The Rustlings of the Group Are Invented as They Slip Away is an exhibition by UQAM graduate student Marie-Pier Vanchestein at Elektra. According to the accompanying text : This installation features robotic benches that move together in space, following rules inspired by swarm algorithms. Through their movements, both programmed and unpredictable, the benches seek, through a common movement, to escape the gallery. The hum of their motors accompanies this attempt at emancipation, creating a collective murmur. [p] By playing with diversion and the principle of emergence, the exhibition questions our relationship with the structures that surround us. Can these benches truly break free from the framework that defines them? Through this poetic staging, the artist invites us to rethink the connections that unite a collective and the spaces it inhabits. As is my habit, I did not read the accompanying text until I had spent some time in the exhibition. I assumed it was some kind of joki...
Heart On is a retrospective of the work of Toronto artist Joyce Wieland. It was co-produced by Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Art Gallery of Ontario and is the first retrospective of the artist’s work in several decades. The last, nearly 40 years ago, contained much of the same work. The museum’s ad text (most of which is duplicated at the entrance to the exhibit) informs us that: This ambitious career retrospective … is also the most comprehensive, and positions Wieland as a critical international figure of 20th-century art and film. […] Spotlighting the concerns that informed Wieland’s creative output, namely her engagement with feminism, social justice and ecology, this exhibition explores her unique approach to art-making and the enduring relevance of her oeuvre to contemporary issues. The current retrospective cleverly opens with Wieland’s oil painting Time Machine Series (1961), which, typical for that period of her work, combines abstract imagery with vibr...