More on Faire du surplace at Circa
Howdy!
As observant readers will note, I saw some art over the weekend. I figuresome all of it requires more words than the single letter grade that I gave on Saturday, unfortunately I don't have that sort of time, so I can only deal with a couple. If anybody would like more information about any of the shows I saw, please email me.
At Circa, there was this group show called "Faire du surplace" which got translated into "Marking Time." While, I'm not entirely certain I understand how the curators of the exhibit figured each specific piece was marking time, I can vaguely wrap my brain around the following lines from the Press release; "Faire du surplace presents in situ works in which the Making takes precedence over theory, and marking time suggests the concrete limits of time and space."
So if I understand Mme's Bolduc and Logan, these are supposed to be a collection of artworks each which took time to make and because of that, the pieces themselves don't have any other meaning other than "Blam! They're there."
Phooey! You can say that about any darn piece of art, good or not. Heck, if they wanted to be slightly more specific about it, they could've gone to Nord South Interieur, last year I saw these amazing handmade wood grandfather clocks, that were all gears and pulleys, no box. Or in other words, really pretty objects that marked time. However, despite the gobbledy-gook and bafflegab of the press release I was completely fascinated by the piece by Marie-Josée Laframboise. It doesn't photograph real well, as you can see here:
And here:
[photos shamelessly lifted from the Circa website, apologies, but thanks tons!]
Basically, Mme. Laframboise took a whack of fishing line, strung something like a dozen twenty foot lengths from a post in the gallery to one of the walls. She then took a bunch of colored threads (a variety of colors, too) and neatly knotted the thread to two, or more of the fishing lines. It gave off a sorta wacky and twisted Cat's Cradle feel, although there was something in the gallery that mentioned electric trolley wires. As there haven't been electric trolleys here in Montreal since the 1960's I'm a tad skeptical of going down that route. But it was gloriously intricate, and all shimmery in the sunlight, which made me happy.
There were two other pieces in the exhibit that were also pretty cool, but didn't quite nail it (or anything else for that matter) as well as Mme. Laframboise did.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Natasha Hebert ties (pun intended) all the art together in the catalogue. My only other comment would be that if they really wanted to mark time, then that in situ line in the press release should have been more emphasized. I dunno, maybe by asking the artists to start creating their work at the vernissage, and aiming to have everything completed by the end of the exhibition, sorta like an exhibit by Barclay Gellhaus at Artcule back in 2002, where if I remember correctly he was weaving together leaves into some humongous poncho-like thing that was then going to be suspended from the ceiling.
Oh yeah, the show goes on until the 19th of February, and Circa is in the Belgo Building, 372 Sainte Catherine West, #444 to be precise, they're open standard gallery hours (Wednesday - Saturday, noon to 5:30 pm).
As observant readers will note, I saw some art over the weekend. I figure
At Circa, there was this group show called "Faire du surplace" which got translated into "Marking Time." While, I'm not entirely certain I understand how the curators of the exhibit figured each specific piece was marking time, I can vaguely wrap my brain around the following lines from the Press release; "Faire du surplace presents in situ works in which the Making takes precedence over theory, and marking time suggests the concrete limits of time and space."
So if I understand Mme's Bolduc and Logan, these are supposed to be a collection of artworks each which took time to make and because of that, the pieces themselves don't have any other meaning other than "Blam! They're there."
Phooey! You can say that about any darn piece of art, good or not. Heck, if they wanted to be slightly more specific about it, they could've gone to Nord South Interieur, last year I saw these amazing handmade wood grandfather clocks, that were all gears and pulleys, no box. Or in other words, really pretty objects that marked time. However, despite the gobbledy-gook and bafflegab of the press release I was completely fascinated by the piece by Marie-Josée Laframboise. It doesn't photograph real well, as you can see here:
And here:
[photos shamelessly lifted from the Circa website, apologies, but thanks tons!]
Basically, Mme. Laframboise took a whack of fishing line, strung something like a dozen twenty foot lengths from a post in the gallery to one of the walls. She then took a bunch of colored threads (a variety of colors, too) and neatly knotted the thread to two, or more of the fishing lines. It gave off a sorta wacky and twisted Cat's Cradle feel, although there was something in the gallery that mentioned electric trolley wires. As there haven't been electric trolleys here in Montreal since the 1960's I'm a tad skeptical of going down that route. But it was gloriously intricate, and all shimmery in the sunlight, which made me happy.
There were two other pieces in the exhibit that were also pretty cool, but didn't quite nail it (or anything else for that matter) as well as Mme. Laframboise did.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Natasha Hebert ties (pun intended) all the art together in the catalogue. My only other comment would be that if they really wanted to mark time, then that in situ line in the press release should have been more emphasized. I dunno, maybe by asking the artists to start creating their work at the vernissage, and aiming to have everything completed by the end of the exhibition, sorta like an exhibit by Barclay Gellhaus at Artcule back in 2002, where if I remember correctly he was weaving together leaves into some humongous poncho-like thing that was then going to be suspended from the ceiling.
Oh yeah, the show goes on until the 19th of February, and Circa is in the Belgo Building, 372 Sainte Catherine West, #444 to be precise, they're open standard gallery hours (Wednesday - Saturday, noon to 5:30 pm).
posted by Zeke's, the Montreal Art Gallery on 31.1.05
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