorker single-panel gag cartoons taking place in the boss’ office. Kennedy removed all the art from the office walls, while in Seized, he displayed only the boss’ lifted paintings. Both books were later republished by Art Metropole (Toronto) in 1997.
From there the work expanded to a series of Seized prints (1991), an edition of nine 38"x38" prints, bringing the boss' artworks back to life-size art pieces scaled for home, office or art institution.
In 1993, Kennedy expanded this thread of "seizing" material relating to workplace hierarchies and power dynamics by creating a wallpaper for his installation in Art Work/Work Art: The Administrative Art of Garry Neill Kennedy (Owens Art Gallery, Sackville). Here, Kennedy covered the gallery walls with a grid of repeating black and white photocopied office worker silhouettes taken from the promotional material of a business consulting firm which advertised workplace conflict resolution training.
In 1996, Art Metropole printed a limited run of this Seizures wallpaper which was subsequently reiterated in multiple exhibitions, including Working Papers: Have a Good Time (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, 1997), Garry Neill Kennedy: Wall Paintings and Related Works 1974-1995 (Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, 1996; Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1998), and Garry Neill Kennedy: Work of Four Decades (National Gallery of Canada/The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Ottawa/Halifax, 2000; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, 2001). In 2010, Seizures was re-articulated as a skytrain installation for Endlessly Traversed Landscapes, a public postering project funded by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Games.