Bettina Hoffmann
From January 14th 2000 to February 19th 2000 Affaires infinies
"I is another." - this sentence from Arthur Rimbaud accompanies the debates about subject in the modern age like no other. In the photography of Bettina Hoffmann, it comes up as a triviality, almost insignificant. Two women on a bed, as though after an argument. Three women in a kitchen, in a tense, demanding atmosphere. Only when one takes a closer look, does it become apparent that the people in the picture are identical. Bettina Hoffmann fits self-portraits into realistic scenes, or the other way around: she unfolds them into a scenery of various, well-calculated roles.
"I is another" - the sentence has lost none of its frightfulness. An unusual mixture of intimacy and foreignness pervades Hoffmann’s photo-scenarios. They are family arrangements. The women portrayed, like sisters, know each other so well that there is no longer a need for words. The images generate their tremendous tension through the power gradient between the actors and the ambiguity of the scene, the suspension. The figures occupy exactly balanced positions within the social arrangement. At the same time, the images have the effect of a film stopped in motion: they make reference to an event, an incident, that controls the scene and yet lies outside of the picture.
Bettina Hoffmann works with ambivalence, with the conflict between proximity and distance, identity and foreignness, movement and standstill. This applies to the technique as well: the computer-worked images have the quality of original photos - they appear realistic, and at the same time remain synthetic and abstract.
"Photography destroys people, in that it portrays them," wrote Siegfried Krakauer - "it is not the person that emerges in the photograph, but the sum of that which can be stripped from him or her." As a side note, Hoffmann’s collages also show how photography, the medium of similarity and reproduction, can alter our conception of personal identity. - Andrea Roedig
Bettina Hoffmann grew up in West Berlin. She studied fine arts at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin, the Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and at the California Institute of the Arts. She got several grants and took part in residency programs in Istanbul and Weimar. She lives and works in Berlin and Montréal. Some of her most recent exhibitions in1999 included Ego Alter Ego - The self portrait in contemporary photography, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Private Eye - crimes & cases, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, CrossLinks, Galerie im Marstall, Berlin, space place, Kunsthalle Tirol, Austria. Her work was shown in Galerie Michael Cosar, Düsseldorf, Galerie in der Brotfabrik, Berlin (1998), Holländisches Bad, Kunsthaus Hamburg (1996), Cherchez la femme, Kunsthaus, Hamburg, Urbane Legenden - Berlin, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, (1995).
Bibliographie
- Couëlle, Jennifer, «Moi...et moi», La Presse, 12 février 2000, p.D18.
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Traité des passions», Le Devoir, 12-13 février 2000, p.D9.
- Long, Sari, «Reality Betrayed. Bettina Hoffmann’s unorthodox photography opens at Optica», The McGill Daily, 20 janvier 2000, p.9.
- Mackay, Brad, «Multiple Selves. Hoffmann’s photography extols the sublime over the shocking», The Link, 18 janvier 2000, pp.6-7 + page couverture.
- Mavrikakis, Nicolas, «Pris sur le vif. À signaler», Voir, 20-26 janvier 2000, p.44.
- McLeod, Dayna, «Battle of Wills», Hour, 3–9 février 2000, p.27.
- «Bettina Hoffmann», Mix, hiver 1999/2000, p.22.
Peter Conlin
From January 14th 2000 to February 19th 2000 Behind the Back Room – The City
Whatever else might be said, a gallery is a kind of enclosure for exhibition, a place closed off for display. "Behind the Back Room–The City" looks at the interdependence of seclusion and visibility (enclosures and disclosures). The installation is a study in a particular dynamic of protected spaces: a closing-off that opens up certain possibilities while sealing off others, and how enclosures are inevitably nested within other enclosures–be they physical, conceptual or institutional. The work can be seen as a dialogue between various rooms (e.g. the gallery, the bedroom, the darkroom, the closet), perhaps a trial of these rooms, and raises questions of how aspects of privacy compose the public and vice versa. Ideas of abstraction are implicated in this look at privacy–how abstraction contributes to creating a refuge or a fantasy space (the abstraction of being very/too close), as it contrasts with abstraction as it relates to ideas of 'public'–the over-view, the abstraction of envisioning en masse.
