Many of us know Douglas Coupland, the successful author: the man has charmed us with novels and works of non-fiction ever since Generation X in 1991. Perhaps fewer know Douglas Coupland, the visual artist, who graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1984 and has been exploring concepts of Canadian and pop culture, contemporary life, and the pervasiveness of technology through visual arts ever since.
Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is a culmination of millings within these themes, and is presented through a stunning array of media including installation, photography, painting, lego, quilts, plastic containers, and nick-nacks he has collected over the years. This manifestation of contemporary Canadian culture is Coupland’s first major, solo art exhibition, and it is big, beautiful, and thought provoking.
The colourful and comforting exhibition guides us through six central themes. The first, Secret Handshake, explores Canadian cultural stereotypes and invites us to consider the familiarity of everyday objects that are uniquely Canadian. It is a sentimental display of often overlooked treasures, from prairie licence plates to miniature Canada Post boxes — all of which invite us to reflect on place and time.
In Growing Up Utopian, Coupland displays his brain-tickling lego structures to illustrate our post-war dystopic and utopic possibilities, capturing the possibilities of where we might take our world.
Words into Objects Slogans for the 21st Century is driven by Coupland’s question: “What’s something you can say, right now, that would make no sense to someone 10 years ago, or 20 years ago?” Coupland explained, “It’s the culture speaking rather than myself speaking.” This work is 172 bright captions, some humorous, some sorrowful.
A couple of my favourites include “Knowing everything turns out to be slightly boring,” and “I miss my pre-Internet brain.” As Coupland was allowing us to soak it all in, he muttered, “I no longer remember my pre-internet brain.”
Pop Explosion follows, a burst of modernized pop culture including framed Andy Warhol wigs and candy-coloured paintings inspired by icons such as Roy Lichtenstein.
In The 21st Century Condition, Coupland examines the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our lives. This collection also embraces smart phone technology and blends the themes together in such pieces as a distorted photo of Osama Bin Laden which reveals itself better when viewed as a photo taken by a mobile device.
The last theme is The Brain, a collection of 5,000 objects Coupland has amassed over the years to resemble the way the brain functions. Coupland confessed, “I have been on that weird line between collecting and hoarding for quite a long time now, so this experience here, this is part of de-hoarding.”
He also remarked, “Collecting reveals a lot about you that you may not know.” The array of beautiful objects in this section is impressive, but their intimate organization and presentation is even more so. “I think every house in the world should have a brain room,” said Coupland.
Not only can you step inside Coupland’s brain in this exhibit, but you are also encouraged to stick gum on his face: Coupland placed a seven-foot tall sculpture of his head, entitled “Gumhead,” just outside of the gallery. Coupland describes it as a “gum-based, crowd sourced, publicly interactive, self-portrait.”
Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is at the Vancouver Art Gallery from May 31 to September 1.
