Flower Petal Tongues

September 14th - December 15th, 2018

Curated by Corrie Jackson

The exhibition presents work resulting from or inducing the action of performance, either as text, documentation, or objects. All works are selected from private collections from across Canada, furthering the element of the ongoing, intimate performance of living with works of contemporary art. In this way, the exhibition explores the sensual awareness of viewership, the echoing of the object in the body. The investigation, presented here through a selection of works, draw from the artist’s own interest in performance, spectatorship, and durational viewing. The pieces themselves draw upon the intimate act of looking and the durational dialogue that springs between the viewer and the object.

Questions arise of whether one performs while in the act of looking. Is it a passive observation, a gesture, which can be isolated within ourselves but also incorporates our bodies, our politics, and our experience? Is it asking us to draw from all this in our action of understanding? Considering the role of the Griffin foundation as a space that actively considers the distinctions between private and public audience through its focus on collections, the exhibition looks to extend this consideration into the role of intimacy in viewership.

The exhibition includes work by Valérie Blass, Cynthia Daignault, Sharon Hayes, Maria Hupfield, Annette Kelm, Germaine Koh, Liz Magor, Jenine Marsh, Judy Radul, Jana Sterbak, Janet Werner and Joyce Wieland. We will also produce a brochure for the project with essays by Corrie Jackson and Anouchka Freybe.