Catherine Telford Keogh

NERVOUS SYSTEM
CATHERINE TELFORD KEOGH
24 JANUARY - 23 FEBRUARY 2020

Catherine Telford Keogh's exhibition Nervous System explores the ways that social, technological and biological systems operate as both open and closed, private and public amalgams.

Telford Keogh’s sculptures and two-dimensional wall works investigate the nature of containing information as it continuously breaks down and re-generates in a highly complex site. Parameters in Telford Keogh’s work are set by diverse realities - physical, linguistic, metaphorical - yet the complex systems they contain always surpass these imposed limits. Three sculptures occupy the floor of the gallery, beckoning the viewer to inspect them from above in their petrified state. The seemingly disjointed materials in these receptacles are culled from diverse industries, including technology, food, and biomedicine. Enshrined in a shared, translucent matter, these disparate elements are enforced into a novel chain of associations. Recalling trash heaps as well as our own gastrointestinal organs, Telford Keogh’s sculptures paradoxically elicit both a sense of stasis, as they lock in their queer medleys, as well as the creeping sense of time, as substances inevitably and languorously disintegrate.

The typeface that coils around and frames the fused materials spells out an alliterative association between the works: community, commune, and cannibalism. All three words suggest a non-autonomous way of being that fundamentally affects our relation to, and produces the need for, more objects and the systems that are used to make sense of them. A site so heavily interactive will necessarily create pollution and, with it, the need for sanitization. Infinite Dreamscape with Paraphernalia Corroded and Distilled Gracefully presents a generic stock image file layered with these alliterative words, logos of oil corporations, and tentacles. This dense field of associations is seen through a film of Palmolive soap, literalizing the intimate relationship between filth and cleanliness.

Governed by the logic of extending and blending realms, virtual and real, two sculptures entitled Marlowe Bottomed Out Surfing New Lifestyles and Agatha Bottomed Out Watching Late Night T.V. question the limits of this enmeshed space. The ergonomic design of the deconstructed gamer chairs included in these systems reflects fantasy over efficiency; while they appear to enhance the performance and comfort of the gamer, in reality the chairs' configurations stem from aesthetic connotations of luxury, comfort, and contemporaneity. Equipment within these cubicle-like environments house EXXONMOBIL oils as well as Biopure disinfectant in cast acrylic containers, creating a false sense of stability wherein one can mitigate the discharge of the other. Telford Keogh’s sculptures foreground the fluid cohabitation of incongruous matter while highlighting the excessive output that capitalism engenders.

- Loreta Lamargese

Agatha Bottomed Out Watching Late Night T.V.

Powder Coated Steel Tubes, Laser Cut Steel, Bio-Pure®, Laser Cut Plexiglas®, Plywood, Ebern Designs®Kerrick®Gaming Chair, Stainless Steel Bowls, Cast Acrylic Tray and Bowl, FORMICA®Laminate (Green Felt), ExxonMobil Oil, Cast Acrylic Outdoor Portable Toothbrush Container

Marlowe Bottomed Out Surfing New Lifestyles

Powder Coated Steel Tubes, Laser Cut Steel, Bio-Pure®, Cast Acrylic Tray, ExxonMobil, Laser Cut Plexiglas®, Plywood, Ebern Designs®Kerrick®Gaming Chair, Cast Dial® Omega Moisture Glycerin Soap, ExxonMobil Oil, Stainless Steel Sauce Bowls, FORMICA®Laminate (Folkstone Grafix)

Low Life (Erratic Cherry)

Plexiglas®, MDF, Pigmented FlexFoam-iT! ® III, Dial® Omega Moisture Glycerin Soap, Extra® Sugar Free Gum, Vinyl Digital Prints on Plexiglas®, Smooth-Cast® 325, 326, Yankee Candle® Home Sweet Home® Fragrance Spheres™, Digital Print on Vinyl, Advil® Extra Strength Pain Relief, Home Smart™ Disposable Straws, Betty Crocker®, Steel Bowls, HPV-11 Purified Plasmid DNA (ATCC® 45151D), Nickel-Plated Chains, Ceramic Bowls, Unico® Green Olives, Green Fluorescent Acrylic Tubes, Mezzetta® Hot Chili Peppers, KIND® Healthy Grains Clusters, Laser Cut Acrylic.
9 x 28 x 28 in.

Low Life (Sour Butter)

Plexiglas®, Plywood, Pigmented FlexFoam-iT! ® III, Cast Dial® Omega Moisture Glycerin Soap, Laser Cut Plexiglas®, Extra® Sugar Free Gum, Vinyl Digital Prints on Vinyl, Ceramic Sauce Bowls, Yankee Candle® Home Sweet Home® Fragrance Spheres™, HPV-11 Purified Plasmid DNA (ATCC® 45151D), Advil® Extra Strength Pain Relief, Betty Crocker®, Steel Bowls, Nickel-Plated Chains, Hot Dog Trays 8-Pack,Bick's® Dill Pickles, Green Fluorescent Acrylic Tubes, Mezzetta® Hot Chili Peppers, Home Smart™ Disposable Straws, Steel Bowls, no name® Maraschino Cherries
9 x 30 x 30 in.

Low Life (Eclectic Energies)

Plexiglas®, MDF, Pigmented FlexFoam-iT! ® III, Laser Cut Acrylic, Extra® Sugar Free Gum, Smooth-Cast® 325, 326, Vinyl Digital Prints on Plexiglas®, Yankee Candle® Home Sweet Home® Fragrance Spheres™, Advil® Extra Strength Pain Relief, Betty Crocker® Steel Bowls, Smooth-Cast® 325, 326,Nickel-Plated Chains, HPV-11 Purified Plasmid DNA (ATCC® 45151D), no name® Hot Dog Trays 8-Pack, Mars® Bar, Blue Fluorescent Acrylic Tubes, Digital Print on Vinyl.
9 x 34 x 34 in.

Infinite Dreamscape with Paraphernalia Corroded and Distilled Gracefully

Plexiglas, Palmolive® Essential Clean Dishwashing Liquid, Digital Print on Vinyl, Custom Steel Brackets
70 x 36 x 1 3⁄4 in.

With Support from Ontario Council for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts and Toronto Arts Council