Amanda Kelly

BANDE À PARTE / KIDS THESE DAYS

The exhibition was first presented in 2014 at the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop's University, Sherbrooke, Québec.

Bande à parte / Kids These Days focused on a selection of projects from the 2000s by Canadian artists Jo-Anne Balcaen, Sarah Febbraro, Kerri Flannigan, Emmanuelle Léonard, Kyla Mallett, Helen Reed, Guillaume Simoneau, and Althea Thauberger.

In their examinations of youth and youth cultures within a North American context, they employed strategies that call to mind methodologies used in the social sciences. These approaches can be seen as suggestive of the enduring impact of these disciplines on current perceptions of youth. The artists document young people – their bodies, expressions and movements – and investigate their tastes, thoughts, methods of communication and leisure activities.

The resulting artworks suggested an underlying desire on the part of the artists to capture the “essence” of youth or to affiliate themselves with the coveted values typically associated with this group: freedom, escape, authenticity, expressivity, creativity and idealism. Popular ideas around youth were further explored in the fiction and non-fiction books on display.