Long Haul, 2007 by Rita McKeough

Architecture is considered by many to be the first form of art engaged in by civilized societies. From early agricultural communities to the post-modern global market, architecture has consistently framed and mediated human life. During this time, the formal western discipline of architecture has been dominated by a desire for eternal, monumental and classical structures. Museums, churches, seats of government and public buildings all generally aspire to this sensibility. Unfortunately, this attitude effectively excludes most of what constitutes architecture in normal life. These excluded aspects of architecture (non-monuments, nomadic homes, temporary and ephemeral structures) form the content and thesis powering Informal Architectures at the Walter Phillips Gallery.
    Curator Anthony Kiendl has brought together a host of art practitioners for this exhibition, varying between local artists and international art celebrities. In this way, the show encompasses a local and global scope. The exhibition also draws works from early ’70s conceptual artist Gordon Matta-Clark (a member of the Anarchitecture group and a germinal figure in concept art and architecture) providing a historical context to underpin the more recent works in the show. The sheer number and complexity of pieces provides a rich examination of the theme and suggests numerous possible directions of inquiry, from the irreverent to the analytical.
    The piece that greets us at the front entrance is Skull Houses, Citadel, Northwest by Calgary artist Ryan Nordlund. Mounted in a rather modest light box are four photographs of ordinary suburban houses. But upon closer inspection, these mundane houses take on truly sinister connotations. Each resembles a human skull, with windows becoming eyes and garage doors similar to mouths. Although starkly minimal in presentation, the work leads us into a complex critique. Suburban living is revealed for its fleeting disposability and its temporary and permanent effects on social life. The work suggests notions of vanitas, invoking the character of death irrupting from the placid, idealistic new community. Social concerns regarding ecology and sustainability also come to mind, giving the work a direct link to issues we have become all too familiar with in Calgary’s oozing outer boundary.
    After passing William Pope.L’s intimidating and intriguing Historic Building, we enter the main space of the gallery to find Rita McKeough’s exceptional installation Long Haul. We enter Long Haul through a curtain, triggering a sensor as the curtain closes. This sensor sets all manner of objects, fragments, materials and bits and bobs whirling, shifting, sliding and stuttering. Venetian blinds, doors, light bulbs, alarms, a window, a paper towel dispenser and a spruce tree in a planter all shimmy around with varying degrees of animation. Massive holes cut from the drywall of the gallery reveal internal framing and seduce us to peer inside. Small speakers adhered to the wall hum with sounds recorded from the objects. The installation has the feeling of some wonky laboratory rendering life to used-up, dying objects. It seems recent Sobey winner Jean-Pierre Gauthier owes much to McKeough.
    Further back in the exhibition we find works by Matta-Clark and a collaborative group comprising Edgar Arceneaux, Vincent Galen Johnson, Olga Koumoundouros and Matthew Sloly. Matta-Clark’s piece is a simple drawing entitled USA Map Imposed on Urban Map. The drawing, with a red sticky star marking Washington D.C. is a tongue-in-cheek subversion of the traditional map image. The notable quality of the work, however, is though is its placement. A sound curatorial decision located the piece in a hollow carved out in the drywall, just big enough to stand inside. Succinctly referencing Matta-Clark’s best-known site-specific works, this location brings greater awareness to the internal structures of architecture and the mutability of spatial construction. The two-channel collaborative video Philosophy of Time Travel by Arceneaux, Johnson, Koumoundouros and Sloly wryly picks up on Matta-Clark’s initiative but replaces his cut absences with a dramatic, violent presence. Hilarious, strange and shocking, Philosophy of Time Travel combines animation, site-specific sculpture and video in extraordinary ways. This piece pushes the boundaries of the exhibition, exemplifying Informal Architectures while suggesting new and complex ways of experiencing and understanding space.