DIANE LANDRY
THE MAGIC SHIELD
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery at Beaver Hall Gallery, 2009
Photo documentation by Toni Hafkenscheid
The Magic Shield was the second off-site project for the Koffler Gallery and the first presentation in Toronto of this recent work by Quebec artist Diane Landry. Over the past twenty years, Landry has produced multi-disciplinary works inspired by the insignificant gestures that make up our daily existence, often integrating an assortment of recycled and mass-produced objects drawn from our everyday world. Invoking the wonder of childhood fantasy, her captivating kinetic works encourage viewers to linger and experience. Employing subtle combinations of sound, movement, light, and shadow to transform ordinary things into unpredictable, seemingly organic entities, Landry attempts to recover the meaning our material culture has lost through mass manufacture.
In The Magic Shield, two futons covered with white crumpled paper are animated and transformed by various mechanisms and objects placed underneath. Enhanced by the dramatic play of light and shadow, the beds shift momentarily from restfulness to wakefulness, from object to event, creating a dream-like atmosphere. The sculptural assemblages conjure rich connotations of the bed as a site that nurtures our physical existence as well as our flights of imagination, investing feeble, mundane materials with the magical powers of amulets and charms. The installation alludes to subconscious or intuitive modes of comprehension, underscoring the contrast between what is perceived on the surface of things and what can be discovered concealed beneath,
Two video pieces, The Lost Shield and A Radio Silence, complement the three-dimensional work, further subverting the common associations of sleep with rest and wakefulness with action. In The Lost Shield, a fidgety, reclining body alludes to the mind's constant engagement even in a state of slumber. In A Radio Silence, a solitary character stands awake but frozen in an immobile posture while day and night unfold swiftly around her. By drawing attention to neglected aspects of human experience, which are quickly erased from consciousness, Landry simultaneously alludes to more profound issues of life and death. Offering different screens of perception, her multi-media works invite the viewer to cross over to the other side of the looking glass.
Two video pieces, The Lost Shield and A Radio Silence, complement the three-dimensional work, further subverting the common associations of sleep with rest and wakefulness with action. In The Lost Shield, a fidgety, reclining body alludes to the mind's constant engagement even in a state of slumber. In A Radio Silence, a solitary character stands awake but frozen in an immobile posture while day and night unfold swiftly around her. By drawing attention to neglected aspects of human experience, which are quickly erased from consciousness, Landry simultaneously alludes to more profound issues of life and death. Offering different screens of perception, her multi-media works invite the viewer to cross over to the other side of the looking glass.
Artist Info
Diane Landry lives and works in Québec City. Since 1987, her works have travelled widely across Canada and in major cities in the USA, Mexico, Argentina, many European countries, Australia and China. Her works have been discussed in numerous publications and recognized by important awards in Québec as well as in the United States. She is the first recipient of the prestigious Giverny Capital Prize, a distinction awarded to a visual artist from Québec. She has been an artist in residence in many centres in Canada, the USA, France, Italy and Argentina. She has just completed a six-month stay in the Studio du Québec in New York, sponsored by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Diane Landry holds a MA from Stanford University, California and is represented by SolwayJones Gallery in Los Angeles.
