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Where travel souvenirs are both manufactured and sold

For S&P 100, this conceptually-based Toronto artist will convert the Koffler Gallery into a site where travel souvenirs are both manufactured and sold. Row upon row of male and female figurines, dressed in traditional costumes from countries around the world, will line the shelves of his "retail shop." Modeled on salt and pepper shakers from the 1940s and '50s, their presence recalls an era characterized by an increasing reliance on mass production, a rise in global travel, and an emerging global economy that transcends borders, languages and cultural differences. Robertson's solid plaster casts are produced in editions of 100. What were distinguishing features in the brightly coloured originals now fold into the obscurity of his white-on-white palette.

Adjunct this retail showroom is a working studio or "factory" attended by the artist himself. Surrounded by an array of rubber molds and objects in various stages of casting and drying, he makes the processes of creation transparent. An auxiliary space * the artist's "office" * houses previous related works, such as his computer-generated, one-of-a-kind watercolour landscapes. Also on view are excerpts from his souvenir postcard series of re-photographed popular "vacation" sites. Here, the artist intentionally heightens, or undermines, the believability of these idyllic sites, often by the introduction of "transplanted" elements. The celebration of place, the consumer's search for authentic experience, and its displacement by mass tourism are all issues raised in these works. Ultimately, Robertson begs the question, what constitutes authentic experience: "As travelers, are we privy to the true culture of another country, or do we see a version which was designed for us?"

Since finishing art school in 1997, Mitch Robertson has participated in more than fifty exhibitions across Canada and New Zealand, as well as in the USA, Switzerland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Australia. He is represented by the Robert Birch Gallery in Toronto, and TrepanierBaer Gallery in Calgary. Robertson lives and works in Toronto.

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Email: mwhitfield@bjcc.ca

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