Reading Room: Events

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If You Are So Smart, Why Aint’ You Rich?

Hili Perlson

Conceived of as a parallel exhibition to the 5th Marrakech Biennale, the group show If You Are So Smart, Why Aint’ You Rich?  sought to examine, as the title suggests, the growing discrepancy between the nebulous notion of quantifiable knowledge (as well as its production and dissemination) and the individual loss of economic value thereof…

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Confronting destinies: Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno

Bénédicte Ramade

In Paris last fall, critical attention crystalized around exhibitions by two darlings of the French scene and relational aesthetics, Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno. The overlapping exhibition dates unconsciously led to a sort of implicit comparison in the analysis and method of viewing, indeed even creating a rivalry between what the first-named artist had on…

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Anna Frlan: Interbellum III

Petra Halkes

Anna Frlan: Interbellum III Ottawa school of Art Gallery January 10—February 22, 2013   Anna Frlan uses nothing but steel in her art making. The infinite possibilities of steel’s liquid state keep drawing her back to the welding machine. To her, the magic of manipulating the flowing red hot metal more than compensates for the…

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Tino Sehgal. Esse est percipi—To be is to be perceived 1

Iris Amizlev

In the early spring of 2013, for a period of six weeks, British-born, Berlin-based artist, Tino Sehgal, instigated a variety of emotions in visitors, ranging from delight to trepidation, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Whether positive or negative, reactions were rarely indifferent to the two artworks exhibited. Kiss, 2002, is a living embodiment…

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Richard Clements’ Day Treadeth On Night

Dion Kliner

Richard Clements, Day Treadeth On Night Paul Kuhn Gallery  Calgary, Alberta May 17—June 30, 2013   However we see our world, it is very much through the acquisition and use of language, especially speech, that we individually make our peace with it. Even though speech seems to be deeply, consciously organized and controlled, it also…

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Ai WeiWei: According to What?

Gil McElroy

Ai WeiWei: According to What? Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario August 17—October 17, 2013   Ai WeiWei came to town. Or, more accurately, Ai WeiWei’s art came to town, the artist himself is still under house arrest back home in China, owing to his activities as a dissident and critic of the government (which…

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Ghost stories..

Denis Longchamps

The question “is there a life after death?” has fascinated people for ages. As far back as the eighteenth century, novels such as Frankenstein and The Cavern of Death 1 captured the imagination of the public. Even today, just a quick look at the line up of films and television programs confirms that zombies, vampires, spirits and ghosts…