Either Ore
Paul Robert

Exhibition Dates: June 6, 2016 - July 31, 2016

Either Ore is an examination of the political economy of art supply store products, specifically, Tibetan and Nepalese Lokta papers as well as "new media art" materials. The production of Lokta papers present a rare instance of handmade goods and sensuous processes resisting industrialization and mass manufacturing, a sustainable industry (the Daphne shrub is one of the world's few underutilized species), and, in the popular imagination, the preservation of a culture and way of life that miraculously resists contamination by geotourism. In actual fact however, the production of Lokta paper almost died out in Nepal in the early 1970s, and thrives today precisely because of the rise of geotourism since that time. 

Paul Robert is a Canadian artist who works in a variety of media. His projects aim to reveal the hidden assumptions that allow technological modes of thought to seem self-evident. He has an MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax (2005) and a BFA from the Alberta College of Art + Design (2002) where he currently teaches in the department Media Arts. He has participated in exhibitions in Alberta, Halifax, and abroad. He has been selected to present his work in the forthcoming 2017 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art. His writing has appeared in publications such as Bordercrossings and Fuse.