KIM KENNEDY AUSTIN: Fast Girls Get There First

KIM KENNEDY AUSTIN
Fast Girls Get There First
OPENING RECEPTION: Thurs, Mar 23, 7-9 PM
Mar 23 – Apr 22, 2017

HOURS: Tues – Sat, 11 – 5 PM

Fast Girls Get There First, an exhibition of new works by Vancouver based KIM KENNEDY AUSTIN, takes as its point of departure the American teen magazine, Seventeen. In its infancy in 1944, Seventeen Magazine was geared towards inspiring the newly formed teen demographic into becoming model workers and citizens, while promoting self-confidence in young women. Through the rose-tinted lens of Bildungsroman – a coming-of age-story – Seventeen Magazine unfolds as a guidebook or instructional manual for the process of development and growth to maturity.

Reading through the back issues of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Austin extracts editorial and advertising copy to use as fodder for a series of text based works utilizing kids craft materials and methods. Through a process of data mining and editing, Austin whittles the headlines and ad slogans ripped from these pages into motivational and aspirational maxims.

Seventeen Magazine: It’s where the girl ends and the woman begins.