Is art an object or a process? Is it "material" or "trace"?
Shifts in art practice over the past 50 years, particularly in art world centres in Europe and the U.S., and more recently in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have profoundly challenged Enlightenment to modern conceptions of the work of art, in European aesthetics, defined as an object, more or less static in meaning and value over time.
Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art presents work from the past 15 years by artists from around the world which draws on the legacy of performative intermedial practices from the 1960s and 70s to foreground the processes and materiality of making, whether in wood, paint, performance, video, or other media. In this way the work in Material Traces stresses the interrelational bonds between art makers and viewers.
The emphasis in the exhibition is on works that foreground aspects of making, activating aspects of temporality, in order to connect in conceptual and material ways to viewers at a later time. By activating future viewers, these works have the potential to create historical bonds with past contexts and agents, and thus to elicit political thought in the present.
What: Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art
When: February 16 to April 13, 2013,
Where: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Room LB-165, J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
What: Tour of the exhibition with curator Amelia Jones (in English)
When: Tuesday, February 26 at 6 p.m.
Where: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Room LB-165, J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
What: Screening of performative works from the 1960s and 70s
When: Sunday March 10 at 3 pm
Where: J.A DeSève Cinema, Room LB-125, J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
What: Artist talk by Heather Cassils, presented in collaboration with FE.ME.S: Feminist Media Studio
When: Monday, March 11 at 6 p.m.
Where: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Room LB-165, J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
What: Conversation among Amelia Jones, Barbara Clausen and Krista Geneviève Lynes
When: Tuesday, April 9 at 6 p.m.
Where: Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Room LB-165, J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.), Sir George Williams Campus
Admission to these events are free of charge and open to the public.
Related link:
• Material Traces: Time and the Gesture in Contemporary Art
