Artist: Zin Taylor
Exhibition title: Cut Flowers
Venue: Susan Hobbs, Toronto, Canada
Date: September 6 – October 13, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Susan Hobbs, Toronto
When cut from their life source, flowers become both free and trapped, suspended in a new transformative state. The longevity of a cut flower depends on the transmission of nutrients to their new form and becomes vital for their survival. Similarly, an idea that leaves the mind is informed and kept alive by its surrounding space and context. Stripped from its source an idea grows into a subject, and a language of what thinking can look like begins to take shape.
For his first exhibition with the gallery, Zin Taylor presents a series of new sculptural works: vases, lamps, fabric screens, carved knives and eyeballs create sculptural propositions throughout the gallery that chart a course of metamorphosis from thought in to form. The exhibition Cut Flowers explores the nascent yet delicate characteristics of how an idea comes into being and what that arrival suggests.
Here, Cut Flowers acts as a portal word, where two terms combine to create a subject and context for deliberation. Each work begins as an illustration of an idea that is now made physical and materially present within the space; the gallery acts as a void arena where forms utilize their language to communicate.
Zin Taylor is based in Paris, France. He is known for his installations that often incorporate performance, drawing, sculpture, printmaking and video. Taylor’s work includes narration culled from popular culture, storytelling, news stories, and his own research. Recent solo exhibitions include A Dove on the Beach: a piece of cloth to relax upon is void to stage your thoughts at l’antenne culturelle du frac île-de-france at le plateau, Creative Writing at Westfalischer Kunstverein, and Five Units of Haze presented by Oakville Galleries. This year, a monograph of his work will be co-published through Southern Alberta Art Gallery and Mousse Publishing.
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Cut Flower (Arm), 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay, plaster, string, wire
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Vase (Black Dot), 2018, acrylic paint, plaster, paper clay
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Slab Green, 2018, acrylic paint, plaster, wood, epoxy clay, burlap
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Vase (Patterns to Describe a Language of Space and Time), 2018, acrylic paint, ink, plaster
Zin Taylor, Slab (Blue), 2018, acrylic paint, plaster, wood, epoxy clay, burlap
Zin Taylor, Knife, 2018, acrylic paint, wood
Zin Taylor, A Vase, a Knife, and a Piece of Fruit (Repeated), 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay, ink, plaster cloth, wood
Zin Taylor, Five Eyes, 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Cut Flower (Eye), 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay, plaster, string, wire
Zin Taylor, Cut Flower (Eye), 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay, plaster, string, wire, detail view
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Cut Flowers, 2018, exhibition view, Susan Hobbs, Toronto
Zin Taylor, Gestures on a Void, Units in a Field, of Zig-Zag (Thoughts into Forms), 2015, card stock, paper, ink, photo, foam-core
Zin Taylor, Cut Flower (Lavender Knife), 2018, acrylic paint, epoxy clay, plaster, string, wire
Zin Taylor, A Structure Choreographed to Filter a Room (Stripe and Dot Arrangement), 2018, acrylic paint, CPVC, plaster cloth