{"id":18130,"date":"2013-03-26T20:39:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T00:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=18130"},"modified":"2013-04-16T12:02:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T16:02:43","slug":"point-counter-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=18130","title":{"rendered":"Point \/ Counter-Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Body and Identity – OCAD Thesis Exhibition<\/strong>
\nMarch\u00a020 – 31, 2013
\nGallery 1313<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five artists, members of an OCAD sculpture and installation thesis program, are exhibiting their work at Gallery 1313. The works are variations upon the theme of environment, whether social or natural or both, criticizing perceiving imbalances and offering suggestions to remedy the situation. It raises questions and reveals ambiguities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Katarina Tarrant\u2019s Crown with Phallus<\/em>, a work that evokes the debate between Jacques Lacan who did identify (along with Freud) the phallus with the penis, an identification with which philosopher and Belgian born feminist, Luce Irigaray and French philosopher, Jacques Derrida,\u00a0 disagreed. There are four components to\u00a0Tarrant’s work. The first two are\u00a0a video of the process of making the phallus mould\u00a0and a video of the naked artist adorning the crown with phallus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Katarina Tarrant, Crown with Phallus, <\/em>video still<\/p>\n

The other\u00a0pieces are the crown itself resting on a pillow called\u00a0The Masquerade I.<\/em> and an acrylic, pencil work entitled Masquerade II<\/em>. The crown has a cross. The artist in the video does not cross her legs, which is the \u2018demure\u2019 feminine custom, but openly faces the male gaze. She has the crown between her legs, appropriating traditional male symbols of power. Art rules through the power to alter the identity of self by invoking the power of the\u00a0male sex.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Katarina Tarrant, Crown with Phallus<\/em><\/p>\n

The phallus in this sculpture\u00a0is and is not the penis. It is the penis only when it has been \u2018beheaded\u2019 as the \u2018male head of state\u2019 and reinstated as the extension of the female centre power of rebirth. Crown with Phallus<\/em> is thus the inverted image of the Throne of the Vagina which only a female queen with the crown between her legs can sit on. It is the undressing, addressing, and redressing\u00a0that defines the sensual texture of the four works.<\/p>\n

Tara O\u2019Connor\u2019s\u00a0Handmade Meat Labels<\/em>\u00a0 is based on an intervention against the addictives commonly used in butchered meat sold in your friendly neighbourhood supermarket.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tara O\u2019Connor,\u00a0Handmade Meat Labels<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her other work is that of a pig\u2019s head mounted on a plaque titled Commodity Specimen<\/em> overlooking a table with demonic pigs and bones, a combination portraying commercial practices as a mixture\u00a0of the macabre and a sad reality. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tara O\u2019Connor’s installation<\/p>\n

The ‘meat’ of the market economy is the power of money to replace all human relations\u00a0such as\u00a0empathizing with fellow creatures. Capitalism is a vast butcher shop of dehumanizing relations. Under patriarchy phallus equals penis, as under capitalism, money equals need itself. So tell me: What do you need?<\/p>\n

Christina Iannelli\u00a0in her series,\u00a0(re) production,<\/em>\u00a0uses 19 x 11 white spoons dripping with red sauce at their end to represent the traditional role of women in Italian culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Christina Iannelli,\u00a0\u00a0(re) production<\/em><\/p>\n

Women bleed, the artists says, both at giving birth as\u00a0the main\u00a0function of their reproductive\u00a0life\u00a0or\u00a0through menstruation. Blood also represent their\u00a0sacrifices to patriarchal authority that confines them to the kitchen and to the bedroom and often\u00a0makes them\u00a0victims of male violence. The red drippings on the grey gallery floor\u00a0can equally be\u00a0spaghetti sauce, or blood, or both.<\/p>\n

Steven G. Kurtz, who uses ceramics, wood and metal, has five works in the show. \u00a0One of them\u00a0influenced by the oldest pieces of sculpture depicting eight female forms\u00a0like the Venus of Willendorf. The other\u00a0inspired by seaweed, while another by oil-eating mushrooms, and the last two are\u00a0giant black bronze butterflies symbolizing polluted air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Steven G. Kurtz’s installation<\/p>\n

Steven\u2019s main interest is in\u00a0logo-centric ecological practices privileging human over non-human sentience.<\/p>\n

Chantal Taylor’s work, depicting\u00a0genetically modified organisms,\u00a0is similar to O’Connor\u2019s theme.\u00a0Taylor’s\u00a0piece is a double-helix display stand that has on one side Genetically Modified Food<\/em> that can cause infertility, and other pernicious side-effects.\u00a0 The modification of nature is implied by current technology enabling a more invasive \u2018working\u2019\u00a0 upon the code of life itself.\u00a0On the other side Chantal\u2019s projected vision of Modified Human-Based Food<\/em>\u00a0with positive, benevolent side-effects is a note of optimism balanced against Tara\u2019s more polemic stance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chantal Taylor’s installation<\/p>\n

If art\u2019s authority is the addressing, undressing, and redressing of the balance of power (Tarrant) to encourage a more integrated, empathetic societal body that is\u00a0able to value things in themselves whether they are human (Iannelli) or not (O’Connor, Kurtz)\u00a0then there is hope for a better world (Taylor).\u00a0It also\u00a0creates a\u00a0power, a naked\u00a0truth\u00a0– a nakedness –\u00a0that can only be\u00a0glimpsed or experienced through cultivating the self-reflective and critical attitudes\u00a0that each work embodies.<\/p>\n

The future bodes well for a country whose \u2018current crop\u2019 is the leading and cutting edge of its culture.<\/p>\n

David A. Ross
\nPhoto: Phil Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by David A. Ross<\/strong><\/p>\n

The works are variations upon the theme of environment, whether social or natural or both, criticizing perceiving imbalances and offering suggestions to remedy the situation. It raises questions and reveals ambiguities.<\/p>\n

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