DEAD TEENAGERS
May24, 2001

Jowita Kepa, Loners, Stoners, Bitches, Sluts, Freaks, and Virgins, wall collage (detail) 2001 Lucy De L'Amour Shawn MacPhearson Scott McGovern Will Munro Paul P. Andy Patterson Tasman Richardson Robin Simpson Fiona Smyth Zoe Stonyk Ho Tam KikaThorne Jason Van Horne Daryl Vocat Ingrid Z.

John Abrams Josh Avery Karen Azoulay Mike E.B. Jubal Brown Mark Connery Nick Den Boer Elizabeth Fearon Graham Hollings Luis Jacob Marco Jacob Shawn Johnston Jowita Kepa Peter Kingstone Guntar Kravis Martin Kuchar Paul P. Special Moments oil on panel, 2001

REVIEW: C International Contemporary Art,
Issue #71, Fall 2001

As I cruised down the sidewalk to the "Dead Teenagers" opening at West Wing Art Space, I noticed a group of people peering salaciously into a silver sedan parked on the street. In the back seat two half-clad goth teens were making out, while the moans of Morrissey echoed from the car stereo. Appropriately titled Gothic Makeout, Zoe Stonyk's marvelous plein-air display of lusty exploration was a fitting overture for the opening night of the "Dead Teenagers" memorial exhibition, which marked the gallery's one-year anniversary. Thirty-one Toronto artists exhibited work that mourned the loss of theri youth, celebrated the emotionally charged time we live as teenagers and devised laments for those who didn't make it out alive.

Jowita Kepa's Loners, Stoners, Bitches, Sluts, Freaks and Virgins provided a central point on which the show revolved. Kepa's contribution was a nostalgic medley of blurred photos of pubescent girls posing, juvenile gossipy notes passed back and forth in class, Madonna concert ticket stubs and an amateur pencil drawing of River Phoenix, all pinned to the wall. Kepa's artifacts seethe with the torment of adolescent longing. This same terrain was explored by Paul P. in his tender water-colour portraits of boys with swollen lips, puffy eyes and blotchy faces. Paul P.'s lusty sitters are vulnerable and sexually charged.

For her digital-output photo collage, Low-Res Hybrids, Ingrid Z has replaced the faces of two infamous Toronto-area dead teenagers, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffey, with her own severe facial features. In the same frame we see the much-publicisized wedding portrait of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, convicted in the murder of both teenagers; again, the artist has grafted her own face over each of theirs, producing beyond-eerie and uncomfortable results.

The romance of summer between the school years was felt in Karen Azoulay's lei low and Jason Van Horne's Summer Dreams. Azoulay's small, brightly coloured papier-mache wall sculptures and leis made from strung-together bits of cut-up egg cartons have a mysterious, relaxed and otherworldly quality. Likewise, Van Horne's Summer Dreams captures the freaky bliss of teenage summer. On a block of wood fixed to the wall Van Horne displayed a miniature tableau - a small male figure gently parts the bushes, taking in the scene of two tiny naked women suntanning - one blonde, the other brunette.

"Dead Teenagers" must have made many viewers feel like their teenage years had been frozen in time - every wild, crazy, hormone-ridden, death-defying moment. The show explored the sexual discovery, confusion, fantasy and anxiety of being a teenager, albeit with emphasis on a recent teenage period that featured goth, and introduced grunge and alternative music. A widely diverse show in terms of media, "Dead Teenagers" captured the occult side of teen spirit. The craving was evident: when will I be famous?

Later on opening night I spied the tall skinny goth guy from Gothic Makeout stumbling around inside the gallery, lips swollen like one of Paul P.'s sitters, intoxicated from the three-hour kissing session. He walked around like he would have paraded the high-school halls, somewhere between outcast and local celebrity. This was martyrdom in the making.

Elaine Bowen is a Toronto-based artist.
She currently works in the Development Department at the Art Gallery of Ontario and is a board member at YYZ Artists' Outlet.