***Mar 2006 Focus pg 1-32 - Focus Magazine

seemingly unencumbered by narrative. But they are in migration,and flying in all directions: neither here nor there, if you will.One final image begs contemplation. Arranged with careful precisioninto polygons, mimicking the structure of the spheres themselves,machetes flash their blades in various directions. It’s an initially violentimage, but consider this: “A machete in Jamaica is used for absolutelyeverything, from cutting your lawn to chopping up your neighbour.”It’s a tool of cultivation as much as it is of violence.Faced with such overwhelming contradictions, the viewer is leftgrasping a bit. You have gained a rich aesthetic experience, true, butcertainty and meaning dissolves. Attraction and repulsion are certainlyengaged, resulting in more questions than answers. It’s disorienting—which is the whole point. Campbell explains, “There are always twothings going on. There is this aesthetic quality, which pulls you in onedirection and engages one part of your mind, and then there’s thisnarrative of the image, which engages another part. So the idea is, byactivating both of those parts, it makes them both uncertain. It pullsthe meaning away from the image, in some respects.”This creates a gap, a contemplative mental space open to new meaning.When he says his work “inhabits the interstices of artistic and politicalconcerns,” it is this space to which he refers. It’s not necessarily acomfortable place to be, but neither is it unpleasant. It’s where theimbalance of uncertainty intersects with the beauty of potential. “Itdoesn’t change the facts, but it changes the possible directions you cango with the facts,” says Campbell.He clarifies: “In Jamaica, there is very much a feeling that our violentpast has led to our violent present, which will lead to our violent future.There is lots of justification for that, in that the scars keep being perpetuated.”The legacy of residential schools here in Canada is anotherexample of abuse and exploitation rippling across generations. Campbell’swork seeks to break down the inevitability and momentum of historyby offering this space for dreaming up alternative, “aspirational” futures.“History has its weight and its baggage,” Campbell acknowledges,noting that choice may not appear as a possibility. His work is “not inany way a denial of history, or to say that it’s not relevant to our behaviouror actions,” he explains, “but it’s a way of saying you have to putyourself into the present. That’s where decisions are made; that’s wherechoices are made.”Which means the present is not an easy space to occupy; it comeswith responsibility. Like Campbell’s spheres, it is as delicate and ephemeralas a bubble, yet weighted with the past. It involves the same intimacythat makes Campbell’s work at once attractive, compelling and challenging.“[My work] doesn’t give an answer to how you should thinkabout this stuff,” he concludes, “but it does declare its presence andrelevance.” What you derive has everything to do with where youare and what it means to you to be there. The future, you could say, isin the eye of the beholder.handmade just for youThe world-famous Cape Cod Screwball Braceletutilizes a unique hidden clasp designed by JohnCarey. Though simple and elegant, its productionrequires painstaking craftsmanship. Carey’s grandsonAlex Carey carries on the family tradition of craftingartful jewellery, including customized ScrewballBracelets, at Adore Jewellery in Market Square.jewellery539 Pandora Ave • www.adorejewellery.ca • 250.383.7722Transporter is at Open Space Gallery, 510 Fort Street, second floor,until April 6, noon-5pm, Tues-Sat. On April 6 at 3pm Charles Campbellwill be interviewed by Megan Dickie about his residency at the gallery;250-383-8833, www.openspace.ca.Aaren Madden is a Victoria writer constantly seeking gracein the present.www.focusonline.ca • April 201339