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PAGE 10, WHITBY FR PRESS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEER 8, 1989 At the galery: mge fSped Speed, as stI&wn. by auto- mobiles, 'is the subject of 'The Outer Edge - Images -of Speed' the newest exhibition at The Station Gallery ov. 4 tio 26.1 Paintings, s4ulpture, and a Porsche race dr in the main room, make up the perspective of the automobile an d the fascina- tion for speed. SAs is stated in The Station Gallery newsletter, "#ne automobile lias corne to symbolize much more than the euphoric, naive phrase of the Futurist Manifesto anticipated. It is the icon of the twentieth century. It has transformed our social being. Fashions, lifestyles, fast food and drive-in services, the phloeophy of freedom and power, al are interwoven into the fabrie of auto-culture. 'Tet there remains, in.spte of the pervasive influence of the automobile, a fascination with speed - a fascination that transcends the utilitarian or the social aspect of the automobile. Central te, our obsesson with speed is the irrational drive to be drawn to the outer edge where absolute control or utter disaster are separated by immeasurable threads. of luck, sill, technology and nerve. *The drive, the Icaraus complex"' for want of a better description, pushes us to test- the outer limita of our capabilities. iàke art, the essence of the experience resides above and beyond the commonplace, both for the participant and the viewer. "The ritual merging of man' and machine to catch that perfect instant of mastery, brings home the glory and the vulnerability of the human condition. It is to, that instant that this exhibition addresses itself; the instant of intensity frozen in the haunting, protected but fragile heads of Don Bonham's racers; the moment of perfect technological symmetry and balance captured in John Leonard's marvellous "pipes like serpents"; the Porshe 956 and the grass-root, bull-ring ambiance of the dirt track, somie now silent and reclaimed by nature but still resonant with the roar of the crowd and the thunder of the engine. The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Algoma. MAàRK WIGGLESWORTH of Durham Automobiles in Whitby was one of the volunteers who helped to assemble, in less than half an hour, a Porsche race car (minus the engine) in the main room of The Station Gallery last week teclinology that surrounds modern life and constitutes the backdrop for this century." A master of technological illusions, lie entered ' The Bonneville Machine' in the 24th World Land Speed Trials held on the Salt Flats of Utah. The sculpture was diaqualifled because it had no engine, but Bonhiam's film of the event is a fantasy classic. Bonhamn is a consummate craftsman whose fibreglass and mixed media sculptures of humanized machines- and Water colors by for the current exhibition The Outer Edge - Images of Speed.' The car, described as a Porsche 956/962, is on loan from the Porsche division of Volkswagen Canada. F~p mechanized humans are a fantastic combination of myth and twentieth century technology. In Bohms view "one must not be frightened by technology, but appreciate it and by accepting it, grow te understand - te, be fascinated te the extent that we have a long liard look, for te observe is the first step in understanding." JOHN LEONARD John Leonard, one of Canada's foremost realist painters, was bomn in Oxted, Surrey, England in 1944. Ha attended the Ontario College of Art. irraduating in 1969. Leonard -worked and studied in Victoria B. C. before movig te, Toronto for further studies at O.A.C. Hie was awarded the Ontario College of Art Medal for Proflciency as the student having the highest standing in the graduating class of the drawing and painting department. Hie is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy and. a founding member and directeir of ACT in Toronto. A teacher, Leonard lias tauglit at collages, universities, and art schools acroas Ontario including the University of Toronto, Trent University, Peterboroughi, University of Guelphi, Bishon Strachaný the Ontari-o College of Art, Mohawk College, Georgian -College, Shieridan College and Sault College Summer School of the Arts, among others His work can be found in the publicejnd corporate collections of the ioNal Gallexy,'Oshawa, the Bacardi International Corp. the Toronto Dominion Bank and the T. Eaton Corporation among others. SALVATORE SCAR1F1TA Salvatore Scarpitta was born in New York City in 1919, grew up iLao Angeles and lived in Italyfrom 1936, to 1959. -He studied art at the Italian Academy of Fine Art and the American Academy in Rorne. Ini 1959 lie moved te New York lvhere lie lived and worked until 1969. He lias been with the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York since its founding. He is currently teaching at the Maryland Institute Collage of Art, in Baltimore. Scarpitta's work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Las Angeles County Musen of Art, the Gallery of Modern Art Tel Aviv, and Stedeliijk Museumn, Amnsterdam axnong many others Scarpittals lifelong interest ini chrt track racing can ba traced te bis boyliood in Las Angeles. He was fascinated with the bull-ring tracks of Califonia and the rugged beauty of the liomemade cars World War Il had a profobund impact on Scarpitta. Unlike dirt track cars, the violence of the machines of war could not be romanticized- and in the period following the war, Scarpitta canvasses were twisted, bent, cut and pierced. BY the early '609, Scarpitta's interest in racing had resurfaced and lie began incorporating salvagad parts from old racing cars into his new work. In the late '60s Scarpitta began to build the cars himself. He used some parts from cars whose driversalie had known as a youg boy designed and forged otherso. BON BONHIAM Keney at Iibrary Don Bonham was bomn in Watercolors by Carol Kennedy Oklahoma City in 1940 and livad are on display at the Whitby therd until lie enlisted in the Public Library during November. Marines at the age of 18. Hie laft Kennedy lias studied art the military in 1963 after two appreciation in Toronto, France, tours of duty in Southeast Aia, Venice and Italy. A former art and anrolled in tlie art prograni teacher, she lives with lier hus- at the University of Oklahioma. band on a 45-acre farm where lIn 1968 Bonliar emigrated te she continues to paint commis- Canada te becoma a serious sioned works, china plates, mugs artist. He lias held a number of and jewelry. teaching positions and visiting mristiespPoin nd in &'Pink HaM-Boots' schools acroas Canada and the at resolUrce cenftre United States. Elis work can be found in the collections of Canada B. George Blake will present Council Art Bank, the Art Gallery 'The Pink Haif-Boots,' a multi- of Hamilton, Confederation media prduction of 'The Sym- Centre Art Gallery, P.E.I., pihonie Farntastique' by Hector Imperial Qil Ltd. and tlie London ferlioz, on Saturday, Nov. 11,. Regional Gallery amnong othars. 7:30 p.m., at the arts resource He currantly lives and works in c'mtre, behind Oshiawa city hall. Toronte. Bonhaxn lias bean The prasentation includes deecribed as an actor, story-telling and multiple-projac- entrepreneur, film-maker and tion slide show, set to the strains stoytller, but lie is flrst and of Berlioz' autobiographical sym- formos asculpter. Ha assumed phony. the title 'Twentieth Century Ticets, for $7, are available at Landacape nrit'ii19171 because Promenade Books (430-1642). lie' as "ascnted b h For more information cail 579-. 7149.