Installation/Exhibition

This section highlights work that has been made for exhibition or installation in gallery spaces.

Stuff

Tenderpixel Gallery, London, UK, March - April, 2010. For this project, I collaborated with sound artist Christian Richer to produce a live, participatory installation of drawings and ambient aural textures. Gallery visitors were invited to bring an object to which to they felt an emotional attachment (from key-ring to crystal goblet). Together, me and guest chatted about the object's history and personal significance. We also sketched: individual and comparative interpretations of the precious object in question. No drawing experience was necessary! Perfect execution was not the purpose of this interaction - but moreover, about highlighting these fleeting moments of change and exchange. Christian recorded, and transformed these conversations into atmospheric tape loops, slowly building a soundtrack that accompanied the expanding collection of drawings. Connecting, recording, sketching, editing, broadcasting and affixing…constantly evolving and dynamic, our residency at Tenderpixel culminated in an immersive installation of playful images & evocative sounds: an eclectic collection of 'stuff'.

(Being) One Thing at a Time / (Être) Une chose à la fois

Galerie Corrid'Art Sylviane Poirier, Montreal, QC, January - February, 2010. The (Being) One Thing at a Time photo series portrays the traces of momentarily activated - and at times even politicized - public spaces. Emerging out of a number of public actions that were carried out at selected sites in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and St-John's, artists and non-artists alike were invited to join me in imposing slightly transgressive, bewildering (or questionable) gestures in unexpected, or just plain banal places. Together, we created contemporary living tableaux that proposed to open up a dialogue between the body and the environments it traverses. The ensemble of pictures make up a narrative across time and space, re-creating and reconsidering various elements of each of the performances. Captions appearing along with these images provide another contextualizing frame for the viewer to virtually re-visit the performances. More images from this series are featured on the Culturehall website.

Read a review of (Being) by Gavin Thomson in the McGill Daily

The Proliferation of ESSEN

This installation proposes live-art/relational action in the gallery, photo/video and text documentation of previous in-situ performances, as well as documentation of actions as they unfold in the gallery.

The performance ESSEN (German or Yiddish: to eat), was initiated in 2003 when I was working on a series of tableaux vivants; process-based public art actions called (Being) One Thing at a Time. Since its first showing, ESSEN has taken on a life of its own, with repeated invitations to re-enact the performance in several locations – both within Montreal and beyond. ESSEN requests that pairs of participants sit across from each other at a table, in the sharing of a meal which takes place in a non-art venue: a restaurant, a park, a guest's home.

ESSEN as performed and documented in Barrie, ON, 2007

This playful and meditative performance insists that one is not permitted to feed oneself but instead be fed by one's dining partner (drinking independently is allowed). As a performance, ESSEN creates an opportunity to pay close attention and to slow down time. In so doing, it serves to address several themes that have occurred in much of my artistic work over the last number of years - my contentious relationship to food (and eating), as well as issues around body, sexuality, intimacy, and obsession/addiction. While this work has previously only been undertaken in non-art spaces, for the exhibition I plan to bring the performance into the gallery, inviting audience members (participants) to come and share a meal. Public meals, carried out in the same manner as previous ESSEN performances, are scheduled repeatedly throughout the course of the exhibition. 

ESSEN as performed and documented in Montreal, QC, Vancouver, BC, and Toronto, ON, 2006

As an exhibition several stations are set up throughout the gallery: Station 1: The Performance (as described above). This is the proliferation of ESSEN in action: as people come in to share meals with me, we document it and then post images - along with notes on observations - on the wall behind us. Station 2: The proliferation of ESSEN. Prints from several photographers' documentation are displayed here, in varying size and quality of image. Further along the wall (adjacent to the performance) are photos and notes from independent initiations of the performance - enactments done without my involvement whatsoever. Station 3: ESSEN's 15 minutes of fame (proliferation to the nth degree): showing video footage from a taped episode of the CBC's Des Kiwis et des hommes.

ESSEN as performed and documented in Ottawa, ON, 2005

Today I Ate

Please see the One-Off Works section.