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Indepth Arts News:
"Beyond Words: Gilbert Boyer, Ruth Cuthand & Elizabeth MacKenzie, Paul de Guzman, Nelson Henricks, Kelly Mark. Nadia Myre, Sylvia Ptak, Rober Racine"
2004-09-15 until 2004-10-30
Bishop's University Art Gallery
Lennoxville, QC,
CA
Born from a collaboration between the Art Gallery of Bishop’s University and Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Beyond Words brings together 9 Canadian artists from coast to coast. This newest exhibition promises to offer a number of visually and intellectually stunning works created with and from words. The contributing artists have reclaimed ownership of words by transcending their functionality as tools and presenting them in ways that challenge the viewer to look, beyond reading. They are inviting viewers to re-evaluate their perception of letters, words, definitions and language.
Some artists utilize language to impart a social or political message. Native Canadian Nadia Myre has hidden every single letter on the 56 pages of the Indian act, a document which she detests, behind a white bead. The remainder of each sheet is covered in rows of red beads. In Word for Word, Elizabeth MacKenzie and Ruth Cuthand comment on the assimilation of culture through language, with a media display that show two mouths simultaneously speaking. While one voice speaks in French, the other translates into Cree as English subtitles appear in their phonetic spelling at the bottom of the screen.
The show will also exhibit works that have rendered sentences illegible. Toronto based artist, Sylvia Ptak takes her inspiration from old texts and documents by reproducing them with string and ink on gauze. By weaving the string through the holes of the gauze, she mimics the curls and loops of the original letters. Vancouver artist, Paul de Guzman carves books architecturally by meticulously removing sections from each page, leaving layers of empty spaces with the occasional word or phrase emerging to the surface. Montreal artist Rober Racine allows us to hear the sound of words by recording the act of signatures being written repeatedly. He displays the scraps of paper that bear the signatures as if to entice us to match the letters to their sound. In her Letraset collages, multi-media artist, Kelly Mark, assembles letters, numbers and symbols into incoherent patterns and shapes, using them conceptually rather than literally.
Focusing on the ephemeral nature of the spoken word, Gilbert Boyer engraves words and phrases onto glass. By choosing to ignore the conformity of straight lines, his words seem to float off of the piece accentuating their lack of material weight. Montreal artist Neslon Henricks takes his inspiration from Virgina Woolf’s writings. In his video piece, Time Passes, Henricks explores the impermanence of meaning in the written word by incorporating it into images of time moving forward.
Though approaching it with different intentions and ideas, each of these artists presents the viewer with an innovative perception of words and language. We invite you to explore these works with us.
IMAGE
Gilbert Boyer
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