{"id":2648,"date":"2022-12-07T08:21:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2022-12-07T08:21:31","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:21:31","slug":"storytime-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/?p=2648","title":{"rendered":"Storytime: Exhibition."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An Exhibition of the Life\u2019s Work of G. E. \u2018Glamorous\u2019 Quenzelcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quintessential outsider artist, Quenzelcroft\u2019s unique contributions to humanity\u2019s creative efforts have never been properly appreciated, whether in her own time or long after her death.  It is the hope of the curator that this exhibition will correct this historical oversight and bring fresh light into the unique spark of inspiration that lies within each and every one of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1985: Raccoon on My Dad\u2019s Face<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the earliest known example of Quenzelcroft\u2019s serious artistic effort, although it is clearly the creation of an established artist at age six.  Possibly even older works exist and are waiting to be found \u2013 or have been destroyed by time and neglect (a grim thought!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece exalts the raw, immanent violence of life while dismantling the ephemeral societal constructs that we hold as solid and immovable facts of reality by placing them in sharp contrast: the father, clawed and bitten and noseless; the raccoon, ascendant and enormously puffed-up in screaming fury.  The stark violence of the moment is rendered all the more meaningful by its medium: the attempted sterility of a police report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1991: Pasta in the Walls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent discovery that is first presented to the public within this exhibition, Pasta in the Walls closes the hitherto-mysterious \u2018fourteen-year-gap\u2019 by revealing that Quenzelcroft was not idle, merely subtle.  A renovation of her childhood home\u2019s ventilation ducts uncovered this wonderful example of the message becoming the medium.  As the work had become fused with its substrate, it is presented here along with the furnace components it remains affixed to.  The rich, variegated patterning and artful spray signal the deft hand and spontaneous character that typify Quenzelcroft\u2019s works in general, while the shattered bowl speaks to youthful vigour as yet unchecked by the confidence gained by age.  The precise meaning of the \u2018happy hippo\u2019 patterning on the shards remains a subject of hot debate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1999: Shooting My Computer with a Shotgun to Get the Demons Out<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lynchpin of the collection \u2013 and indeed the smoking gun that led to the discovery of Quenzelcroft upon its chance discovery in an antique landfill.  Unsigned and uncredited, tracking down the original authorship took decades, but now it can be correctly attributed as the opening statement of the artist\u2019s \u2018mature\u2019 career: Quenzelcroft\u2019s confidence has now fully blossomed and no longer does she approach learning with the attitude of the student who seeks comprehension, but rather that of the master who chases enlightenment.  The wild shot spread and poor muzzle velocity visible in the shattered hull of the CPU indicate that the tool chosen for this task was clearly makeshift and second-hand (original owner unknown, although the artist was a frequent visitor of Captain Crow\u2019s Pawn & Guns), an attitude of insouciant carelessness further emphasized by the off-centre aim and yet subtly contradicted by the subsequent sixteen shots indicating a thorough and deliberate commitment to the goal.  As pre-post-ironic critiques of Y2K Millenarianism go, you will find none better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2007: I Am Very Old<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This key work represents three radical innovations: here we see Quenzelcroft\u2019s bold forays into new mediums, her careful toying with the idea of collaboration, and her most baldly-stated musings on both the meaning of her work and her life philosophy.  In this extended conversation, scraped from a discarded cellphone, we have no fewer than three hours of mediations coded in layers of social interaction so profoundly deep as to be nigh-Marianas-level \u2013 her sadness over the death of her dog due to peanut ingestion; her wrath over her boyfriend\u2019s refusal to apologize for insulting her car; her long-standing feud with her sister over the proper wallpaper in their youthful bedroom \u2013 we even learn here of her ambiguous feelings over her earliest work and her doubts of its lasting significance (and indeed it was this hint that led to the discovery of Raccoon on My Dad\u2019s Face).  The themes of addiction and identity are woven throughout the piece but never spoken aloud, a complex metacommentary on societal rules and regulations observed even when all involved are transparently aware that the artist is crossfaded to the gills on Wiser\u2019s and mushrooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2012: Barbeque for One<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early scholarship on Quenzelcroft\u2019s work sought to typify her as a compulsive introvert, consciously ignorant of the world outside her own explorations of humanity\u2019s consciousness.  This period of scholastic carelessness was abruptly dispelled with the identification of this piece from the auctioning of a private collection, where it had originally (and damningly incorrectly assigned to Peter J. Fullthrough.  Despite sharing Fullthrough\u2019s iconic use of honey-garlic sauce, in the violent crushing of every bone we can see the passion and single-minded focus in pursuit of vision that is unmistakably and inarguably Quenzelcroft, here making perhaps her most naked political commentary on consumption, capitalism, classism, and food poverty: the rank ruins of a five-course junk-food meal, spread among five half-destroyed trash cans that try and fail to contain the overflowing trash spread by the lustful indulgence of a singular elite.  This can also be seen as a knowing and ironic self-commentary on Quenzelcroft\u2019s part, proving that contrary to jealous words, she was neither unaware nor uncritical of her own foibles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016: This is So Much Harder than I\u2019d Thought<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite accusations of being a compulsive dabbler, the deep and profound collaboration in this work \u2013 the first seen since I Am Very Old \u2013 typifies Quenzelcroft as more of a distillery of insight; producing careful explorations into a theme or topic and then allowing her feelings and thoughts to mature over the years before sampling the fruits of the initial investment.  While her earlier collaboration was impulsive and bold, here we see the smooth confidence and overwhelmingly focused force of a considered plan: her husband\u2019s phalanges, crushed to near-dust by overwhelming force exerted during Quenzelcroft\u2019s childbirth.  That such beauty can come from such agony is one of the greatest truths of humanity, and in clutching her partner\u2019s hand until the very bones tore themselves apart Quenzelcroft has once again perfectly unseated our assumptions and forced us to confront old truths in new light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022: Big Serrated Teeth Grinding Through My Mother\u2019s Toes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition\u2019s final work concludes with a somber note of the perils of the future: this is at present time the earliest known example of Quenzelcroft Jr.\u2019s serious artistic effort, although even at age six it is tainted by a derivative imagination.  Possibly older works exist that may reveal a bright and creative mind as yet untouched by the pressure of fame and the temptation to succumb to her mother\u2019s legacy (a tragic thought). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A profound tunnel vision limits the scope of the piece, Quenzelcroft herself is invisible save for her foot, blood spattered from her maimed appendage; the raccoon is frozen in its least appealing aspect, hideous and wormlike and writhing amidst the trash, its maw seized about her mother\u2019s foot.  In her efforts to capture this instant more completely by the medium of a phone camera Quenzelcroft Jr. has only limited its emotion.  There is still time for this artist to rediscover herself, but whether or not she will break free and soar on her own wings or plummet in the chains of the derivative remains to be seen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Exhibition of the Life\u2019s Work of G. E. \u2018Glamorous\u2019 Quenzelcroft The quintessential outsider artist, Quenzelcroft\u2019s unique contributions to humanity\u2019s creative efforts have never been properly appreciated, whether in her own time or long after her death.  It is the hope of the curator that this exhibition will correct this historical oversight and bring fresh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamieproctor.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}