Memory Game
Curated by Jason St-Laurent with Jennifer Cherniack, Memory Game (Performing Memory) brings together four artists from Ontario and Quebec, all exploring the impact of media on memory. The new works produced for the exhibition are activated by the human body, whether that of the artist or the viewer. In their collective operation, the works attest to the traditional and recognized role of photography as a medium that evokes remembrance and memory.
Micheline Parent from Toronto presents an interactive media art project titled Cornucopia, which invites visitors to navigate through lush gardens and a rustic country house. Projected across three screens, the journey through Micheline Parent’s world makes abundant reference to the history of 17th-century English gardens, Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches, abstract painting, and the early days of photography.
Stéphanie Brodeur from Ottawa examines the random nature of memory in an interactive work called Ephemeral Memory. The visitor’s presence triggers colored bubbles that land on photographic paper, leaving a lasting imprint of visitor participation.
Semiosis by Michael Trommer (Toronto) and Éric Fillon (Montreal) is a video-sound performance that explores the problem of the notion of universal symbols. By layering drawings from the Lascaux caves, contemporary airport signage, and other well-known forms of iconography, the artists create a new visual language.