Abstractions of a Paradigm
October 9, 2008
By Mike Landry
Living in Honokaa, Hawaii Scott Yoell is surrounded by beauty. The former Windsor, Ontario research-based artist moved from Montreal to Hawaii with his wife who was originally from the islands. But even in his little paradise there’s a certain menace under all its beauty.
“Things are great,” says Yoell. “But you can’t help but look down when you’re walking on a beach and see this pile of plastic pouring out of the carcass of a baby albatross. You can’t help but be affected by that, or at least I can’t.”
Yoell’s latest series, Abstractions of a Paradigm, takes the idea of manufactured paradises as its subject. Billed as “fantastical responses to a conflicted world,” Yoell examines the darker side of humanity’s attempt to create unnatural worlds—be it television, excellence in sport or the effects of colonialism.