>>REVIEW
PUBLIC IN ART– PUBLIC AS ART
Larissa Fassler
Runs until February 11
Truck Gallery
Vancouver-born, Berlin-based artist Larissa Fassler puts the "public" back in public art with the new exhibition at Truck Gallery, Public in Art – Public as Art.
One part of the exhibition is a series of photographs Fassler took of teenage couples. Teen Couples I shows dyads of 14-year-olds and Teen Couples II is of the same couples two years later as 16-year-olds.
"Notions of play are essential to this work; particularly game-play and role-play," writes Fassler in a statement. "Here the teens role-play and act in front of the camera. They are given permission to play at something they really want to do, and that is to touch each other, and yet to do this in reality would involve a complicated performance of social relationships otherwise eschewed by the presence of the camera. During the photography shoot they are given license to act on their desires without having to pass through the normal social conventions. Desire and desirability, infatuation and lust come to the fore. In these images the teens are playing at being wanted, something we all do."
Yet the two years between ages 14 and 16, observes Fassler, have changed the way the boys and girls relate.
"Two years on, there exists some difficult relationship issues between some of them and they were not all willing to be in the same room as some of the others – never mind close contact," she writes.
Although the minutiae of teen relationships may not sound all that interesting, the accompanying videotapes of the teens as they stand together in a photography studio suggests attitudes and behaviours that can be viewed as stereotypically male and female, no matter the age. "You’re so disgusting sometimes," says one of the models to her male companion after he awkwardly pecks at the nape of her neck.
It’s in the moments when the teen models react spontaneously to one another that the project is most compelling. No longer limited by what they think their prescribed roles are, they simply exist as they would in the world. When this happens, fuzziness between reality and construction occurs, with the series accomplishing what it sets out to do – explore social contexts and roles between the sexes.
The other component of this exhibition is No Contact Made: The Flower Project. This is a series of colour photographs Fassler made after randomly selecting residences in Berlin where she would anonymously deliver flowers.
"Berlin was for me in many ways a very hard, grey and unfriendly city in which I found myself very alone and living as an outsider," she writes. Born out of loneliness, The Flower Project shows a series of doorways, each with a bouquet of flowers carefully placed nearby. Beside each photo included in the series is the address of the home and the date when the delivery was made.
Left at this ambiguous point, the installation takes on whatever tone the audience chooses to project onto it. For some, flowers left anonymously would be a welcome act, while we can assume for another group the gesture could take on ominous overtones with speculation about a possible stalker. It is the incongruity of a seemingly kind act with the potential to disturb that makes The Flower Project so effective.
Cerebral to its core, Public in Art — Public as Art scrutinizes our social contexts and, in turn, creates a dialogue about the interface between art and life.
New director wants to make Truck a people’s gallery
Katherine Thompson brings international experience in the art world to her job as the new director of Truck Gallery.
"I want Calgary to have a vibrant art scene from the ground up," says Thompson.
Her background includes an undergraduate degree in art history and design from Staffordshire University in England and a master’s degree in arts administration and curatorial studies from University College, Dublin. Coupled with her studies is on-the-ground experience in a variety of roles at artist-run spaces and public galleries in Ireland, New York City and Australia.
Located on the lower level of the Grain Exchange Building in downtown Calgary, Truck Gallery was founded in 1983 as a not-for-profit artist-run space. The gallery’s new director says it’s now time for Truck to launch programming that will draw in more Calgarians.
"We want to show emerging artists along with more experienced artists," she says. "Local and international." She also wants to ensure Truck is a welcoming place for all Calgarians. "The people can come to Truck. This is their space."
A native of Ireland, Thompson previously was employed at Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, where she was a curatorial assistant and administrator. At the gallery she helped develop arts workshops for homeless youth, introducing them to a variety of mediums, including film.
"I would love to get involved with a group like that here," she says. "We want to bring people into the gallery, but also go to them.
"I want Truck to give artists a voice, but also the audience," she adds. "I want it to be part of making the inner core a vibrant place." |
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