La boîte de Pandore (1991)

• Galerie d’art Louise et Reuben-Cohen de l’Université de Moncton, NB, 9 juillet – 31 août 2008
• A.K.A. Saskatoon, SK, June 7 – June 29 1991
• Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton, NB April 2 – April 23 1991

Created in January and February 1991 during a residency at Sculpture Space,Utica, NY, an internationally reknowned artist-in-residence program for sculptors.

The New Pandora’s box – an installation-projection about television.

I left Canada for England with a grant from the Canada Council – August 1, 1990 on the first leg of a world research trip. The idea was to revisit the myth of Pandora’s Box and to capture ‘evils of the world’ through video and sound recordings. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraq on August 2 forced me to change my itinerary and to reconsider the parameters of my research. During the 40 days of my travel, I saw a world glued to television sets, waiting for something to happen. Television as medium evolved to be both topic and base for my project.

The Installation was made of 5 elements, four buoys: rocking structures made of wood and the control cabinet: the disc. Each buoy was fitted with a slide projector and a cassette deck connected to the disc. Visitors could activate projections and soundtracks by opening the drawers of the cabinet.

The slides and the soundtracks were constructed with material garnered from television itself, photo stills and sound bites taken from talk shows and daytime TV.

The construction of The New Pandora’s Box took place at Sculpture Space from December 2, 1990 to January 30, 1991. Operation Desert Storm began with an aerial bombardment on 17 January.

Dimensions
4 pieces: 75 in h. X 24 in w. X 20 in d.
1 piece: 24 in dia. X 5 in h.
Soundtracks duration: 45 minutes
240 slides

Cowboy Caruso (1990)

Saint Mary’s Unniversity Art Gallery Halifax, NS February 8 – March 11 1990

Cowboy-Caruso est une figure mythique qui veut le meilleur des deux mondes; la liberté et les grands espaces du cowboy et le raffinement du monde de l¹opéra. Basé sur l’histoire vraie de Ted Wilson ancien cowboy au Texas, travailleur dans les champs pétrolifères du Nord puis chanteur d¹opéra dans les rues de Calgary.

Deux structures reliées électriquement, l’une COWBOY, l’autre CARUSO engage via le spectateur un dialogue chaotique. Quatre tiroirs en forme de quart de lune peuvent être tirés hors de Cowboy. Chaque tiroir a une fonction spécifique: 1. déclenche le système sonore; le haut-parleur droit est installé dans Cowboy et le haut-parleur de gauche dans Caruso. 2. déclenche un baril tournant installé à l¹intérieur de Caruso. 3. déclenche un projecteur diapositives installé dans Cowboy. 4. déclenche un trophée tournant sur Cowboy. La structure Caruso est déposée sur une table de métal. Quatre chaises sont installées face à quatre ouvertures. Lorsque concordent les ouvertures dans le baril tournant avec les ouvertures sur la structure elle-même une scène mélancolique, éclairée avec des black light apparaît puis disparaît lentement. Il s¹agit d¹une forêt miniature faite de bois de chevreuils où pendent des médaillons photographiques. Sous la table sont éclairés avec des black light cinq fers à cheval fluorescents. La projection de diapositives vertes est constituée de gros plans de dessins de travaux quotidiens du cowboy. La bande sonore comprends des airs de l’ouest chantés par Ted Wilson. Le tout fut manipulé en studio.

Installation
2 pièces: 48 in. dia. X 12 in. h.

base de Cowboy: 48 in dia. X 48 in. h.

base de Caruso: 48 in. h. X 24 in. w. X 24 in. d.

Erica the black boxes (1988)

• Installation, Struts, Sackville, NB, 1988

Cube-Aleph (1986)

• Galerie Sans Nom, Moncton, NB, Nov 4 – Nov 23 1986
• Centre for Art Tapes, Halifax, NS, June 10 – July 1, 1987
• Young Contemporaries London Life, London ON, Missisauga ON, Victoria BC, Calgary AB, Montréal QC, Fredericton NB. Dec 1987 – Nov 1988

The Aleph-Cube is an image constituting many images, the sum of which is, in fact, one single and original vision. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It also signifies, in a system developed by Cantor, a German philosopher and mathematician, the concept of infinity, where each part of the whole is greater than the whole itself.

The Aleph-Cube is an object, an original piece which groups within itself other objects (modules).  Each module contains its very own points of reference with respect to time and space, reflected in the spatial disposition of matter, color, and texture. The modules are unique entities linked to other modules, either by a particular code ofesthetics or by the interaction they may suggest individually with respect to the whole.

The possibility of this interaction, however, is dependent on the very structure of the cube, that is to say, it relies on the facts that each module constitutes within itself a precise moment, chosen and constructed and there by self sufficient.  In addition, the idea of rhythm or the notion of time give the Aleph-Cube a certain poetic reality, in that the very grouping of the 24 modules in one single presence, one single structure, unified by a continuous circular motion enables us to experience, at any given time, a multiplicity of moments which, in fact, would be isolated from one another.  The movement which the the Aleph-Cube generates has, as a starting point, a confluence of various data (spatial disposition of matter, color, texture),whereas the end result reflects the expression of a global vision which, nevertheless, remains inseparable from its components.   DD 1986