Douglas Coupland explores the collective consciousness of the 21st century through Lego works, readymades, bric-a-brac and an enormous public work, coated in chewing gum.
Douglas Coupland (b. 1961) is one of Canada鈥檚 most prestigious contemporary writers, having published 13 novels, a collection of short stories, seven non-fiction books and a number of dramatic works and screenplays. Not only this he is also one of the country鈥檚 most celebrated designers and visual artists, creating works that synthesise high and low culture and reflect upon religion, the power of language, the omnipresence of technology in modern life and the 21st century condition 鈥 whatever that might be. Coupland is highly prolific; he describes the condition as a 鈥渃ollective neural rewiring, a common soup pot of data from which everyone feeds, the death of the middle class, the rise of the 鈥榖lank collar鈥 worker, asymmetrical warfare, algorithm-driven culture, a hyper-democratised media.鈥 Coupland continues to state that 鈥淥ur world, our societies and our collective cognition has been changing at an astonishing rate since the birth of the internet, but many people are still viewing 2015 through archaic lenses, so they鈥檙e maybe unable to get a clearer picture of what鈥檚 happening.鈥
Accordingly, Coupland鈥檚 work seeks out various ways of 鈥渟eeing鈥 this new world 鈥 whether this be through addressing the issues of 鈥渟mart phones, cameras, and how they feed into the way we selectively view images that occupy the darker political parts of our collective identity鈥; the effect of the Pop Art movement upon our collective view; the brain and how it collects new information; post-war utopias and dystopias, or by looking at current cultural stereotypes 鈥 specifically studying the Canadian national identity. For Coupland鈥檚 first major survey of work since 2000, the artist is exhibiting across two venues in Toronto, between the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), with the six-part show: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything. In addition to this audiences will be invited to visit Holt Renfrew Men to interact with the Gumhead (2014) and contribute to its changing design using their own gum and creativity. Over time the work will be dramatically transformed eventually obscuring the artist鈥檚 face and creating a unique version of the sculpture.
Curator Daina Augaitis explains that she worked with Coupland the artist in the same way that an editor would with Coupland the writer: he trusted her to streamline his work into a cohesive exhibition while he spent the year leading up to the show focusing on making new, long-envisioned works (including one of the exhibition鈥檚 most prominent works, Gumhead (2014). Augaitis explains: 鈥淐oupland鈥檚 work sheds light on subjects as varied as the rise of utopian ideas, the power of words, the presence of digital technologies, the significance of the everyday, and the unshakeable nature of one鈥檚 own constitution 鈥 ideas that Coupland examines with both optimism and some trepidation.鈥 Her approach to curating the show was 鈥渢o look at as much of Doug鈥檚 work as possible and then to determine the principal ideas that he keeps coming back to. These six thematic nodes emerged fairly quickly 鈥 it was my way of making sense of his art and I hoped it would provide some grounding to an art practice that at first may look rather broad but in fact circles continuously around his assessment of the contemporary condition.鈥
These six 鈥渘odes鈥 are divided between MOCCA with 35 pieces exploring 鈥淐anadian culture, history and architecture鈥 in sections: Secret Handshake, which unravels the stereotypes that constitute Canadian cultural identity, and Growing Up Utopian, which looks at the dystopic possibilities born out of a post-war perspective via 146 Lego towers, amongst other constructions. Meanwhile, 68 works addressing 鈥渋deas of popular culture and recent politics鈥 at ROM will be grouped into Words Into Objects including Coupland鈥檚 recent work Slogans for the 21st Century (2011-2014), which is made up of over 100 statements about our contemporary world; Pop Explosion, which brings classic images of the Pop Art movement into the present; 21st Century Condition, which references pivotal world events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and looks at how smart phone technology allows us to engage with memories of this; and finally, The Brain, which focuses on a major new sculpture consisting of 5,000 collected objects, serving as a metaphor for the complicated ways in which the brain gathers and processes new information.
