Barbara Steinman
August 27th – October 8th 2005
Intervalles: Marc Audette + Barbara Steinman
Opening event : Saturday September 10th from 3:30 to 6pm
Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is proud to present two exhibitions of Marc Audette and Barbara Steinman. Marc Audette's Cran (2005) shows a double image, totally abstract, that can be read only if the spectator blocks one of the two images projected on the screen. « This action – the dependence of a fixed image on human intervention – may remind us of the daguerreotype which must be held in the hand and tipped back and forth for the image to manifest its brilliance. »
Barbara Steinman is presenting Roulette (1993-2005) in Montreal for the first time. The sound sculpture is a reflection on risk, loss and gain. "It's a time when the desire for control, submission to the random, and the laws of chance affect us all… This work was inspired by games of chance played in a casino." Barbara Steinman is also showing Tablets: Breath and Souffle (2005). These recent works are from her series of visual representations of sound (wave forms) rendered in glass. Each glass plate contains mute traces of spoken words.
The gallery is pleased that Martha Langford included the two exhibitions, which were planned a while ago, in the section "Pictures as a Way of Shutting our Eyes" of le Mois de la photo. As the event's Artistic Director writes : "Significantly, the work of these artists, while non-photographic, comments on the history of photographic invention and reception by asserting not only the contingence and partialness of vision, but our investment in these conditions as the seedbed of communication. »
Marc Audette holds a Master's degree in visual arts from York University (Toronto) where he is also teaching. Since the mid-eighties, he has shown his work within different group and solo exhibitions, for instance, in France, Toronto, Montreal, Hull and Ottawa. His works are also part of collections such as Québec's National Museum of Fine Arts and the City of Ottawa. This fall, Marc Audette is going to publish Écran/Screen a catalogue regrouping the works presented in the exhibitions "Beau temps, mauvais temps/ Rain or Shine" and "Screen".
Recipient of the 2002 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Barbara Steinman is known for her innovative artwork, use of technology and response to site. Her video sculptures and multimedia installations received international recognition and were included in major exhibitions and biennials in Tokyo (1985), São Paulo (1987), "Aperto" in Venice (1988), Berlin and Cologne (1989) and Sydney (1990). In the 1990's, Steinman's work was shown at the Museum of Modern Art and Jewish Museum in New York, Stedelijk in Amsterdam, ICA Boston, Tate Gallery Liverpool, as well in Los Angeles and Tokyo and was included in the Seoul Biennial in 2000.
For more information on Barbara Steinman please consult: http://www.arsbrevis.com/
1. Martha Langford, « Intervalles. Marc Audette et Barbara Steinman », Mois de la photo, Presse de l'Université McGill.
2. Barbara Steinman: A Lapse in Logic, Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, 1993.
3. Martha Langford, op. cit.