Click here to read an essay by Robert Epp. Click here to read an essay by Dr. Jeanne Randolph. Click here to read an essay by Cliff Eyland. Click here to see a list of works in the exhibition. Click here to view images of Gordon Lebredt's work. Click here for a commentary by Robert Epp on Gordon Lebredt's "white walls:black holes" Click here for an addendum by Gordon Lebredt on his "white walls:black holes" Click here for images by Gordon Lebredt from "white walls:black holes"

< > ABOVE: Gordon Lebredt, Ripple Rock Blowup. Photo credit: Ernest Mayer. (Note: To navigate please click arrows or image.) 05 Ripple Rock Blowup 1975 / 1978 acrylic and enamel on canvas 274.3 x 365.7 cm Collection of the Artist Painted in 1975, this monochromatic work in white, grey, and black tones closely resembles its source image, a black and white photograph taken by Winnipeg photographer, Cal Bailey. Pictured in the painting (from left to right) are the members of the Ripple Rock motorcycle racing team: Gordon Lebredt, John Glassco, and Kemp Archibald. A fourth figure kneels behind the riders. Lebredt exhibited this painting at a juried art exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1976. In 1978 he added the black diagonal strikethrough, effectively taking the painting “off-line” in his words, and signalling the end of his interest in painting as a picture, as something one simply hung on a wall. The canvas remained folded up and stored for 27 years and is exhibited here for the first time with the strikethrough. The title of the painting is a reference to the explosion of the twin peaks of Ripple Rock that lay in the channel between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island, close to the town of Campbell, B.C. The rocks were a constant menace to ships passing through the water. The National Research Council of Canada blew up the rocks on April 5, 1958, in what is considered to be the world's largest non-nuclear peacetime explosion. It was one of the first live nationwide telecast events by CBC television, and Lebredt recalled seeing it as a child. A video clip of the original telecast is available at the CBC Archives: http://archives.cbc.ca