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{"id":177208,"date":"2022-10-04T10:23:28","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T15:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/?post_type=compte-rendu&p=177208"},"modified":"2022-10-04T10:37:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T15:37:28","slug":"thinking-again-and-supposing-trajectory-of-an-exhibition-sarah-greig-therese-mastroiacovo","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/thinking-again-and-supposing-trajectory-of-an-exhibition-sarah-greig-therese-mastroiacovo\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Again and Supposing. Trajectory of an Exhibition: Sarah Greig + Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
What is the role of relationality and chance in contemporary art? In artworks meant to be relational, as the works in Thinking Again and Supposing. Trajectory of an Exhibition: Sarah Greig + Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/em> are stated to be, what is the role\u2014and, indeed, the responsibility\u2014of the viewer once the artist has left the gallery space? The black, white, and grey show, presenting works by Sarah Greig and Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo (including geometric drawings on graph paper, blown-up abstract photographs, and pencil drawings of the covers of art theory books from Mastroiacovo\u2019s series Art Now<\/em> [2005\u2013ongoing]) purports to be about the relationality between these two individuals working with and against each other in photography (Greig) and drawing (Mastroiacovo). I know this only from the introductory wall panel, written by curator Mich\u00e8le Th\u00e9riault, that was provided in the antechamber of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University. The text states, \u201cThis project is a process of us [the artists] to reflect on and inquire into the mechanisms of working together, circulating thoughts, relationality, and giving materiality to a common project.\u201d As it turned out, it was an accident catalyzed by selfie culture that made the exhibition speak of relationality, but not in the way the artists had intended.\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
When I first attempted to visit the show on September 14, a week after it opened, the gallery was closed \u201cdue to unforeseen circumstances.\u201d When I returned the following week, the show had reopened and a new wall text had been created, written by Mastroiacovo, which stated that she had \u201cadded a drawing on top of this drawing as a layer to indicate a moment of infringement\u201d on the graphite drawing on paper that was displayed horizontally on a low platform. The original drawing, ON NOW? CONTEMPLA-<\/em>(2022), is intended to be \u201cwave-like\u201d; it is white paper filled with pencil lines, a \u201cdrawing of duration,\u201d according to the artist: \u201cThe work is first and foremost about contemplation, about continued thoughtful observation and study.\u201d Mastroiacovo alludes to an incident that took place three days after the show opened, when a visitor sat down and stretched out on the drawing in order to take a selfie. Despite the artists\u2019 interest in, and desire for, relationality, this was an unintended intervention. The docent told me that Mastroiacovo was \u201csurprised\u201d\u2014if not distressed. Nonetheless, the traces of the visitor left on the drawing, including smudges indexing her body and a handprint, added an interesting aesthetic to the abstract grey drawing. Although Mastroiacovo states that she had added a drawing, in fact the selfie-taking student had added the \u201cdrawing,\u201d using her body rather than a pencil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Therese-Mastroiacovo_ONNOWCONTEMPLA?\"
Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/strong>
ON NOW? CONTEMPLA-<\/em>, 2022.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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There are no other didactic panels in the exhibition, so the viewer is unsure whose work is whose. In the first large room of the gallery, in addition to ON NOW? CONTEMPLA-<\/em>, there is another set of drawings\u2014black-filled paper\u2014exhibited on a line of tables, but without wall labels, so I did not know the relational background of the series. In white lower-case lettering on one of the pieces of paper are the words \u201creimagined after intersec,\u201d and on the opposite side of the same piece of paper are the letters \u201cism.\u201d Without any textual guidance, what is a viewer to do with this limited information? There is no need to lead visitors around by the nose, but some information about what the artist is setting out to do would be greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"BinaEllen_RethinkandAssumevuedexpo\"
Thinking Again and Supposing. Trajectory of an Exhibition: Sarah Greig + Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/em>, exhibition view, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al, 2022.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Therese-Mastroiacovo_ismreimaginedafterintersec\"
Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/strong>
ism reimagined after intersec<\/em> (detail), 2022.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The next room in the gallery also has a sparse display of works. On one wall are large curling photographs (without titles) of abstracted forms, on the wall opposite is a small framed black artwork (without title), and against a third wall are what appear to be deconstructed boxes. This room is dedicated to Greig\u2019s photographic body of work, but I know that only from the docent\u2019s answers to my questions. Again, I was at a loss to know how any of the pieces were relational; this could be easily remedied by adding didactic panels that explain to visitors how exactly the two artists collaborated on the exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sarah
Sarah Greig<\/strong>
Long View Study<\/em>, 2022.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sarah
Sarah Greig<\/strong>
Test Tall View Former Display Camera<\/em>, 2016-2022.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Sarah
Sarah Greig<\/strong>
Picture Transition<\/em>, 2013.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The final room is dedicated to Mastroiacovo\u2019s series Art Now<\/em>. A catalogue from an earlier exhibition, Unfinished After<\/em>, is provided in this room, which at least gives the viewer an idea of the artist\u2019s intentions with regard to these drawings. According to Mastroiacovo, the series is a \u201cperformative action\u201d: \u201cI draw not to describe next, next, next, but to perform the present tense.\u201d Some of the illustrations are unfinished, some are blurred; all of them, as end products, are inevitably static. Mastroiacovo\u2019s words point to the relentless onslaught of art theory (\u201cnext, next, next\u201d), and she notes, \u201cI could have done this an easier way but drawing brings it closer.\u201d The embodiment involved in drawing implied in this statement was manifested in an unexpected fashion through the accidental \u201cdrawing\u201d on top of ON NOW? CONTEMPLA-<\/em>, significantly the only perceivable instance of relationality in the exhibition, at least for this viewer. The introductory wall panel states, \u201cAt this point in time, the layers of succeeding exhibitions, of works, of layout and display strategies is thick and dense.\u201d The accidental relationality initiated by the student added a layer of meaning to the exhibition that had previously been lacking in visible, material ways, as without textual guidance (and the added wall text about the new \u201cdrawing\u201d) there is no way for viewers to know how the various drawings and photographs fit together. How do the geometric drawings, for instance, function in relation to the rest of the exhibition? The show as a whole does speak to the power of relationality and accident in contemporary art by moving a static artwork in new, unanticipated directions, keeping conversations and discourses evolving, and reminding us that despite the behavioural norms expected in art galleries, once an artwork is in the public sphere, it is effectively out of the artist\u2019s hands and control. I suggest, cautiously, that this is not a bad thing, although perhaps we need to cut it out with the selfies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"herese-Mastroiacovo_ArtNowUnfinishedAfter_25\"
Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/strong>
Art Now, Unfinished After<\/em>, 2013, from the series
Art Now<\/em>, 2005-ongoing.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"BinaEllen_Therese-Mastroiacovo_ArtNowUnfinishedAfter\"
Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/strong>
Art Now, Unfinished After<\/em>, 2015, from the series
Art Now<\/em>, 2005-ongoing.
Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro, courtesy of Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Julia Skelly, Sarah Greig, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Mastroiacovo<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery,<\/strong> Concordia University, Montr\u00e9al
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