FROM JANUARY 16 TO FEBRUARY 2
A presentation of works by Marilène Oliver and Sean Caulfield.
Curator : Isabelle Van Grimde.
A word from the Curator
With the aim of opening our creation centre to the public and to other art forms, Van Grimde Corps Secrets is organizing a series of exhibitions in the coming years. For the premiere at Espace Corps Secrets, I chose two artists from Edmonton who have been collaborating with the company since its performative exhibition The Body in Question(s). Their near-encyclopedic vision of the body and hybrid practices clearly resonate with my artistic interests. EMBODIMENT features two works that are intimately connected with my vision of the body as both an ancestral entity transmitting memories, and organic technology in a state of constant transformation.
In Deep Connection, a multimedia installation by Marilène Oliver and Gary James Joynes, incorporating sculptural elements and virtual reality, a single body floats prone in virtual reality space. The viewer can walk around her and dive inside her body. Her hand is outstretched, waiting for a human connection…
In Evolving Anatomies, Sean Caulfield, Marilène Oliver and Scott Smallwood worked together to create a wall of images that contrast and combine anatomical representations from the Renaissance to the present day…
These works form a dialogue with Eve 2050.* They explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual, the perception of our body connected to our evolving knowledge of anatomy, the human reinjected into the digital…
* These two installations were created for the exhibition Dyscorpia (Edmonton Spring 2019) itself inspired by Eve 2050 and featuring the web-series. The scanned body in Deep Connection is also part of Eve 2050: the Stage Production
DEEP CONNECTION
Sound: Gary James Joynes
In Deep Connection, a body floats prone in virtual reality space. The viewer can walk around and dive inside the body and explore its inner workings. Holding the body’s hand animates it: a 4D dataset of the heart beating and the lungs breathing is triggered. As long as the user holds the virtual body’s hand, the heart beats, the lungs breathe, and a human voice sings softly. The installation is comprised of a row of 3 sculptures of bodies into which the VR hardware is embedded/housed.
Deep Connection is a multimedia installation incorporating sculptural elements, virtual reality and sound. Working with radiology and computer science researchers at the University of Alberta, Marilène Oliver acquired high-resolution full body magnetic resonance scan datasets to make the installation. Based on the premise that the way we see ourselves informs how we understand ourselves, the creation of material and immaterial visions of the body based on digital data allows us to compare how virtual and physical media affect us. Gary James Joynes created an original audio track using recordings from the original MR scan and Marilène Oliver’s voice.
EVOLVING ANATOMIES
Sean Caulfield, Marilène Oliver, & Scott Smallwood
Sean Caulfield, Marilène Oliver, and Scott Smallwood worked together to create a wall of images that contrast and combine anatomical representations from the Renaissance to the present day. Caulfield’s starting point is the Vesalius man, while Oliver’s is Melanix, an open source full body CT scan of a woman. Together they created an installation of woodcuts, silkscreen prints, 3D printed models, and video projections. Smallwood infuses and surrounds these objects with a soundscape made of flowing water, heat, ice melt, and data-driven textures, mixed with secret messages, glitches, and distorted broadcasts.
The work explores the ways medical technology and specifically diagnostic imaging are shifting how we perceive and understand our own bodies and life-stories. It is also intended to comment on the growing disparity between wealthy nations or communities who have easy access to cutting-edge digital health technology, and poorer ones that do not enjoy the same readily available assets. As biomedical innovations now develop at a breakneck pace, the international community faces urgent ethical and political questions around equality and distribution of health and digital technology.
MORE INFORMATION
DATE
By reservation only, from January 16 to February 2.
PLACE
At Espace Corps Secrets – 1881, rue Saint-André – suite 302, Montréal (QC) H2L 3T9
RATE
Free participation