Birdhouse In His Soul? | Spyder Yardley-Jones’ charming “dioramas” are the highlight of his Strength, Duty, Honour exhibit.
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Jill: Spyder’s exhibit is a showing of highly political poster-style acrylic paintings, as well as four surprisingly delightful “dioramas” constructed mainly from crudely cut balsawood structures. What was your first impression of the gallery, Mandy?
Mandy: My first impression was something along the lines of “My, that’s quite the swastika flag! Think I’m supposed to step on it.” Which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the show. It was a whole lot of opinion, about a whole lot of things. How about yourself?
Jill: Those flags on the floor were the preamble to what, at least for me, was a painfully literal grouping of images. Poster after poster of direct political statements about very specific themes and people lined the walls, and unfortunately, in each of those paintings-slash-propaganda posters, all I saw was the statement itself. Spyder’s opinions and politics are at the forefront of this part of the exhibit, with imagemaking coming in a distant second.
Mandy: Is that really a problem, though? Because Spyder is using the medium of paint to present his opinions, we assume that painting is a part of what he’s talking about. But really, it isn’t. His work is all about commentary, mockery, and shock. There’s a natural impulse to refer to his work as posters rather than paintings — and that’s how I chose to react to Strength, Duty, Honour. What should be important here is the content of his message, not the form.
Jill: Yes, I understand that. And this is exactly what I’m getting at: one of the beauties of using images to convey your opinions lies in the power of subtlety. These works would have been much stronger, much more interesting, and arguably much more effective if Spyder weren’t so literal with his imagery and statements and allowed his audience to come to conclusions on their own. Propaganda has a long history, and one thing both revolutionaries and governments (including the government Spyder is opposing) have learned is that less aggressive, sometimes nearly subconscious imagery is a more effective tool of persuasion. In order to change people’s minds or get them to believe your statements, you have to allow them space to at least think that they arrived at your conclusions on their own.
Mandy: But that’s assuming Spyder’s intent is to convince the audience of something. And I don’t believe that persuasion is an essential part of Spyder’s agenda. The fundamental principle of the work in this show — which includes drawings of everything from two-headed fish to Ralph Klein literally talking out of his ass — is that images can and should be a form of active dissent.
Jill: But what’s the point of dissent if you’re not looking to change the conditions you’re dissenting against? And change is all about persuading people to join your side. As for these paintings, I didn’t feel I was being persuaded by an argument (an argument that I might be inclined to agree with) so much as I felt like I was being hit over the head. However — and I think we can both agree on this one — Spyder’s “dioramas,” these tiny treehouse communities made carefully out of balsawood and other props, were a real diamond in the rough. The lack of an obvious, literal agenda allowed me to really engage with these works.
Mandy: I don’t know about change necessarily being about persuasion. If you’re a blatant racist, are you really ever going to be convinced of the error of your ways by a political cartoon, or poster, or painting? You probably wouldn’t take the time to look at the work at all. In a way, this kind of imagery is all about preaching to the converted. Yes, it is bad to destroy the environment. Yes, Ralph Klein was a crazy drunkard. But if I walk into this exhibit with a massive love for oil and government and child molesters, I’m not walking out of there a reformed human being. (I’d probably campaign to have the work burned and the artist arrested.) But yes, you’re right. The dioramas were magical, if unrelated to the rest of the work on display.
Jill: Ha ha — well, given our space restrictions, I think we have no other choice but to agree to disagree. ’Til next week, folks!
Strength, Duty, Honour is on display at Harcourt House’s main gallery until Feb. 14.
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