...and it's ending one minute at a time.

October 3, 2015 – October 30, 2015

The Olga Korper Gallery is pleased to present …and it’s ending one minute at a time., an exhibition of new work by Canadian artist Ken Nicol. The exhibition will open on October 3rd and will remain on view until October 31st. The opening will be held on Saturday October 3rd from 2-5pm and the artist will be in attendance.

Ken’s inaugural exhibition at Olga Korper Gallery will feature a selection of works rooted in the artist’s established trajectory of repetitive mark making, collecting, assembling and organizing/re-organizing. This exhibition marks the realization of three major projects that Ken has been laboring towards for several years. Many of these pieces reflect the march of time as a slow, steady trickling away of precious minutes. Ken’s painstaking process records the hours, days and weeks of spending this precious and finite currency of time with acute self-awareness.

this is your life…, the first major project and the largest body of work in the exhibition, is comprised of 55 grids, 30 x 20 inches each of hand typed sentences. Each sheet counts down the number of minutes in an eight-hour work day, minute by minute. Each grid after the first begins by removing the first character of the sentence and results in a new pattern emerging on the page.

In keeping with his tradition of assembling objects into groupings of one hundred, Ken has spent the last decade collecting and repairing one hundred Westclox Baby Ben alarm clocks for his monumental work one hundred of the same clock. These hand wound timepieces from the late 1940s present a unified front of unfeeling mechanical faces as they whisper away the lost seconds of the day.

flogging a dead horse: the seasons, the third major project is another time-based work. It is a mark-making action where Ken makes tally marks on a large sheet of paper with a pen until the ink begins to fade and eventually runs out entirely. The remainder of the work is finished with the inkless pen by scratching the tally marks into the page until the paper is filled. Each 100 hour work was completed within a single season and each is exhibited with the pen, or “dead horse”, that was used up in the creation of the work.

 

Ken’s discipline, humour and precise execution combine in a staggering display of what he deems “obsessive order.” Each pen stroke and typed character demands to be acknowledged against the backdrop of the fading sounds of clocks winding down echoing the fading ink drawings and failing typewriter ribbons.

Opening Reception

October 3, 2015
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Artist Links

Included Artworks

one hundred of the same clock 2015
one hundred of the same clock, 2015
one hundred of the same clock detail
one hundred of the same clock, 2015

artwork detail

one hundred of the same clock context
one hundred of the same clock, 2015

one hundred of the same clock, 2015

Ken Nicol
100 westclox baby bens, model 61v (1949-1955) 21.5” x 80”
letter 2015
letter, 2015

letter, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper, diptych 11” x 8.5” - each paper
letters on ledger 2015
letters on ledger, 2015

letters on ledger, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper 11” x 17” paper
letter on ledger 1 2015
letter on ledger 1, 2015

letter on ledger 1, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper, diptych 11” x 17” each paper
letter on ledger 2 2015
letter on ledger 2, 2015

letter on ledger 2, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper, diptych 11” x 17” each paper
letter on ledger 3 2015
letter on ledger 3, 2015

letter on ledger 3, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper, diptych 11” x 17” each paper
ledger 2015
ledger, 2015

ledger, 2015

Ken Nicol
ink on paper, diptych 11” x 17” each paper
this is your life... (6) 2015
this is your life... (6), 2015

this is your life... (6), 2015

Ken Nicol
typewriter ink on paper 30" x 20" paper
this is your life... (16) 2015
this is your life... (16), 2015

this is your life... (16), 2015

Ken Nicol
typewriter ink on paper 30" x 20" paper
this is your life... (35) 2015
this is your life... (35), 2015

this is your life... (35), 2015

Ken Nicol
typewriter ink on paper 30" x 20" paper
this is your life... (50) 2015
this is your life... (50), 2015

this is your life... (50), 2015

Ken Nicol
typewriter ink on paper 30" x 20" paper
this is your life... (54) 2015
this is your life... (54), 2015

this is your life... (54), 2015

Ken Nicol
typewriter ink on paper 30" x 20" paper