The mixed media works in Angela Grossman's exhibition, Correction(s), represent more than just a rehashing of abandoned photographs. Her work extends beyond the parameters of referencing Canadian history by provoking contemporary concerns surrounding privacy and the public domain. Grossman not only manipulates the viewer on a visual level but also on a pragmatic level as she leads us into considering issues of identity and public access to personal information.
Amenable to Discipline, (mixed media, 1998, 134.6 x 94 cm)
Angela Grossman's art practice is preoccupied with re-creating or reworking history through her process-based photo-paintings. her recognizable style reminds us that, despite the ever shifting barometer of trends in the art world, she has maintained her pure love painting and a belief in its potential for meaning by exploring critical concerns and incorporating various other mediums into her work. Instead of completely obliterating a found image, Grossman carefully reconstructs it, offering the viewer a different reality by altering the history she has been presented with. The photographic subjects in her work become redefined, and stereotypes begin to melt under the authorship of her brush. Grossman's work inadvertently liberates the body trapped by history, artificiality preserved in the confines of the photograph. for Grossman, visual redemption is realized through her photo-paintings, which become a viable crutch to understanding the past and rethinking the future.
Rap Sheet, British Columbia Penitentiary
Correction(s), although similar in style to much of Grossman's previous work, represents a new departure in her practice. Now she is painting large-scale portraits instead o her well known depiction's of full body transformations. She explains that an excursion to a local junk shop unearthed some controversial material -- discarded prison reports, complete with black and white mug shots, had been put up for sale. Extremely personal information had been mysteriously abandoned by the officials of the now defunct British Columbia Penitentiary in the borough of New Westminster. Somehow, these prison reports had found their way into the public domain and Grossman was intent on making an intervention. The rap sheets, dating back to the 1930s and 40s, bore the names, photographs and personal information of men from Vancouver and nearby regional districts. Their crimes ranged from vagrancy and forgery to breaking and entering. The penal reports listed the convicts' crimes, family histories, education, health and personal habits. Statistics and petty crimes aside, the most shocking aspect of the reports were the heinous errors committed by the employees in the prison. Blatant ignorance and racial biases were clearly evident in the written summaries provided by the Chief Keepers of the penitentiary. . . . What Grossman points out is that the convicted men were actually victims of a penal system fraught with racism and classicism, in a society dominated by cultural imperialism.
Fraud, (mixed media, 1997, 172.7 x 96.5 cm)
Issues surrounding identity, race and representation have been a primary topic of exploration for many artists over the past 10 to 12 years. Most of these artistic endeavors stem from personal or familial experiences. Grossman's time-based expos of Canadian penal history deals with representation from the perspective of making a public intervention rather than working form personal experience.
