b. 1952
Printed in 2010
Exhibition: June 10 – July 17, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 12, 2-5pm
The gallery is pleased to present its first exhibition of work by William Eakin, featuring his new series entitled, “Fading Dream.”
Eakin was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After completing his studies at the Vancouver School of Art and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, he worked in the film industry. As an advisor to the Sanavik Co-Op in Baker Lake, North West Territories, he assisted Inuit artists, printmakers and sculptors with the production and marketing of their work.
Photographs in the series “Fading Dream”were first culled by Eakin from his collection of vernacular Polaroids. He scans and enlarges specific examples from the original prints, which enables him to highlight the sense of post-war optimism that he discovered within the various images, an optimism he finds inherent in the Polaroid medium itself. The selected images display varying degrees of decay, which are arrested in this second moment of creation. It is this sense of optimism that we have lost in our present situations and Eakin offers the viewer the opportunity to look back, to remember, to share and to honour.
Over a career of nearly 40 years, Eakin has used photography to reinterpret and represent objects from his many carefully assembled collections of cultural artifacts; including bottle caps, figurines, decorative objects, electronics, photographs, etc. Past projects have included: “Night Garden,” “Ghost Month,” “Bottle Cap,” “Monument,” “Cowboy,” “Reunion” and “Space.”
Eakin has taught at the School of Art, University of Manitoba and the Department of Fine Arts, University of Victoria. His abilities as a teacher continue to earn him praise from several generations of artists and he is widely recognized as an important figure in the Canadian art scene. He has travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, and North and South.
