Symbiosis and Adaptation
Recent Paintings by David Walker
(February 24 - April 3, 2005)
The exhibition featured over fifteen paintings by David Walker, all created in the last 4-5 years, which make up a body of work concerned with symbiosis and adaptation. The work is a departure from his more traditional oeuvre of landscape painting. In this series, Walker shifts to abstract imagery and representations of organic and geometric forms that have an almost surreal quality to them.
In his artist statement Walker adopts the idea of symbiosis – a term used in biology where one ancestral microbe eats another, but instead of digesting the microbe completely, the eaten microbe takes up residency and eventually becomes a functioning part of the host.
The artist adds that this concept of symbiosis and adaptation is a metaphor for the upheaval taking place in this age of revolutionary cultural change resulting from rapid advances in technology. He describes his paintings as “paintings about survival, possibly similar to those early life forms.”
However, there is a more literal reference to symbiosis taking place in these works¾ between organic and non-organic forms. In some, the organic forms could be seen as taking on “mechanical characteristics.” Likewise, other paintings exhibit “small stirrings of organic life” contained within larger geometric or machine-like shapes. With titles taking on scientific terminology, such as Gyro, Machine, Experiment #2, Concoction, Lab... the metaphor is taken to extremes.
David Walker has exhibited throughout the Lower Mainland including Diane Farris Gallery, Heffel Gallery, Simon Fraser Gallery, Ceperley House and Evergreen Cultural Centre.
