Julie Arnold
Logo Series: Project #1 in the Project Room
Installation

Toronto Artist
Brochure: Project Room Series (1992-1993)

Brochure Text:

Writing the text for my own exhibition document, several options are open-to me. I could produce an artist's statement didactic in tone. This approach would serve to explain Logo Series in the form of a digestible capsule including a definition of terms:

As artists continue to acknowledge their role as marginal players in our society's visual and textual production, the need to come to terms with the dominant producers remains prevalent. Thus we see in Logo Series an ironic collapsing of "high" culture, (esoteric words denoting philosophical, theological, scientific, and medical discourse) with the ubiquitous world of the logotype. The recurring prefix logo comes from the - Greek and means word, reason, or speech...

Or, I could aspire to the realm of analytical discourse:

Mimics understand that they dwell in a space occupied by far larger personalities than themselves. They temporarily shed their own identities in order to take on another. This act almost invariably reveals the stock nature of the "original" while at the same time, uncovering the complex ways such stereotypes dominate our consciousness. Intentions vary of course, from-the homage (conscious or otherwise) to the cruel parody. Paying tribute indicates a desire to share in the power which is seen,to reside with the prototype. Those inclined towards emulation accept the hierarchy as it exists, but search for an entry point. Parodying involves a desire to confiscate and/or dismantle positions of influence and authority. For those who are unhappy with the status quo, there comes the realisation that the greater the ease with which the parody is accomplished, the greater the reassurance for those who wish to laugh.

A search for an alternative to the apologia brings me to a third option: poetics. But the only poetry I can indulge in is the list:

logocentric
logocracy
logodaedaly
logolatry
logomachy
logomania
logonomy
logophite
logophobia
Logos.

- Julie Arnold

Project Room A series of site-specific works created for the Project Room at Mercer Union.

Project Room Programming: Sharon Brooks, Marla Hlady, Carolyn White

Biography:

Julie Arnold was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1960. She studied English Literature and Visual Art at Simon Fraser University, and photography at Emily Carr College of Art and Design. In 1991 Arnold graduated with an MFA from York University.
Arnold has exhibited her work in Toronto and also writes reviews of contemporary art for Parachute magazine. Her next solo exhibition will be in February, 1993 at the Or Gallery in Vancouver.