Peter Conlin was born in Berwick, Nova Scotia and presently resides in Vancouver. In between these two points he has lived in various places (including a few influential years in Montreal), and lived and worked in various ways–from piece-work to unstructured time to installation and graphic design. He has recently produced Off Season, a travel book, and an installation at Gallerie Dare-Dare Free running toujours sec (1998). His practice also involves performance work– Antichambre at Dare-Dare (1997), Breach at Bruits du Noir V - Studio 303 (1996), and a talking, walking and dripping performance Fear Preparation and Speech at The Khyber (1995). He studied at Concordia University (The Liberal Arts College), Sheridan College (The School of Craft and Design - furniture ) and NSCAD.
Bev Pike
From February 25th 2000 to March 1st 2000 Excerpts from Microscopic Remains
Bev Pike’s recent painting investigate mourning rituals in an exhibit entitled "Excerpts from Microscopic Remains". This series of very large paintings developed from experiencing the contortions of mourning : of sorting through clothes for their evocative essences ; of repetitively touching something to re-animate it ; of embodying sensations of remembering. The result is an investigation of memory storage in body tissue, and the dramas of its retrieval. The paintings function as a bodily host wherein reminiscence is sporadically released, like the thawing of an anaesthetic. This series investigates paintings as both body surrogate and body receptacle. The paintings function as chambers in which organ-like forms are confined, containing the bodily content much like a laying-out table, coffin, or bed. On exhibit, the dark red wrinkled velvet frames echo sutures, creating a claustrophobic enclosure filled with magnified wounds. The artist wishes to use large scale painting to summon the aftermath of the suspended state of trauma.
In the series,Pike has been interested in evoking entwined organs, tissue, and skins using tightly twisted woollen bundles. This intensifies the metaphor where clothing of the dead mutates into musculature of the living. In this work, extensive bruising and physical decay will emanate from large swellings, obscuring sections of organical material. This work will experiment with emerging memory, no longer embodied, as it manifests itself in bruised and decayed paint to transgress accepted histories.
Bev Pike is a Winnipeg artist who was educated at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. She participated in the art community there and in Edmonton, where she was involved with Latitude 53 Society of Artists. In 1986 she moved to Winnipeg to become involved with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (M.A.W.A.), an organisation devoted to the professional development of women artists. Since 1979 she has exhibited her work across Canada, notably at the Dunlop Gallery in Regina, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, The New Gallery in Calgary, the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, and the Anna Leonowens Gallery in Halifax. Her curatorial work includes "Cloisters", for M.A.W.A., and "Redefining the Decorative", for Ace Art Gallery in Winnipeg. Pike’s work is in the Canada Council Art Bank, the Manitoba Arts Council Art Bank, the North York Art Gallery Collection, the Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection, among others.
Bibliographie
- Couëlle, Jennifer, «Des restes intimes», La Presse, 11 mars 2000, p.D17.
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Une certaine claustrophobie», Le Devoir, 25-26 mars 2000, p.D10.
- Lehmann, Henry, «Looking between facades and interiors», The Gazette, 11 mars 2000, p.J2.
Stephanie Shepherd
From February 25th 2000 to April 1st 2000 Cryolite
"Cryolite" is comprised of a structural object and 3D computer animation created by simultaneous degradation and fabrication, similar processes involved in iceberg formation. Icebergs seem so stable, rock solid, the size of buildings. Yet when viewed on the ocean, the icebergs' most salient feature is constantly shifting movement. Calved from glaciers, they come into existence by an abrupt schism. Shaped by outer forces from this point on, iceberg tectonics is determined by entropy and decay.
The inherent structural formlessness of icebergs is characterized by flux, as is their physical orientation and geographic trajectories. Stability is illusory; melting and shifting icebergs can flip over, break into pieces, and be mended into new configurations. Even the tip of the iceberg becomes submerged in water if its center of equilibrium is sufficiently displaced. Propelled by ocean currents, icebergs travel in eccentric paths - they meander.
