Phantoms in the Front Yard is an arts collective dedicated to the pursuance of figurative, representational forms. This is a unique intention today as contemporary artists flourish into new mediums, embracing abstraction, fragmentation, and concepts that live behind veils—or sometimes duvets.
Lots of people who aren’t interested in art tend to posit themselves as victim, expressing the naïve and arrogant ideals expressed in “my kid could do that”. There is a cultural aversion to artwork which does not obviate itself to the viewer straightforwardly.
While Phantoms in the Front Yard chooses to work with forms considered more traditional (figurative, representational paintings), they by no means slander the non-traditional forms and approaches that have largely come to define contemporary art today. They’ve simply worked to create their own place in it, hearkening to the potential in the ideals and approaches of times past. They attempt to breathe freshness into the recognizable figure, one that modernism deemed passé and left in its wake.
The group includes Jonathan Sutton, Jay Senetchko, Marcus Macleod, Michael Abraham, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Paul Morstad, in collaboration with curator Pennylane Shen. They just opened up a show at Leigh Square Community Arts Village called Phantoms, a sort-of retrospective which takes advantage of this large venue to reflect on their work as a collective in seven different shows over the past four and half years. Check it out before it closes on February 17th.
Sad Mag: What did it feel like to realize that your artistic expression was changing mediums, from theatre and performance to painting?
Jonathan Sutton: I was drawing and painting all along, and meanwhile acting was becoming less of a means than I had thought it was to express the things important to me. It had seemed an obvious way to enter into an imagined space was to perform in it. I find though, that more space exists for me in the solitary arena of my small studio, and with far fewer stops between ideas and their developed expression.
SM: How did the group come together?
JS: Jay Senetchko and Marcus Macleod initiated the idea and fairly soon there was a core group. We are also committed to working with other artists in both the short and long term.
SM: The group’s artist statement mentions, “Figurative art has become the phantom of the fine art world, haunting Modernism and Postmodernism with its ties to a classical tradition, refusing to be dismissed, ignored, or forgotten.” Can you speak a little more about the current status of the figurative and representational in contemporary art from your perspective?
JM: It would be easier—for any of us in the group—to speak a lot more about that! Here goes a little …
We all have wide-ranging tastes and references, but a common thread is our respect for artists who reckon with history and traditions as they pave new directions in their own work and era. Jay Senetchko has written eloquently on the over-rating of originality as an end in itself, and we believe the more profound contributions are to be made by artists who distinguish their own voices within the larger dialogue of art history, and in doing so move the whole dialogue forward. It is counter to this process to accord any particular status to the figurative or representational per se—whether over-prioritizing these forms or shunning them. Our particular collective has gathered around an existing interest in figurative work and within this we have a very broad mandate, but this is not to say that we place it above other approaches in our appreciation of art in general. Our decision to embed the figure in our mandate is that there is much territory still to explore here—and create—and we are excited to share our discoveries. Now this position happens to have much counterpoint in contemporary trends that would dismiss the figure, or painting and drawing altogether. We didn’t decide to commit to figurative work to create a reaction to this line of thinking though; we were doing this work in any case and couldn’t find substance in trends that would place it outside contemporary art.
Representation will continually reinvent its own aesthetics because people and our surroundings are changing quickly enough—not to mention artistic media and technologies—that even straight journalistic depiction will continue to reflect novelty. Brian Boulton’s graphite portraits, to name one example, and a local one, reflect accuracy and fidelity of rendering, while looking arrestingly current and familiar by virtue of the very contemporary figures they examine.
SM: This idea is quite noticeably linked to the name of the collective. Can you tell us about the inspiration for the name? Why “the Front Yard”?
JS: We recognize these tendencies that would hold figurative representation, and traditional media associated with it, as phantoms in the art world. Even within this reading, which isn’t everyone’s, and certainly not ours—we’re interested in ushering such phantoms into full view.
SM: Part of your philosophy as a group is based on the idea that representational, figurative art is easier for people to find connection with because the elements are familiar and easily identifiable. However, lots of this kind of work also comes equipped with strong concepts and compositional complexity. How do you deal with the challenge to make people see as far as possible into the work?
JS: One aspect of the work in this collective that really impresses me is how often I see a balancing of immediate visual impact against dense underpinnings of suggestion, narrative, reference, concept, and philosophy. I’d say we find in figurative art an irrepressible history, and in the best cases, universality, without necessarily finding or seeking ease of connection. Aquinas held wholeness, harmony, and radiance to be requirements of beauty; these would strike a viewer as strongly upon the first impression as through prolonged scrutiny. We work to weave complex and diverse thinking into one image whose first impression is complete and integrated. We admire the kind of conceptual and compositional complexity you mention, in all manner of art forms whether figurative or not; in fact another layer to our mandate is to incorporate non-representational influences in our own representations. The act of depicting one or more bodies is constantly invigorated by ever-new responses that non-figurative works invite, be they abstract expressionism, collage, photo-conceptualism, or anything else.
SM: Since 2010, Phantoms in the Front Yard has been developing shows based on themes initiated by one of the members, which then prompts the creation of works by each of the others. There is also a lecture component, where you bring in an expert on the topic at hand. Why is dialogue important to you as a group?
JS: There is a beautiful solitude in creating and beholding a piece of art. We also want to include viewers, beyond this, in the spirit of dialogue and exchange that we invest in our processes as a collective. The development of each show starts and continues around our own conversations, research sharing, critiques of works as they progress, and general interaction, even while most of the time we spend on the pieces themselves is solitary. We want these parallel lines of private engagement and public interaction to run through the whole exhibition experience.
SM: What do you hope to achieve with this show?
JS: This particular grouping of pieces, in this space, with the artists, viewers, and interactions that create the exhibition will only come together in this way through this event. Our intention is to do the same thing a single work of art should do – create a lasting impression of a fleeting moment.
Phantoms is on now and runs until February 17th at Leigh Square Community Arts Village. Gallery hours are Mon, Wed 10:00am to 6:30pm; Tue, Thu 10:00am to 7:00pm; Friday 9:30am to 6:30pm; and Saturday 2:00pm to 4:00pm; Closed on Sundays. 1100-2253 Leigh Square (Behind City Hall) Port Coquitlam, BC, V3C 3B8. Call 604-927-8442 for more info. Please note the show is displayed in two adjacent buildings.