2010
Galerie Push – Montréal, QC

Surveying the Danger Field draws parallels between the art gallery and the comedy club by positing them as test sites for ideas in contemporary society. These sites require an active audience and are places for ridicule, judgement, shame, reward, applause and criticism. A particular focus on locations such as these allows Beal to continue a line of inquiry pursued in his practice, one that deals with the shifting space between such concepts as the amateur and the professional, public discourse and professional language, and the genuine and the affected. Beal applies humour as a medium in the works on paper and installation piece assembled in Surveying the Danger Field in order to engage and disarm the audience into moments of critical doubt. Pairing the delicacy and fragility of charcoal and watercolour on paper with the reactive outbursts of Beal’s drum kit installation, Surveying the Danger Field presents work that adopts the exhibition itself as its subject.