ERRATICS
Martha Baiilie, Malka Greene, Alan Resnick
Exhibition
Koffler Gallery, 2015
Photo documentation by Toni Hafkenscheid
Bringing together two distinct archives, Erratics explores the tensions between memory and fiction, examining the role of photographs and words in uncovering hidden narratives. Attempting to convey two personal stories, these collections of images, texts and records reveal both the impossibility of fully knowing the past and the effectiveness of literary imagination in grappling with history.
Toronto author Martha Baillie adds further layers to her most recent book, The Search for Heinrich Schlögel, through a multi-media installation. In Baillie’s hypnotic novel, an archivist seeks the truth about Heinrich’s life through letters, documents and photographs providing glimpses into the young man’s journey from a small German town to exploring the Canadian North and finding himself lost in time. Hundreds of postcards, voice recordings and a musical composition created by Nic Gotham give material substance to Baillie’s literary plot that addresses our fraught relationship to the historic past.
In His Father Over Time, Toronto artist and curator Malka Greene mines a store of materials belonging to the late Dr. Morris Resnick – a former World War II reconnaissance photographer who avidly documented his life and times. Emulating the work of an archivist, Greene tries to piece together the threads of this private story. In parallel, Morris’s son – television writer and satirist Alan Resnick – explores his relationship with his father and family through the mnemonic device of the archive and responds with a personal series of texts. Where information may lack or memories fail to fill the gaps in time, fiction takes over.
In His Father Over Time, Toronto artist and curator Malka Greene mines a store of materials belonging to the late Dr. Morris Resnick – a former World War II reconnaissance photographer who avidly documented his life and times. Emulating the work of an archivist, Greene tries to piece together the threads of this private story. In parallel, Morris’s son – television writer and satirist Alan Resnick – explores his relationship with his father and family through the mnemonic device of the archive and responds with a personal series of texts. Where information may lack or memories fail to fill the gaps in time, fiction takes over.
