Ten Hundred Years of Yawns & Dust
“Atop the hills of excess fill, amid the Vooka storm of yawns and dust, wonderers ponder airborne fathoms and scrawls amongst our past us.”– Jiggs
For over a decade, Jay Dart has been developing a series of drawings featuring his alter ego, Jiggs, and a cast of wanderers in the whimsical mindscape known as Yawnder through which a narrative continues to evolve about the mystical nature of inspiration, the quest for innovative creation, and the dissemination of ideas. Within this conceptually layered world, Dart explores themes of identity, innocence lost/recovered, isolation, ecology, and interconnection in modern society.
This series has resulted in almost 300 pieces, including mixed-media works, installations, animated videos and bookworks that add another dimension to the works on paper. To mark the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his first bookwork and the inception of this body of work, Dart will be exhibiting new drawings alongside rarely-exhibited past works from the Yawnder series in a show titled Ten Hundred Years of Yawns & Dust. It is fitting that this touring anniversary exhibition begins at Galerie Youn since the gallery is also celebrating a 10-year anniversary, and it was here, in 2013, that Dart exhibited work from this series for the first time in a professional setting.
Many of Dart’s newest drawings harken back to the earliest settings of the Yawnder saga. However, a decade later, things have changed a little as the mystical dust storm of Vooka has blown in from the previously unexplored part of his mindscape called the Unknowns. The name for this atmospheric event references the concept of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) which has been used to describe the state of anxious, unpredictability that defines the “new normal” of our times. The wanderers in the Yawnderverse must now contend with what’s “in the air” figuratively but also literally as they ponder their airborne surroundings.
As in Dart’s past exhibitions, he continues to find new approaches to presenting his drawings so that the scenes extend beyond the picture planes. Among his newest works is a series of drawings on panels where the compositions carry on from the front of the panels along the sides and continue onto the walls. The installation of these 10 drawings presents a continuous landscape of the notable sites within the semi-biographical world that he has explored … so far.
ABOUT JAY DART
Jay Dart is a Canadian drawist and designer whose practice extends from drawings to bookworks, mixed media pieces, installations, and animated videos. His work has been shown in galleries across Canada and in art fairs around the world, including Paris (Drawing Now), New York (Art on Paper), Montreal (Papier), Amsterdam (100 Euro Show), Portland (100 Dollar Show) and Art Toronto (solo booth). This is Dart’s fourth solo exhibition at Galerie Youn. His first major public gallery solo exhibition, Greetings From Yawnder! opened at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in October 2016 before travelling to the Art Gallery of Sudbury in February 2017. The accompanying catalogue for this exhibition, Field Guide to Yawnder, is available at the Art Gallery of Ontario. He is the recipient of multiple grants and honours including from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and National Magazine Awards. His work has been featured on CBC radio and television, including a profile on The Exhibitionists. Dart is a graduate of the University of Guelph’s Fine Art programme, and he currently lives and draws with his family in the small hamlet of Ashburn, Ontario.
Vernissage : July 9, 2-5 pm
Artist in attendance
Ten Hundred Years of Yawns & Dust
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Passing Time
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Dreams of the Wildlife
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Dust Collection: Isolation Records
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Make Yer Own Rainbow
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8”, framed (SOLD)
Dust Constellations
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Log Jam
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8”, framed (SOLD)
YY
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 18,5" x 24” (framed)
Fairgoers (10)
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
From The Mysts
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8” (framed)
Tree Hugger Syndrome
Pastel, ink, coloured pencil, 2022, 5" x 8”, framed (SOLD)
ARCHIVE
Fathom Peerer
Graphite, watercolour, pastel, 2018, 14" x 16" (framed)
Fathom Front from the Unknows (Within Beyawnder)
Graphite, watercolour, pastel, 2017, 44" x 32", framed (SOLD)
About Foremoms
Ink, graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 9" x 12" (framed)
Some Fellers (the ones I met so far)
Ink, graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 9" x 12" (framed)
Wanderer of Yawnder - Page 17
Graphite, watercolour pencil, 2012, 12" x 12” (framed)
Foremom’s Tears
Watercolour pencil, pastel, 2018, 14" x 16.75” (framed)
Fairgoers (Within Beyawnder)
Graphite, watercolour, pastel, 2017, 24" x 19” (framed)
Magical Mystery Beards (Library VI)
Ink, graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 9" x 12" (framed)
Wanderer of Yawnder - Page 3
Graphite, watercolour pencil, 2012, 12" x 12” (framed)
Wanderer of Yawnder - Page 18
Graphite, watercolour pencil, 2012, 12" x 12” (framed)
Anatomy of a Geistwood
Ink, graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 9" x 12" (framed)
Meeting a Foremom
Graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 16" x 14” (framed)
About Fathoms
Ink,graphite, watercolour pencil, 2016, 9" x 12" (framed)
Wanderer of Yawnder - Page 16
Graphite, watercolour pencil, 2012, 12" x 12” (framed)
Photos by Corentin Mainix and Eva Blue
