water at the bottom of the ocean, rocks upon the shore  2018–2019
Matériaux mixtes
Site 15 — Coaker Factory, Port Union

Le travail de Jerry Ropson jette un regard empathique sur le quotidien rural de Terre-Neuve. Son approche interdisciplinaire intègre sculpture, vidéo, audio, performance, peinture et dessin. Grâce à des constructions narratives et non linéaires, il crée des œuvres qui explorent les méandres de thèmes tels que l’isolement, le départ, l’attente et la perte.

Ce regard, qui puise dans l’histoire et les coutumes locales, est manifeste dans son installation réalisée pour le site de la Coaker Factory, autrefois siège de la Fishermen’s Protective Union, syndicat aujourd’hui disparu. Dans un cadre de produits et d’outils du passé industriel, l’artiste a glissé plusieurs objets surprenants de sa confection. Comme il est difficile de discerner les œuvres d’art des artéfacts du musée, cette intervention brouille la perception des hiérarchies. De plus, le recours délibéré de Ropson à des matériaux du quotidien met en relief les interrelations des structures sociales, culturelles et économiques présentes dans ce contexte.

Ce débat se transporte dans l’espace public par le biais d’une série de panneaux peints à la main qui ponctuent les routes de la péninsule de Bonavista. Avec des déclarations comme « NO MORE CONFUSING THAN THE NEXT », « TO EACH THEIR OWN », « BETTER FORGOTTEN », « LOOKING BACK » et « JUST AHEAD », l’intention du message reste énigmatique. Néanmoins, le sens émerge progressivement lorsque le visiteur met en relation la déclaration avec la toile de fond du panneau et le contexte de sa création. DD

water at the bottom of the ocean, rocks upon the shore  2018–2019
Mixed media
Site 15 — Coaker Factory, Port Union

Jerry Ropson’s practice provides a personal and compassionate look at everyday life in rural Newfoundland. His interdisciplinary approach to art-making includes aspects of sculpture, video, audio, performance, painting and drawing. Leaning on narrative and non-linear constructs, he creates work that examines the intricacies of such subjects as isolation, departure, longing and loss.

This focus, by way of research into local histories and folkways, is evident in a site-specific installation at the Coaker Factory, once the home of the now defunct Fishermen’s Protective Union. Intermixed among a tableau of products and tools of the industrial past are several carefully-
placed objects of curious shapes and various sizes made by the artist. As it is difficult to differentiate the artworks from actual museum artifacts, this intervention succeeds in complicating and inverting perceived hierarchies. Additionally, Ropson’s determined use of common materials makes visible the interconnections between the social, cultural and economic structures at play within this context.

This conversation is extended into the public sphere through a series of hand-painted, wooden signs installed alongside the roadways around the Bonavista Peninsula. With texts that read “NO MORE CONFUSING THAN THE NEXT,” “TO EACH THEIR OWN,” “BETTER FORGOTTEN,” “LOOKING BACK” and “JUST AHEAD,” for example, the aim and purpose of these messages are to a large extent left open to interpretation. Nonetheless, as one comes across a sign here and another there against the very backdrop that informed their making, the meaning that resides in this work is slowly revealed in a close and evolving engagement with the vernacular discourse of place. DD