108_06, 2009 © Jessica Eaton

Canadian photographer and We Can’t Paint favourite Jessica Eaton (previously featured here ) has an excellent show now on view at Hunter and Cook . While it’s apparent that Eaton’s exhibition is more premise than masterpiece, and this is very much the point (think transition over failure), I was continually struck by how well these experiments work while collapsing. I think of Eaton as a photographer not really pointing toward the loss of analogue craft within the medium (a notion encompassing much of her photographs which is far too one-dimensional), but it is her practice, and particularly these newest works, which highlight an often over hyped and mythic facade placed both on artists and their works.

The photographs in the exhibition are technically seductive yet they function and are heightened by inaccuracies. An image like “108_06”, where Eaton had numerous “darkmasks” laser cut to expose a sheet of 4×5 film, becomes a meditation on artist as mad scientist, absurdity and ingenuity turned up to eleven. And while the large scale work “Quantum Pong 3” borders on technical desolation, the floating balloon like orbs are raw enough to give the photograph a sense of the euphoric. These are works stripped to the core of what makes an image in photography. Where other artists may use a minimalist aesthetic as a stylization of theory, frequently gambling on an allure of banality, Eaton always comes off as less of a meandering conceptualist and more like a playful sensualist - eschewing stanch hypothesis for mystery and substance.

I highly recommend you visit this show as it is in my opinion one of the best photo-based exhibitions in Toronto this year.  Jessica Eaton’s photographs are on view at Hunter and Cook until April 26th. Details below:

Hunter and Cook

15 Ossington Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6J 2Y8

T: 416 588 3500

Note: A selection of Eaton’s newest works are available to view online over at Tiny Vices . Also, if you’re interested in owning a print by Eaton, the photographer has two limited editions available for purchase through Hunter and Cook or on her blog here .

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