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David K. Ross “Positions” at Dazibao, Montréal

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© David K. Ross, Théodolitique (2015)

[français]

DAVID K. ROSS
POSITIONS

10 September – 7 November 2015
Dazibao, Montréal

Positions brings together a selection of three moving image works and a suite of drawings by artist David K. Ross. Through the use of customized lens-based devices, Ross explores how sight and sound can be manipulated to alter perception of physical space. In each of the works on display, the viewer is placed in a privileged position and is offered specific access to locations and activities that would otherwise remain concealed or out of reach. Continue reading “David K. Ross “Positions” at Dazibao, Montréal”

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DRONE: The Automated Image – Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 13

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Trevor Paglen, Reaper Drone: Indian Springs, NV; Distance – 2 miles, 2010. Courtesy of the artist; Metro Pictures, New York; Altman Siegel, San Francisco; and Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne

DRONE: The Automated Image
Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 13
5 September – 5 October 2013
25 exhibitions in 14 sites across Montréal

Guest curator: Paul Wombell

International photography biennale “Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal” opens its 13th edition on 5 September through to 5 October, to present 25 local, national and international artists on 14 different sites across the city, under the theme of “DRONE: The Automated Image”.

This year’s guest curator Paul Wombell developed this theme by focusing on the materiality of the camera and its changing relationships with human operators, to trace the evolving shapes and characteristics of the camera over the past 40 years which is nowadays adapting more to the advent of drone and other machine behaviours. The artists herein explore human co-authorships with advancing imaging technology, how to creatively deal with intelligent cameras and their transformation into systems that may one day literally capture the imagination. Continue reading “DRONE: The Automated Image – Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 13”

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Review: Builders, Canadian Biennial 2012 at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


Myfanwy MacLeod, Everything Seems Empty Without You, 2009 & Hex (I–VII), 2010. Exhibition view. Courtesy National Gallery of Canada. Photo by M-KOS

With a second edition entitled “Builders“, the Canadian Biennial staged in Ottawa’s National Gallery an exhibition that perhaps went against the grain of mega international extravaganzas, and the usually vast array of ensuing curatorial ideas and ideals. This Biennale voluntarily took a hermetic and back-to-basics approach to its program, to exclusively centre on contemporary Canadian artists selected from the Gallery’s recent acquisitions over the past two years.

Curator Jonathan Shaughnessy cites in his catalogue essay that “Artists are builders in a rudimentary sense. They combine creative ideas, materials and technology with the aim to shape an original way of seeing and interpreting the world”. In an attempt to further canonize Canadiana, Shaughnessy’s title took inspirations from Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame, where Builders herein point to former players that go on to become coaches, managers or executives. Just as the hockey Builders were this way inducted for their contribution to the development of the nation’s most popular sport, Shaughnessy concludes that “In art, builders and players often prove to be one and the same.”

Fresh from the vaults of the National Gallery of Canada, a string works from emerging artists such as Melanie Authier and David Ross Harper mingle with others like Marcel Dzama and Ron Terada as well as veteran figures like Lynne Cohen and Michael Snow. This cross-generational survey of the nation’s talents comprises over 100 individual pieces by 45 artists, to embrace a multitude of disciplinary practices from all geographical backgrounds. Builders constitutes such a wide-encompassing show, that it at times risks a flattening of issues and subject matters. On the other hand, the works are so respectably themed from personal narrative to urbanization, the environment, identity politics, utopia and so on, that these read as a thorough cross-examination of Canada’s cultural material.
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Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


Sarah Ann Johnson, Black Box, 2010. (from the Arctic Wonderland series) chromogenic print, photo retouching dyes, acrylic ink, gouache and india ink, incised lines. Collection: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa © Sarah Anne Johnson / Courtesy Julie Saul Gallery & Stephen Bulger Gallery

Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012
2 November 2012 – 20 January 2013
at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Artists: Vikky Alexander, David Altmejd, Benoît Aquin, Melanie Authier, Jim Breukelman, Michel De Broin, Edward Burtynsky, Lynne Cohen, Chris Cran, Max Dean, Susan Dobson, Marcel Dzama, Brendan Fernandes, Robert Fones, Will Gorlitz, Terence Gower, David Ross Harper, Faye HeavyShield, Dil Hildebrand, David Hoffos, Simon Hughes, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Sarah Anne Johnson, Brian Jungen, Myfawny Macleod, Qavavau Manumie, Lynne Marsh, Scott McFarland, Jason McLean, Michael Merrill, David Merritt, Evan Penny, Sandy Plotnikoff, Jon Pylypchuk, Leslie Reid, David K. Ross, Mark Ruwedel, Michael Snow, Mark Soo, Derek Sullivan, Ron Terada, Joanne Tod, Steven Waddell, Daniel Young & Christian Giroux. Curated by Jonathan Shaughnessy

Artists are “builders.” Making things is at the core of what they do. Visual artists are those individuals who combine ideas, materials and technologies with the view to modelling an original way of seeing and interpreting the world. Curators working with the art of today are tasked with discovering, following, understanding and processing a varied range of production.
Continue reading “Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012 at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa”