"Waterspeak: Dana Claxton"
2002-01-12 until 2002-02-09
OBORO
Montreal, QC, CA

Waterspeak, a new installation work, blends video and film footage of waterfalls and the winter rapids of Capilano River to address issues of environmental degradation and differing cultural constructions of nature. Merging with the water, the characters Man and Woman overlap and dissolve in a quiet, insistent discussion about listening and speaking. The multiple moving images of natural phenomena are heightened through their scale and saturated colour.

A rich and complex audio track samples water sounds and throat-singing with music by Russell Wallace, a composer who has collaborated with Claxton over the past decade. The seductive qualities of recorded voice, the familiarity of video and film, and the contemplative space of the gallery combine in an investigation of the sacred in art and the place these concerns might be given within the artspeak of visual arts practice.
(Lorna Brown)

Dana Claxton is a Vancouver interdisciplinary artist who works in film, video and performance. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Walter Philips Gallery at the Banff Centre and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her performances have been presented at AKA in Saskatoon, the Western Front and as part of Grunt Gallery’s Live at the End of the Century Performance Festival. Claxton’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

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