Aston Coles—Emi Honda—Tor Jørgen van Eijk—Brian MacDonald
Science Fiction and constellations
A proposition by Brian MacDonald
Aston Coles lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Through sculpture and animation, he explores the mechanics of flying, with the ultimate goal of being able to fly without any assistance. He is part of the group Goatsucker, which produces films, art and noisy events. Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Emi Honda lives in Montreal. She often works in collaboration with other artists, including Jordon McKenzie and Scott Evans. We saw one of his installations at Skol in 2007.
—Opening Friday March 19, 2010 AT 5 PM
Galerie B-312 presents Science Fiction and Constellations, a proposal by videographer Brian MacDonald. The work is an installation based on an original idea by the artist with collaborators: Emi Honda, Tor Jørgen Von Eijk and Aston Coles. Brian MacDonald asked these artists to create or contribute an artwork knowing that they would be part of an installation with a troubling dilemma: even if they wanted to make changes for the better, the works of art would only be a momentary shelter, a temporary oasis, an instant of respite in the face of the nuisances of the everyday life. In other words, As creators or spectators, is art not a factor of nearly hypnotic effects? The artist and the art specialist, regardless of their field of competence, even if they present themselves as awakeners of conscience, do they not play the game of the sandman, this fictitious personage one uses to tell the kids it's time to sleep? Artistic practice would be a particular mode of creating fictional universes, and the exhibition Science Fiction and Constellations would question the handling of this articulation, insofar as it is impassable, even aporetic. Fiction being defined in opposition to reality, fictional universes, including artistic practices and discourses on art, would distance us from reality to the point of making us lose our sense of it, or do they allow us to grasp it at a distance? Since we perceive them from a distance? To what extent can art first appear as a fictional universe, then a soothing one saving us from the worst by mimicking it, and finally as a soothing fictional universe that reveals a truth that proves elusive only through the mediation of a fictional world? Excessive, not sufficient, that is to say, that there is a "right fiction". Science Fiction and Constellations evokes its existence at the very least.
—Summary of text by JEAN-ÉMILE VERDIER
Aston Coles lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Through sculpture and animation, he explores the mechanics of flying, with the ultimate goal of being able to fly without any assistance. He is part of the group Goatsucker, which produces films, art and noisy events. Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Emi Honda lives in Montreal. She often works in collaboration with other artists, including Jordon McKenzie and Scott Evans. We saw one of his installations at Skol in 2007.