Lot 11: Roy Arden 1957 - Canadian 10 silver gelatin prints

Roy Arden 1957 - Canadian 10 silver gelatin prints and 10 C-prints Basement 17 1/4 x 21 3/4 inches 43.8 x 55.2 centimeters on verso initialed, titled on a label, editioned A.P. 2/2 and dated 1996 Provenance:Acquired from Patrick Painter Editions, 1998 Rennie Collection, Vancouver Exhibited:Oakville Galleries, Roy Arden, Selected Works 1985 - 2000, February 2 - April 7, 2002, traveling to VOX Centre de l'image contemporaine, Montreal, August 29 - October 27, 2002 Roy Arden's photographs of Vancouver have documented the changing city in large-scale format since the early 1990s, and he is one of the city's most respected artists, contributing to Vancouver's reputation as an important centre for photography. Works from Arden's 1996 Basement Series are perhaps his most personal, exploring as they do Arden's own cast-off belongings - and those of his neighbouring tenants - that fill the basement of his apartment block. The images appear as if just discovered in a modern archaeological dig - objects yet to be ntombed, but still just as forgotten as ancient artifacts, as the speed of casting off is much faster in modern times. The 20 images in Basement are half in black and white, half in colour, each depicting the cluttered objects in a clinical, documentary manner. Objects repeat from print to print, suggesting a panoramic approach on Arden's part. Identifiable objects like frying pans and long-play records, once likely prized for their newness, have lost their fleeting consumer appeal, a consideration to which Arden has always been sensitive to in his work.