Exhibition Dates and Location
Adrian Duchateau's Solo Exhibition Items is on display from August 21st - September 30th, 2024 at the Civic Gallery on the 2nd Floor of the Township of Langley Civic Facility (20338 65 Ave, Langley, BC V2Y 3J1). The Civic Facility hours are Monday to Friday 8:30am-4:30pm. View the works in person or send us an enquiry to view the works framed!
Artist Statement
The Value of Things by Adrian Duchateau
Every value designation gets made from a functionality point of view or from the necessity we have for it. These evaluations are either economical or natural; economical when a resource is scarce or unique and natural when a resource is vital for survival. This understanding makes us treasure things like gold or water. A third aspect would be the subjectivities that let us treasure anything from a piece of paper inscribed with the words of our first love to a trophy that commemorates an outstanding achievement. Both objects are by themselves useless, but they hold an understandable value for their possessor. The foundation of human consumption is built around the aspects on which we value things. First, we value what secures our survival, then we make diverse transactions so we can collect or acquire the things that each of us values as individuals.
My work explores the notion of value around objects that are commonly seen as valueless; the "meaningless" trash we produce on daily basis. These disposable objects receive no further consideration besides their instant use, even though their mass production requires a huge number of valuable resources and has a massive drawback: the resulting pollution and climate change the Earth is suffering. In these times every man-created object should be considered on these two terms; the resources spent on its production and the pollution it leaves behind. Those two cost measurements unveil the real value of things. I am collecting discarded trash to place it in an aesthetic environment attempting to shape its appreciative value; in the real world they have a simple and fugacious function, but inside the boundaries of a white canvas, one can stare and wonder about the meaning of the image, thus the object’s reason for being.
My work seeks to be an evaluation of what can be appreciated as valuable. If meaningless objects or discarded trash can become an aesthetic experience, then there can be a shift in our perspective about what we cherish. This possibility extends to our capability for cultural change that can modify the established consumption order that has our world on the brink of irreversible damage.