Eva Brandl

January 6–February 14, 2014

Vernissage  January 9

(main gallery)

En français

What owl was that that howls upon
The trees athwart the stream
And have I been this way before
Or do I dream?

Stevie Smith

This exhibition brings together two connected bodies of work in the form of large photographs depicting the posture of taxidermy birds paired with sculptural elements. In both series, the oversized images emphasize the paused gaze of the animals, vigilantly attentive and watchful of their prey. The ensemble generates a singular climate of tension as the images become more than what they represent. By straddling realism, artifice and the fantastic, they conjure up a surreal and uncanny atmosphere heightened by the reciprocity of territorial calls. The blurred reflections framed by the metallic disks as well as the sound seemingly emanating from the large megaphones forge sensory connections with a parallel world, enhancing the poetic charge and evocative power of the ensemble. In this work lies a genuine interest in the phenomenon of mental projection; to conjure up a mythic presence in a distant landscape as a psychic mechanism that constructs its subject in time and space. The work is not distinctively about nature but rather an idea of nature conveyed in a deliberate setting as a reflection on the perception of natural subjects in a forged context.

Statement

What is conceivable and perceivable as space relies on the ability to couple the imaginative process with a mnemonic experience of place. 
Space transports; it inhabits duration.

For more than two decades, my practice has addressed notions of space linked to the interplay between image and constructed setting touching on the complex encounter we have with time, duration and memory. A singular ambience permeates these ensembles, drawing attention to the influence of spatial organization and materiality on perception, attitude and the imaginary process of spectatorship. My recent installations explore a mythic and multisensory dimension of space at the confluence of the natural world and the built environment.

Bio

Eva Brandl graduated from Concordia University ( MFA ) in 1979. She was a founding member of several Artists run centers in Montreal among them, Vehicule Art Inc. and Optica. Since the early eighties the major focus of her work has been in large installation drawing on a variety of media and forms of presentation. She has exhibited and lectured widely in Quebec, Canada and internationally. Her works are found in public and private collections as well as in museums and institutions across the country. She currently teaches in the department of Studio arts at Concordia University and is a part-time faculty at Marianopolis College in Montreal.

* The event is made possible through the support of the CUPFA, Concordia University Part-Time Association.