Ralph Reynolds
“Have you ever gone camping with a group of Canadian bounty hunters who go to bed at 9pm?” and other hypotheticals revolving around hilarious, absurdity hijinks and survival without our creature comforts, are common conversation starters for Latitude’s very first artist and raconteur. Ralph Reynolds remains a contemporary Aesop, weaving impersonal breaking news into stories and scenarios that make you stop and think. Taking bits of history and contemporary events, Ralph layers his stories into something wholly personal and lets a transformation happen to his audience as new connections are formed to the tales he’s spinning. He’s a walking performance piece whose two-dimensional, essentialist marker drawings exist as road maps for his tales. Armed with a stack of paper which he quickly exhausts, Ralph engages his audience by calling out names, using hand gestures, and holding up his art pieces all the while challenging our perceptions and interpretations. At the end of the trip, he brings us to a final destination: our acknowledgement of the possibilities.
photograph by Katelynn Ralston
Art