An iconic image of the north, the iceberg nonetheless undergoes an inevitable pull to the south. Schemes exist to tow them to subtropical countries as a source of fresh water. Alien in a saline environment, fresh water icebergs are gradually diminished, worn away by the water supporting and shaping them.
Despite the apparent weight and density of the visible iceberg, 7/8 of its mass remains submerged underwater and left to our imagination. The proverbial tip of the iceberg represents at once what is seen and not seen. In this exhibition, the paradoxical nature of the unpredictable iceberg is examined by two surrogate forms. One constructed and the other simulated, they are improbable designs for "Cryolite".
Stephanie Shepherd has a BSc in Zoology from the University of Guelph, an A.O.C.A. from the Ontario College of Art, and an M.F.A. from Concordia University. Her recent exhibitions include "Drifters / À la dérive", a computer simulation in the Media Room at Articule (Montreal), "48 Rooms / 48 Hours", installations in a former Montreal rooming house, "À Point", featuring Montréal and Toronto photo-digital artists, in the Belgo Building (Montreal), and "Death of the Party", at Quartier Éphémère (Montreal). At present she is the Senior Technician of the Visual Arts Macintosh Computer Facilities, Concordia University, Montreal.
Les instantanés/The Snapshots
April 7th 2000 Événement bénéfice
Artists: Jocelyne Alloucherie, Nicolas Baier, Rebecca Belmore, Dominique Blain, Bob Boyer, Hank Bull, Sheila Butler, Michel Campeau, Serge Clément,Sorel Cohen, Robin Collyer, Lucie Duval, Mario Duchesneau, Emmanuel Galland, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Bettina Hoffman, Germaine Koh, David Liss, André Martin, Francois Morelli, Alain Paiement, Cornelia Parker, Roberto Pellegrinuzzi, Richard Purdy, Sylvie Readman, Marc Séguin, Sarah Stevenson, Gabor Szilasi, Joanne Tod, Serge Tousignant, Janet Werner.
For its annual fundraising event, Optica invited thirty-two artists of different art practices from Canada and Europe to create a series of photographs. Artists were supplied with a Fugi disposible camera; no directional suggestions were made. Each camera was sold at a fixed price to purchasers who had no knowledge of the camera's contents. During a cocktail evening, recipients discovered the photographic series they had purchased. The thirty-two series ranged from the absurd, the aesthetically serious, through the sometimes thwarted attempts, to the resourceful. Purchasers who had bought a specific camera counting on the artists' reputation or their knowledge of past work were often surprised to find that their chosen series did not necessarily reflect previous suppositions!
Bibliographie
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Spécial millénaire», Le Devoir, 23 mars 2000, p.B8.
David Blatherwick
From April 14th 2000 to May 20th 2000 The Interior of a Minute
"The Interior of a Minute" is the fourth in a series of video installations (the others being “The Conversationâ€, “Chamber of Impulse†and “Multiple Horizonâ€) in which I have been interested in looking closely at the impulses, unnoticed acts and gestures which make up a subculture of our routine existence. Movements such as chewing, scratching, or breathing are so innate to being that they have a life of their own. What interests me is how focussing on these functions reveals their tangled human nature in all its vulgarity, humour and beauty.
This piece is an extension of these pursuits into the realm of time and gravity. Our perception of time is generally taken to be relentless, a linear march forward; something we grasp through dividing it into seconds, minutes, hours.... Likewise, our recognition of each other is in part governed by the pull of gravity on flesh and bone. Change even fractionally any of these aspects – the world becomes strangely uncognizable. Change even slightly any of these aspects – we are fascinated, hypnotized. The gap between what is taken to be real and an absurd, disfunctional cosmos is sometimes an atom’s breath wide. Knowing this can be a beautiful thing.
Multidisciplinary artist David Blatherwick lives and works in Montréal. In 1999 he exhibited “Recovery Room†at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, “Hyperlinear†at Nadimi Gallery in Toronto and “Polymental†at Gallery 101 in Ottawa. The same year, he received a scholarsphip from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He has participated in several group exhibitions, including “The Hand†at the Power Plant in Toronto in 1999, “Peinture Peintureâ€, organised by the AGAC in the Belgo building and “Artificeâ€, organised by the Saidye Bronfman Centre in public places in downtown Montréal in 1998, “Partly Human†at Galeria d’Arte Moderno in Guadalaraja and “Temistocles†in Mexico City in 1994. His video installations include “Multiple Horizonâ€, 1999, presented at The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh and “The Conversationâ€, 1997, at OPTICA gallery.
