In “How Do We Know What We Know?” Licha does a brilliant job of opening up questions about journalism of such horrors through coverage of the recent political unrest in Syria. His film reveals the production behind a “real” live conflict, jumping between American news footage and video that records its production from the otherwise hidden windy hillside in Turkey. As the American production team leaves, a member of the local camera team asks a telling question: “How will it be when they’re gone?” Licha punctuates this question by showing how journalism makes an event real, alluding to the invisibility of stories that aren’t told in front of the camera.
Carolyn Jervis writes on our two new shows for this week’s Vue Weekly.
In Vue this week, Carolyn Jervis reflects on some highlights of 2011 in Edmonton art—and we’re there:
Solo Exhibit: Gary James Joynes/Clinker, 12 Tones, Latitude 53
Latitude kicked off a strong year of programming with this powerful exhibit by Edmonton artist Joynes. This show provided more than a viewing experience—it was a powerful, overwhelming immersion in raw, tonal sound—sound seen, heard and felt through your whole body. This intensity was so well balanced by photos of sand mandalas, suggesting the meditative aspect of the art experience, each created through the vibration of one of those intense tones.
There’s lots more in the article from all around town. We’re looking forward to another great year, starting with our opening receptions this friday.
Just before our holiday break, Carolyn Jervis wrote about our two December shows, Taxonomia and Working Order in Vue:
Usually my first reaction upon seeing taxidermy, or representations thereof, is to be creeped out. The posed, stuffed animal skins with their vacant glassy eyes are so transparently false in their imitation of living breathing things. Somehow Maria Whiteman’s Taxonomia, Latitude 53’s current Main Space exhibition, manages to create a space for intimate relationships with these and other preserved creatures.
Read the rest at Vue Weekly.
Two weeks ago, we recommended Ken Lum’s talk about his upcoming role as public artist on the project to replace Edmonton’s aged Walterdale Bridge. This week, Chelsea Boos recaps in Vue:
What if the waters of the North Saskatchewan flowed blood red?
This stunning image emerged in my mind after the lecture last Thursday at the AGA by Ken Lum, the lead artist on the design team for the new Walterdale bridge, after he described the city’s heart as lying in the middle of the river. “The heart of the city is really the dividing line and the intersecting line, at the same time, between two different cities … it’s there, historically, naturally,” said Lum. We heard his theory about the bridge as a vantage point for the past as seen through the panorama of both the south and north sides of the city, the other bridges, the legislature building, and the fort, not to mention prehistoric geological time.
Today’s is the last issue of one of Edmonton’s institutions and sometimes Latitude 53 sponsor, SEE Magazine which starting next week will be folded into our other weekly, Vue. The two papers have a long acrimonious history. Our former writer-in-residence Fish sums up some of his feelings on the change in his column in the issue:
But I’m not here to eulogize myself — as if I’m going away, and the grain bins are calling. I just want to stress again how SEE’s absorption into Vue Weekly is ultimately an environmentally conscious one — and not just in the sense of there being less trees cut down. Joyously, the sometimes terrible and emotionally ravaging battle between the two papers is finally over.
If you didn’t already pick up a copy of Vue this weekend, Paul Blinov penned a bit of a preview of Where Are We Going?.
Going? is the second show Wong’s curated that draws inspiration from a quote by post-modern visual artist Paul Gauguin: “Where do we come form? Who are we? Where are we going?” The first question was the crux a show back in 2009; Wong’s skipped the middle question, for now, and instead forged ahead.
“I was planning to do ‘who are we?’ though everyone thought ‘where are we going?’ is much more interesting. I think ‘who are we?’ is also a big question, but I think that’ll be my third one.”
Where Are We Going? is up in our main space until June 18, so come have a look this week.
Our friend Carolyn Jervis wrote about Of Brains and Magnets and When Dreams Lighten the Reality in this week’s Vue Weekly:
As a viewer, these three vignettes pose an interesting challenge for viewers, since they must sort through different relationships with a technology widely understood as a tool for scientific discovery and objective data collection. This is interesting to consider within an art gallery space, in which a viewer’s interaction with objects and information is interpretation, rooted in subjectivity. How is one to interpret data which at once reads as factual and as somewhat absurd and inconclusive exercises? The accompanying monograph text by formerly-Calgary-based artist Scott Rogers, whose loosely related words provide no insight or interpretive ways into Of Brains and Magnets, further reinforces the unresolved tension between understandings of scientific inquiry and art interpretation.
Read the full article here.
Our friend Carolyn Jervis wrote about Mathieu Valade and Lisa Rezansoff’s new shows here at Latitude 53 for Vue Weekly. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s part of her description of Cubic Units:
Startling art installation mischief, which is complementary to “Logotomy,” can be found in the show’s namesake piece. Innocuous-looking mirrored cubes cover one-third of the exhibition space, appearing to be quietly at home sitting on the grey floor and projecting reflected light onto grey walls and ceiling. Without warning, the diamond-shaped reflections abruptly disappear as the cubes reveal hockey puck-sized internal lights. The whole floor seems to vibrate and the cubes sound like a garburator chorus as they slowly migrate in no particular direction.
Read the article for the rest of her insights.
Carolyn Jervis, formerly of L53 Writer-in-Residence fame (you can re-visit her posts here), reviewed both our current exhibitions in this week’s edition of VUE Weekly.
On Brandon A. Dalmer’s Too Drunk to Fuck, she writes:
“[Brandon A.] Dalmer plays upon the human imperative to find pleasure in voyeurism through his series of peep holes, dioramas and prints of mundane and disconcerting neighbourhood life. ….This feeling of covert looking… is seductive, and creates an intense desire to scour each object and scene to seek out the story.
“Dalmer bars viewers from the satisfaction of a clear and singular story in any of his works by refusing to give the spectator enough information to create one. ….[He] draw[s] viewers in through voyeurism and nostalgia, only to present the realization that something sinister is going on beneath the veneer of these clean and tidy neighbourhood scenes.”
And on Gary James Joynes/Clinker’s Frequency Painting: 12 Tones:
“These images are fascinating to think of as snapshots of sand sculpted by sound. This is where the sense of awe comes in, as you consider that the striking differences in how every sand sculpture was formed is due to a manipulation of hertz. ….Experiencing this exhibition is an exercise in endurance. It is more than just visual or aural presentation. It is a visceral encounter to view beautiful images made through a stunning process, and to do so while the sounds reverberate through your body.”
You can read the rest of Carolyn’s article here.
Stop by the gallery this week, and see these two amazing shows for yourself. And don’t miss out on Gary James Joynes’ artist talk, this Saturday (Feb 5) at 2:00 PM! Check out the Facebook event for more info.
A couple of weeks back Vue Weekly was kind enough to feature Draw on the cover of their paper with this fun do-it-yourself template. Now they’ve posted submissions from their readers filling in the blank space. Check them out on Vue’s facebook page.
