June 15–August 20, 2017
The Darling Foundry
745 rue Ottawa
Montréal, QC H3C 1R8
Canada
T +1 514 392 1554
Artists: A Constructed World, Tyler Coburn & Byron Peters, Stéphane Degoutin & Gwenola Wagon, Nicole Fournier, Jeff Guess, Martin Howse, Norman C. Kaplan, Allan Kaprow, Jonathon Keats, Alison Knowles, Lou-Maria Le Brusq, Aurélie Pétrel, Joshua Schwebel, and Daniela Silvestrin
Curators: Maud Jacquin and Sébastien Pluot, with Jeff Guess and Art by Translation
In 1967, Fluxus artist Alison Knowles creates The House of Dust, one of the first computer-generated poems. Each quatrain began with “A house of …” followed by random sequences of materials, sites or locations, light sources, and categories of inhabitants randomly matched by a computer program. In 1969, Knowles translates one of the quatrains into an architectural form which was installed first in Chelsea (NYC), and then at CalArts, where a burgeoning community of experimental artists and students propose installations performances, concerts, poetry courses, and film screening within the structure.
The exhibition presented at the Darling Foundry retraces the history of The House of Dust and presents contemporary artists’ new interpretations of the poem-score. Aurélie Pétrel probes relations between The House of Dust and the work of Peter Eisenman through an examination of documents from the CCA. Other artists explore the phenomena of translation among different types of languages, media, and subjectivities—a central dimension of The House of Dust. For instance, in A Constructed World, the artist interprets one of the poem’s quatrains by making a “paper house” intended to communicate with sculpture eels and to be used as a structure for hosting workshops, conferences, and performances for the duration of the exhibition. This installation relates to the offerings of other guest artists whose works explore communication between humans and nonhumans—animals, plants or machines: Stéphane Dégoutin and Gwenola Wagon, Jeff Guess, Martin Howse, Jonathon Keats, and the members of Art by Translation—Tyler Coburn, Lou-Maria Le Brusq, Joshua Schwebel, and Daniela Silvestrin. Knowles also presents a new version of Gift Objects for the current exhibition.
The Darling Foundry is a visual arts centre and a must-see venue for contemporary art. Housed in a former industrial building in Old Montreal, under the general and artistic direction of Caroline Andrieux, the Darling Foundry supports the creation, production, and diffusion of works by emerging artists. The Darling Foundry includes both exhibition spaces and studios to support local and international artists. Through a wide variety of projects—exhibitions, performances, works of public art, and residencies—the Darling Foundry offers its visitors unique aesthetic experiences and enhances their understanding of contemporary art.
