May. 04, 2011 - Issue #811: On being a John

Prevue

Between science and art

Latitude 53 examines brain activity in a pair of exhibits

In three corners of Latitude 53's main exhibition space, photograph, video, and projection form records of Noxious Sector-member brain waves as each undergoes a different mental, emotional or physical activity. The artist collaboration Noxious Sector, comprised of Ted Hiebert, Doug Jarvis and Jackson 2Bears, is, "Dedicated to the exploration of alternative cognitive function, the paranormal and the absurd." Of Brains and Magnets, a provocative exploration of brain activity as art through the lens of performance and multimedia work, is worth a look for its fusing of scientific technology, curiosity and its quiet discoveries about our sensitive and responsive minds.

Each of the three televisions in the front of the gallery features a split screen of one Noxious Sector member watching coverage of horrible devastation from flooding, fires and tidal waves, both fictional and non-fictional. A second member's projected image documents his focused thoughts about Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, while the final projection features the third artist collaborator manipulating his brain waves by arranging a series of magnets on his head.

As a viewer, these three vignettes pose an interesting challenge for viewers, since they must sort through different relationships with a technology widely understood as a tool for scientific discovery and objective data collection. This is interesting to consider within an art gallery space, in which a viewer's interaction with objects and information is interpretation, rooted in subjectivity. How is one to interpret data which at once reads as factual and as somewhat absurd and inconclusive exercises? The accompanying monograph text by formerly-Calgary-based artist Scott Rogers, whose loosely related words provide no insight or interpretive ways into Of Brains and Magnets, further reinforces the unresolved tension between understandings of scientific inquiry and art interpretation.

Currently in Latitude's ProjEx Room is Jinzhe Cui's When Dreams Lighten Reality, an exhibition that also considers brain activity, this time in the form of dreams. Text illustrative of the exhibition's conceit, painted directly on the wall over a half-made bed, reads, "I am dreaming that I am having a beautiful exhibition in a gallery. I draw my dreams of canvas and hang them in front of the lights. The visitors write and draw their dreams on the paper and place them into a jar. This is such a sweet dream."

The strength of this exhibition is in the little canvases that chart the dream adventures of the girl with long black hair and striped stockings as she finds herself in a city where cars fall from the sky, cracking buildings and endangering the residents, or dragging a bag filled with a house, bicycle, piano and sleeping boy. These are beautiful drawings rendered in an appealing illustrative style, but the exhibition as a whole cannot match the resolution of its composite small images. The canvases hang from the wall in a haphazard way, and while it is interesting to see these images illuminated from behind, this is done inconsistently in front of harsh fluorescent lighting. Cui's drawings are so lovely that hopefully the artist will dedicate more time refining installation technique and integration of all exhibition elements, because the lack of polish in this exhibition distracts from the delightful strength of these miniature dream scenes. V

Until May 14
Of Brains and Magnets
works by Noxious Sector
When Dreams Lighten Reality
works by Jinzhe Cui
Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture (10248 - 106 St) vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus