The photography that lines the walls of the Gum-boot Restaurant this month is only the tip of the iceberg for Jason Whyte.
The Roberts Creek artist gives a hint of the more complex visual arts he creates for such venues as music festivals and exhibitions - work that he calls projection art. He takes images, photos of his own making, slide and 16 mm film and combines them with words and music on a handcrafted screen to create an ever-changing backdrop.
"It's lighting really," he says, " but it's art at the same time." The work takes the artist to events year round: from his annual gig at the Vancouver Jazz Festival to the beaches of Ucluelet, from Ruby Lake's first festival season to Performance Works on Granville Island, from nightclubs to the Shambhala Festival in the Kootenays.
"I also do funerals, weddings and birthday parties," he says. Currently, he's on his way to Thailand with five cameras, none of which he entrusts to baggage handling, and he hopes to have a body of work when he returns.
Back at his Gumboot show that will continue through January, viewers can see straightforward examples of his slide photography, displayed without benefit of PhotoShop, but with a few photographic special effects. One scene is captivating. A Buddha appears to be partially illuminated by the full moon but is actually lit by a tea light and taken with a slow exposure. Many of the photos have been captured over the past 10 years. Whyte has loved photography ever since he was a kid; his first camera was a manual Canon that once belonged to his grandmother. He took many pictures on it and regrets breaking it while skateboarding.
The only Gumboot collage that has benefited from PhotoShop is a light box. Eight images have been scanned, reprinted as transparencies on plexi, then back lit to compose a scene that most of us will recognize - the view from a plane as it circles Vancouver preparing to land.
Whyte likes restaurants as his venues. He's shown before at the Café New Orleans because he believes that more people are likely to see his work and buy it. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
