If you can put a can of soup in a gallery and call it art, why not a Tim Hortons coffee cup?
That's precisely what Guelph's Ed Video Media Arts Centre is doing at the SUPERMARKET art fair in Stockholm. It's displaying Gabriel Parniak's "Twenty-Four Ounces of Misrepresentation," a fully-beaded Timmy Ho's cup, and drawing enormous interest for the work online.
Ed Video program director Scott McGovern posted a picture of Parniak's piece on the Canada sub-Reddit on Thursday. It was top of the list with over 400 comments on Friday morning.
"I hate that Tim Hortons is so associated with our national identity," Redditor WitlessCanuck wrote.
"So does the artist, I think," replied another user.
Collage is a prominent theme in Parniak's work. His pieces critique Canadiana by using materials such as paint, beads and newspaper clippings.
He explains on his website:
Power structures are lampooned, while the construction of our personal narratives and social views are called to question. Moments of quasi-Canadiana are prevalent throughout as mysterious as the condition of contemporary Canadian identity itself.
Parniak isn't the only artist whose work is being displayed at SUPERMARKET. Also along for the trip are pieces by Philippe Blanchard, Amy Lockhart and Gillian Wilson.
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