Derived from the combination of text panels from the manga Deadman Wonderland (2007-2013), still images from Starling’s film Sans Sans Soleil (2018) and handmade abstractions based on screen-tones, the body of work consists of a series of lithographic prints that begin as representations but progressively become more and more layered with imagery, obliterating the narrative.

A sequence of images is what printmaking shares with other time-based mediums, all of which are involved in narrative storytelling. What stands out in printmaking though, is repetition. Each time a plate or stone is printed there is room for variation. It can be inked more or less to create tonal differences, or layers can be mis-registered, mis-aligned or printed in different combinations to produce jarring juxtapositions, to name a few of the possibilities. Any of these “errors” can introduce a break that will not allow for the smooth continuity of the story.

The title of the exhibition refers to Jacques Lacan’s discussion in Seminar XX of the unconscious, and it’s appearance as a result of the relationship between the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary. Under normal circumstances, It (the unconscious) “doesn’t stop not being written”. From time to time however, “it stops not being written” which is the moment the relationship is suspended, creating a disfunction that exposes the dynamics that allow for the (narrative) continuity of the system. Under capitalism, discontinuity shows the domination, exploitation, and discrimination that allow for its smooth functioning. To disturb or arrest the narrative is a problem because when it “stops not being written,” the accumulation of capital is threatened.

MEDIUM(S)

lithography

ARTIST BIO

Dan Starling is a Vancouver-based artist whose research-driven practice investigates how art can unsettle dominant cultural narratives. Drawing on strategies of intervention, repetition, and recombination, his work addresses how myths maintain the status quo while also imagining futures that are more equitable and just.

Starling has re-written Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to address its suppressed racism, re-cast Star Wars with a critical chorus to debate democracy, and re-made Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil to confront cultural amnesia. His print series Unsettled Histories reinterprets Rembrandt’s The Three Crosses (1653), aligning it with contemporary concerns around decolonization and climate change.

He holds a Meisterschüler from the Städelschule, Frankfurt, and is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. His solo exhibitions include the Burnaby Art Gallery (2022), Klondike Institute of Art & Culture (2021), and Wil Aballe Art Projects & VIVO Media Arts Centre (2018). His work has been shown internationally at Kunsthall Oslo, Kunstverein Frankfurt, and M HKA Antwerp.

Some of the prints in this series were made in collaboration with Ann Richards and additional printing assistance was provided by Andreea Mateescu, Griffin Schwam, Anastasia Shitova and Yuan Wen.