“Leap” to be integrated into Concordia’s PERFORM Centre at Loyola
Montreal, November 24, 2010 – Internationally-renowned artist Adad Hannah today unveiled plans for “Leap”, a stunning new work that will grace the façade of the PERFORM Centre, currently under construction at Concordia University’s Loyola Campus (7200 Sherbrooke Street West). The PERFORM Centre will be a unique complex for health research, academic training and community service.
“Leap” is a large scale photo-based work on glass that eloquently conveys the mission of the PERFORM Centre. It depicts a series of human figures, reproduced in vivid colours, engaged in various physical activities. Fully two stories high, the work will be clearly visible from Sherbrooke Street but also from inside the building.
“This monumental work is a key addition to Concordia’s public art collection and to the Montreal landscape,” says Judith Woodsworth, President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University. “We are all the more proud that Adad Hannah - a Concordia graduate who is currently a doctoral student in our Fine Arts Faculty - is securing such major commissions in Canada and abroad.”
Hannah’s past work involves the transformation of historical paintings and sculptures into videos and photographs, questioning the conventions and codes of these media. This thread continues in “Leap”, where the models for the work were actual members of the Concordia community - students, faculty and staff.
“For this project, I drew on my research into Eadweard Muybridge’s studies of human motion,” Hannah explains. “Whereas Muybridge’s photographic sequences feature a single body frozen in stages of motion, for “Leap” I chose to use a group of 17 models who will soon be using the PERFORM Centre – professors, researchers, support staff, and clients – to represent the body in motion. In this way, I hope my work engages the community that will form around this new addition to Concordia.”
Two of Hannah’s installations are currently on exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal (through January 4, 2011) along with the other Quebec-based semi-finalists for this year’s Sobey Art Award. He was also featured in two public art projects as part of the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad 2010.
Hannah’s works can also be found in private, corporate, and institutional collections around the world including Warsaw’s Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Miami’s Mordes Collection, the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Hannah is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.
The creation of “Leap” is made possible by the Integration of the Arts into Architecture and the Environment Program of the Government of Quebec and adds to the 2010 initiative Montreal, City of Glass.
On the Web:
- To see plans for “Leap” and the rest of Concordia’s public art collection
- Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts
- Concordia PERFORM Centre Background
Source:
Fiona Downey
Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University Media Relations
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 2518
Cell: 514-518-3336
Fax: 514-848-3383
Email: fdowney@alcor.concordia.ca