Bibliographie
- Corriveau, Thomas, «David Blatherwick. OPTICA, Montréal, 14 avril–20 mai», Para-para, octobre-novembre-décembre 2000, p.6.
- Crevier, Lyne, «Michel Goulet et The Interior of a minute, Portée de mots. Tëte en bas», Ici, 27 avril - 4 mai 2000, p.47.
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Un tête-à-tête compulsif», Le Devoir, 6-7 mai 2000, p.D6.
- Mavrikakis, Nicolas, «Sens dessus dessous», Voir, 11-17 mai 2000, p.82.
- McLeod, Dayna, «Turning Heads. David Blatherwick takes on gravity», Hour, 4-10 mai 2000, p.33.
Alexandre David
From April 14th 2000 to May 20th 2000 Dessins d’eau submergés
Each of these photographs is based on a submerged drawing of waves. The drawing gets lost in and blends with the water; the lines seem to resurface and follow the movement of the waves. The drawn waves are underlined and enhanced as well as broken by the actual swirl of the water. We are no longer sure if the Image has improved or deteriorated.
The effect of the water on the drawing is repeated in the shot itself: the exposure, a bit slow for the speed of the waves, captures the continuously distorted lines in the drawing. This trace of the waves’ movement further changes the drawing without our being able to determine once again if the image has been debased or not. We can no longer tell the drawing from its water transformed shape, and the latter from its own photographic trace.
An object seen through (or reflected in) water gives us, in as much as we already knew this object, the measure of the gap between its normal aspect and its transformed image. Such effects are visible everywhere, and are often computer-generated. I have chosen to keep only the desire for measurement generated by this type of image. Here, the original drawing cannot be found again. The desire remains, however, even becoming necessary to understand this work composed of connections and disconnections between its painterly and photographic properties. Because their measuring cannot be accomplished, the work can only begin to capture their motion. One should understand that movement occurs in the gaze. The desire to capture the gap triggers the gaze towards something, without it covering any distance, without it being able to retrieve the object that preceded the photograph. Because it follows the same logic as its object, because it has a quantitative effect on it, the documentation can no longer be separated from what it documents. What is photographed does not manage to establish itself as something outside the image that stands before our eyes.
Alexandre David was born in 1964 in Montréal where he lives and works. He studied at Concordia University, and did his master’s studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England, from 1988 to 1990. His work has been shown in group exhibitions, among other sites at the Serpentine Gallery and The Tannery in London, England, at the Stedelijk Museum and the Het Consortium Gallery in Amsterdam. He has had solo exhibitions at artist-run centres Obscure et Vu in Québec City, at Vox and Galerie Rochefort in Montréal, as well as the Hales Gallery in London, England. His work intersects with photography, sculpture and painting. He has been teaching at Université Laval since 1991.
Bibliographie
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Un tête-à-tête compulsif», Le Devoir, 6-7 mai 2000, p.D6.
- Mavrikakis, Nicolas, «Sens dessus dessous», Voir, 11-17 mai 2000, p.82.
Dominique Angel
From September 8th 2000 to October 14th 2000 Pièces supplémentaires
It seems to me that contemporary art cannot be considered apart from its displacement in time and space. What an exhibition or an installation involves above all is a sort of removal and building site. In this remark a representation of the world is already implied.
Part of my work consists in building wooden structures where I assemble various objects and materials, fabricated, sculpted and painted elements to which I add the displacement of a narrative, such as my coming to Montréal. In a way, my works are travelling pieces of furniture. Art today is quite tremendously marked by an aesthetics of exodus — although I regret it, I have to live with it. That is why, as I watch the news on TV, I often imagine pieces that reflect my anxiety of one day being forced to leave in a terrible rush.
My practice also includes photography, video and writing — the bulk of which can be done, redone and reconfigured on the spot like a new episode in my life and work.
Dominique Angel lives and works in Marseille. His diversified artistic practice evolves around sculpture. Aside from exhibiting on a regular basis at Galerie Évelyne Canus (Paris) and an upcoming show in 2000 at Brasseurs in Liège, his work was presented in 1999 at Galerie des études and ENAD in Limoges, in 1998 at the Musée de Belfort, the Centre d’art contemporain in Montbéliard and the F.R.A.C. Provence, in 1997 at the École photographique of Arles, in 1994 at the Musée d’art contemporain of Nice and the Centre de la vieille charité in Marseilles, in 1991 at the Kouros Gallery in New York, in 1989 at the Centre d’art contemporain de Saint Fons in Lyon, in 1988 at Galerie Aguas in Bordeaux, in 1986 at Villa Arson in Nice.
His work has been included in several group exhibitions in and outside France, among others the C.I.A.C in Montréal in 1991. His video production has been featured in festivals in France and Germany. He has published numerous novels and other writings, such as Petites farces de la vie quotidienne (The Little Jokes of Daily Life) (Actes Sud), La beauté moderne (Modern Beauty) (Musées de Nice/ Vidéochroniques), La brosse à cheveux et le mexicain (The Hairbrush and the Mexican) (Musée de Belfort/Centre d’art et de plaisanterie/Centre d’art contemporain de Montbéliard).
Robin Dupuis
From September 8th 2000 to October 14th 2000 Captive
"Captive" is the latest digital video installation by Robin Dupuis. It explores the language and structure of the image-movement and the rhythmic displacement of sound from the point of view of collision.
"Captive" is a video study of the collision between the body and a prefabricated image-sound language. The digital video installation places the captive body inside a deconstruction of the language codes of linear imaging. The work reappropriates and recontextualises the image-movement language that contemporary viewers have acquired in the course of history. "Captive" explores the collision between seduction — identification through the body and the voice — and repulsion by saturating, repeating and shifting the audio-visual signal. A collision between the body and the tools we have created to interpret it...
Video performance by members of Perte de signal, October 14, 2000 in the context of PARAZONE, a series of events celebrating the 100th issue of Parachute at Optica.
A founding member of the media arts collective Perte de Signal, Robin Dupuis holds a B.F.A. from Concordia University (1997). His work focuses on an aesthetics of collision, a mechanical assemblage of time and space continuities within the image-sound movement. His tapes have been presented in several international events such as "Impakt 99" in The Netherlands, "LA Freewaves", 00 in the United States, "D>art" 99 and 00 in Australia, the Fourth Split International Festival of New Cinema in Croatia and the 27th Festival international du nouveau cinéma et des nouveaux médias à Montréal. His most recent production, Opuscules: Op.1 (2000), was premiered at the sixth edition of Media City, the Windsor International Festival of Experimental Cinema.
Bibliographie
- Lamarche, Bernard, «Frissons garantis», Le Devoir, 7-8 octobre 2000, p.D11.
- «FastForward. Québec. Dominique Angel/Robin Dupuis», Canadian Art, automne 2000, p.18.
Nestor Krüger
From November 3rd 2000 to December 9th 2000 Misfit
Most wall paintings are an attempt to create an art of place, a site work which does not take part in the homelessness that characterizes so many of our art objects.
"Misfit" is, at its most basic, simply a wall painting carried out at Optica. But where wall paintings usually involve an exploration or restatement of the space in which they take place, in this case, the work involves two different spaces, Optica and Eye Level (in Halifax)*, which are superimposed on each other, and stuffed into each other. As a result, the wall painting at Optica can no longer "equal" the space in which it takes place. I'm tempted to say that the wall painting does not "take place" at all, since it only occurs as a result of being mapped out in the non-place of the computer model where two places can transparently interpenetrate each other.
I think it's also important to note that in Nestor Kruger's work, the computer is always relied on for all the planning and modeling of the artwork. This creates his by-now characteristic emphasis on information rather than phenomena, where the tactility, sensuousness, and contingency of the real world is deliberately abstracted or boiled away while the work is planned and carried out. What results is an oddly fascinating, almost familiar, almost sensuous, non-sensuousness.
