A few good words that still work, and the tide represents a synthesis of Dil Hildebrand's two previous series. Alternately flat and spacious, this new hybrid body of work examines the artist's ongoing interest in architecture and painting from a new angle.
“The title of the exhibition is taken from a poem by Margaret Atwood*, in which the poet lists the accoutrements of her trade, adding finally "a few good words that still work, and the tide". Equipped with shopworn tools, the poet aspires to sail upon new shores, but reflects that to do so she must ride the mercurial tide of chance; an apt description of the creative challenge. A number of other motifs also resonate throughout Atwood's poetry. Anxiety, ordeals of the creative process, the relationship between the artist and her audience, and dark passageways - all of which figure strongly with Atwood - are important themes in this exhibition. Each painting here takes for its title an excerpt from an Atwood poem.
Resembling windows, doors, vitrines and porticos, the canvases in this exhibition disclose narrow, inner spaces and richly textured surfaces that point to each painting's long process of manufacture. Using abstract formations, the artist builds architectonic works that invite the beholder in while not offering compositions that feel safe or secure to enter. Diverse sources of influence can be found in this work - Dutch doorkijkje painting, modern architecture, and Matisse all appear in various guises throughout the exhibition.
While the word passage refers to a segment of prose or poetry, it also has rich meaning within the language of painting; passageways are products of architectural patterning, apertures for looking, symbols of ambivalence, and locations of movement between states of being. They are also sites that join the sphere of production with those of consumption and so act as an exchange point between the artist and his audience. In the case of the guillotine, passageways are also machines for dismemberment. In Gothic novels, thresholds are often a location of suspense, delirium and strange visions. A few good words that still work, and the tide is a study of what happens at these lawless, liminal spaces; the work of the poet and the painter, bobbing about at the mercy of a chaotic tide.”
- Dil Hildebrand
*True Stories, 1981
Dil Hildebrand was born in Winnipeg and obtained his MFA at Concordia University in 2008. National winner of the RBC Painting Competition in 2006. Hildebrand has participated in numerous exhibitions including the 4th Beijing International Art Biennale (2010), "Back to the Drawing Board" at YYZ Toronto (2011), "The Builders" at the National Gallery of Canada Biennial (2012), "Re-configuring Abstraction" at the Manitoba University School of Art Gallery (2013), "Le Projet Peinture" at Galerie de l'UQAM (2013), "Shape Shifters" at the Herron Galleries of the University of Indiana (2013), "Young Canadian Painters" at Cambridge Galleries (2014), "La Beauté du geste" at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2014) and "Land-reform(ed)" at the Canada Council Ajagemô Gallery (2014). His work has been collected by major public institutions throughout Canada, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Bank of the Canada Council and in several corporate collections including the RBC Royal Bank, the Bank of Montreal, TD Canada Trust, Caisse de dépôt et placement, Bennett Jones LLP, Ernst and Young, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP among others. In 2016, he will have a solo exhibition at Plein Sud in Longueil.