The Brain is something of a masterwork: the result of objects amassed over the past 20 years by Coupland, who Augaitis describes as a 鈥減assionate collector,鈥 gathering specific pieces of bric-a-brac from garage sales, eBay or ephemera like his endless cigarette packet foils, brought in via social media and crowd-sourcing; the artist asked his followers to send him things or to bring them to his book readings. This work, according to Augaitis, reveals 鈥渂oth the logical as well as the non-linear thinking that supports Doug鈥檚 wildly inventive imagination and his prophetic cultural analysis, that [many] have come to know through many of his highly acclaimed books.鈥 The Brain adds to an exhibition resulting from 鈥渢he workings of a mind that is utterly creative,鈥 a way for visitors to 鈥渁ctually see how Doug pictures his own brain.鈥
In this sense, The Brain is a more comprehensive portrayal of the artist than his literal self-portrait and public work, Gumhead. This 7ft-tall black sculpture of the artist鈥檚 head stands in situ outside of the ROM in Toronto, inviting passers-by to stick their chewed gum to his face: obliterating the image with random expressions made entirely of chewing gum. Coupland describes his work with the public 鈥 which elsewhere has included supplying Lego pieces to public events and using their constructions as components for his Lego works 鈥 as a 鈥減arallel career.鈥 To him, 鈥渋t鈥檚 the non-fiction version of studio art; I鈥檝e been making huge laser-milled heads for six years now. Back in 2006 I also did a show where I gave chewing gum to just over 50,000 students and asked them to sculpt on top of an under-base made of school desks (Vancouver School group show, Artists for Kids Gallery, 2006). It was successful. Enter Gumhead. With public art, always second guessing defacement is a part of everyday life. I believe I think about it more than most people.鈥
Although in some ways appearing as dominant as an effigy of a dictator, perhaps a Soviet-era statue, the black resin and polyester piece communicates Coupland鈥檚 playful sense of humour; it legitimises transgression, vandalism, defacement and has certainly been enjoyed by its audience. He recalls the sculpture鈥檚 summer-long lifespan outside of the gallery with humour: 鈥淧eople went directly to snot. They tried big earrings but they would fall off. During the last month, we鈥檝e had the Ebola outbreak so everyone started doing haemorrhagic bleed-out from the eyelids.鈥 It is true to say that Gumhead has many purposes; it is simultaneously 鈥減ortraiture, a selfie, a still life, landscape art, interactive art, social sculpture and time-based art. It鈥檚 also populist.鈥 Coupland continues: 鈥淭he moment people put gum on it, it became their work and participants were very productive and made a point of coming back again and again to see their piece. It was nice.鈥
Gumhead is one of Coupland鈥檚 least sinister works, an experimental piece of public art, whereas The Brain is a discombobulating creation reminiscent of a mind packed with too much information, a Google search, or even a combination of the two. Coupland is quoted as saying 鈥淚 miss my pre-internet brain,鈥 and the work seems to be a haphazard representation of the artist, post-internet. This statement, along with over 100 other text works comprise a substantial section of the exhibition through Slogans for the 21st Century: 鈥淭hat Sickening Feeling When You Realise You鈥檝e Lost Your Cellphone Will Soon Be Permanent鈥; 鈥淜nowing Everything Turns Out To Be Slightly Boring鈥; 鈥淎 Fully Linked World No Longer Needs A Middle Class.鈥
With statements like these Coupland directs his audience to his world view, which he briefly outlines with: 鈥淥ur current world isn鈥檛 awful and is far more understandable than one might think. It makes its own new kind of sense, and existing in it with freedom in your head depends on how you frame the world, how you reorganise it, and how that in turn forces you to rethink it.鈥 Coupland is an artist whose work openly and directly speaks to his audience. It is the writer in him, and it makes for relatable works with instant effect.
Although Coupland has worked primarily as a writer, and only officially began his career as a visual artist in 2000, since his early years working as a designer, he says that his own 鈥渧isual art never really ended.鈥 He explains that even when working as a writer he conducted any number of theoretical art projects within his novels. These projects 鈥渄rove reviewers crazy鈥 and included 鈥10,000 random numerals; all of the allowable two-letter words in Scrabble; and visualisations of what a printout of a computer鈥檚 thinking might look like.鈥 Some of this extraordinary work is included in the show, and everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is therefore a summation of Coupland鈥檚 entire portfolio rather solely his 鈥渇ine art.鈥
Coupland only moved towards the art world in recent years as in his opinion 鈥渟o many writers aren鈥檛 visual thinkers, in a medical, clinical sense, which is probably why they became writers.鈥 Coupland says that he 鈥渃an鈥檛 read work written by non-visual thinkers 鈥 I medically, clinically can鈥檛 read the work. I need a concrete metaphor in every paragraph or my mind vacates the room. People never look at reading this way, which I find astonishing. Visuality is so fundamental to perception.鈥 He also explains that 鈥渧isual people only become friends with other visual people. This is a big thing and is going to get bigger 鈥 as our world becomes increasingly led by the image-based media.鈥
Of course digital imagery, archiving and the internet are an overriding theme for Coupland鈥檚 oeuvre: however, in terms of art historical references he reaches back to the paintings of Emily Carr, the Group of Seven (a historical collective of Canadian painters from the early 20th century) and, as he affirms 鈥渁ll of the Pop artists, obviously.鈥 In brightly coloured QR codes, Hirst- esque shelving laden with building blocks, digital collages of technology advertisements and oversized household items, Coupland demonstrates the enduring relevance and timelessness of Pop Art.
Today popular culture is present and available for examination more than ever. In fact, Coupland鈥檚 QR codes 鈥 which further recall Piet Mondrian鈥檚 abstraction 鈥 also work as functioning codes, and when scanned with a smartphone generate statements about life and death similar to Slogans for the 21st Century. In using the internet to interpret the work, the viewer is immediately subject to Coupland鈥檚 opinions of the 21st century condition; Coupland鈥檚 Pop Art looks at popular consciousness, not only popular culture.
He notes another of his influences as being the Canadian philosopher of communication theory who predicted the invention of the internet, Marshall McLuhan, the artist having written the 2010 biography Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! Coupland references McLuhan鈥檚 1962 publication, The Gutenberg Galaxy, as having particular effect; the essay states that new inventions are not only something to be used but also they change us 鈥 particularly in the context of movable type, which replaced the typewriter to create a new level of homogeneity. McLuhan argued that new digital technologies would lead to a return to diversity; however, and as Coupland鈥檚 artwork displays, instead the homogeny has set in.
As curator, Daina Augaitis explains: 鈥淎nywhere in this increasingly integrated world, wherever you are, we seem to be heading towards a place where, as Doug has written, 鈥榚verywhere is anywhere and anything is everything.鈥欌 In over 100 works and six chapters of energetic, multi-media, enormous and miniscule, brash and detailed, painterly and readymade pieces, Coupland clearly communicates his view that this era of constant sharing and dissemination is 鈥渁 vital and fascinating moment in human history.鈥
Everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything is on view at the Royal Ontario Museum and MOCCA and runs until 26 April and 19 April respectively. For further detail, visit and .
Chloe Hodge