- Andy Patton
Nestor Kruger was born in 1965 in Montréal. He studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, where he continues to live and work. He is a founding member of Toronto’s Painting Disorders collective with whom he has exhibited in 1994 "Painting Disorders", 1995 "Surface Matters" and 1996 "Fast". Kruger has had solo exhibitions at Mercer Union, Toronto, 1996; Artcite, Windsor, 1997; The Loggia Gallery, North York, 1997; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1999 and a collaborative exhibition with the artist David Armstrong at Cold City Gallery, Toronto, 1998. Most recently his work was seen at "The Balcony", a project taking place on the balcony of Toronto artist James Carl in Kensington Market, Toronto. Kruger will be exhibiting in 2001 at Eye Level Gallery in Halifax, Southern Exposure, San Francisco and in a group exhibition in Lyon, France.
Bibliographie
- Crevier, Lyne, «Enfilade virtuelle», Ici, 23-30 novembre 2000, p.40.
- Krishtalka, Sholem, «Surreal Subversions», Mirror, 16-23 novembre 2000, p.50.
- Lehmann, Henry, «Gaucher true to his vision. (Nestor Kruger’s wall paintings, Baier)», The Gazette, 2 décembre 2000, p.18.
- Mavrikakis, Nicolas, «La galerie en perspective», Voir, 30 novembre – 6 décembre 2000, p.19.
Nicolas Baier
From November 3rd 2000 to December 9th 2000 Charte
"Now everything is white!" cried out a friend of mine who had just repainted his room, not realising in his exuberance that the walls maintained their yellowish grey.
A beautiful orange glittering was making its way through the window on that afternoon. We sat down and let the day go by watching reflections. We talked and most probably had a drink — we were watching the light.
You manage the best you can, you get closer to simple things, meet up again with a friend, caress your loved one’s hair, have another taste of that dish just to make sure....
I never look enough and maybe I should listen better; people — you’d like to hold them and talk to them and then lie down with them.
I’ve been having trouble taking photographs of people for a while; they give something that I just can’t keep. There is so much territory I can’t go to anymore.
I took the rest — a little bit of what’s around.
Nicolas Baier lives and works in Montréal. He was chosen as one of the leading artists of his generation by curator Peggy Gale for the Montréal Biennial 2000 organised by the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal. His photographic and installation work was presented in solo exhibitions such as "Liquidation Niko et ses amis" at the Centre des arts actuels SKOL in 1999. He took part in group exhibitions, among them "Of Fire and Passion": 22 young artists exhibit at the museum at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1997. He also co-curated the exhibition "Les Bricolos" with Emmanuel Galland at the Centre d’art et de diffusion Clark in 1998. His work is found in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts collection and in private collections.
Bibliographie
- Lehmann, Henry, «Gaucher true to his vision. (Nestor Kruger’s wall paintings, Baier)», The Gazette, 2 décembre 2000, p.18.
- Mavrikakis, «Art de vivre. Nicolas Baier», Voir, 16-22 novembre 2000, p.69.
Sylvain P. Cousineau, Robin Dupuis, Randall Finnerty, Pierre Fournier, Germaine Koh, Rémi Lacoste, Euan Macdonald, Lucy Pullen, Carmen Ruschiensky, Cathy Sisler.
November 4th 2000 Lancement de la publication Fin de siècle
Curator : François Dion
Authors : François Dion, Luis Jacob, Sally McKay
Fin de siècle comprises four thematic exhibitions addressing issues such as self-anxiety, language and order, technology and the sense of community, that reflect a specific time. Produced for Optica’s multidisciplinary room, the exhibitions gathered the recent work of ten artists from Eastern Canada. The series questioned the traditional work of the curator, exhibition practices and the interpretation of artworks, focusing on exchange and collaboration between participants in a project, as well as the different relationships generated by a critical approach of artistic conventions. The publication reflects the spirit of the project in presenting four visual sections linked to the exhibitions themselves in parallel with three complementary texts : an essay, a dialogue and a work of fiction.
Fin de siècle, Optica, Montréal, 2000.
ISBN 2-922085-05-8.