The works in Terms of Use<\/em> relied on a vast array of media, from video, sculpture, and VR to computer games. Severalworks not only transformed visitors into digital users but figuratively modified them into digital code. It was as if they were being converted into a series of ones and zeros, lining the walls, awaiting their next directives, creating a sense of conversion from physical to digital. The gallery layout required them to backtrack to enter or exit each space, akin to pressing the back arrow when navigating on an internet browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I arrived at the gallery, I found troves of visitors milling about the four-storey PHI Foundation. I was greeted by Nico Williams\u2019s Special Delivery <\/em>(2023), a cardboard box form, made entirely of glass seed beads, adorned with Amazon\u2019s all-too-familiar logo. Williams confronts commercial speed and efficiency processes by constructing the archetypal parcel entirely out of beads, generating a sort of object-oriented oxymoron: the efficiency of ordering everything and anything that Amazon so proudly touts is juxtaposed against the meticulous and slow process of beading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
$\"Nico-Williams\"$
Nico Williams<\/strong>
Special Delivery<\/em>, installation view, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al, 2023.
Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay, courtesy of PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
On the second floor, my attention gravitated toward users clumping in corners, which were transformed into chat rooms. These users had logged into a metaphorical platform where they could engage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
parisgirl2000<\/em><\/strong>: Excuse me, is this the line for the VR?
aches4thoughts<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>Wow! Are you the artist?
2001cyberspaceodessy<\/em><\/strong>: Did you see that work around
the corner? Oh, it\u2019s my turn with the VR!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the third floor, I was particularly captivated by the placement of Skawennati\u2019s xox <\/em>(2022)alongside Nation to Nation\u2019s reinvigorated CyberPowWow <\/em>(1997\u200a\u2013\u200aongoing). In 1997, CyberPowWow<\/em> was one of the world\u2019s first major online art exhibitions. The project originally involved users logging in to The Palace, an online graphical chat room, to discuss and engage in issues surrounding contemporary Indigenous art, technology, and community as personalized 2D avatars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Terms of Use<\/em>, the presentation of CyberPowWow <\/em>featured three desktop computers with which users could interact with an archived version of the work in real time. Placing this installation next to Skawennati\u2019s machinimagraph xox <\/em>cleverly referenced her original creation of xox<\/em> for CyberPowWow<\/em>. xox<\/em> features her eponymous personal Second Life avatar holding up a wampum belt adorned with an image of her and Queen Elizabeth II holding the Haudenosaunee Two Row Wampum. Time and space collide as xox <\/em>locks her eyes on users engaging with CyberPowWow<\/em>,revealing the generative essence of digital platforms in her work. The juxtaposition of these artworkspays homage to Skawennati\u2019s trajectory from The Palace to Second Life and her use of virtual platforms to reimagine Indigenous people in the past, present, and future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Francisco-Gonzales-Rosas\"$
Francisco Gonz\u00e1lez-Rosas<\/strong>
Dismembered Fixations<\/em>, installation view, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al, 2023.
Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay, courtesy of PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
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$\"Chun-Hua-Catherine-Dong\"$
Chun Hua Catherine Dong<\/strong>
Gold Girl<\/em>, 2022, installation view, PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al, 2023.
Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay, courtesy of PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In the second-floor gallery, I joined a cluster of users eagerly waiting to access the virtual reality headsets featuring VahMir\u00e8\u2019s D\u00e9[faroucher] <\/em>(2019\u200a\u2013\u200aongoing). The work depicts specific public and private scenes from VahMir\u00e8\u2019s life in Montr\u00e9al during the COVID-19 lockdowns. A scene titled \u201cBelonging Zone 2\u200a\u2014\u200aThe Golden Cage or the Living Room in COVID-19 Times\u201d depicts a virtual living room floating amidst an abyss of empty black space. Caught between the physical and the digital, I watched a single ghost-like figure sitting on a couch and listened to a minimal soundtrack as I sat on a physical stool in a room filled with people and objects I could not see. VahMir\u00e8\u2019s work provokes the feeling of isolation generated by the pandemic with a time-capsule approach that users can access to observe her personal experiences amidst the Montr\u00e9al COVID lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the final gallery, I was met with Wu Tsang\u2019s The Looks <\/em>(2015), a large-scale two-channel video installation that skilfully encapsulates the digital and physical parallels constructed throughout Terms of Use<\/em>. Displayed across two screens, the video begins on a wall located at the gallery entrance and concludes on another located deeper inside the space. In the piece, an individual awakens in bed with eyes turning white, pupils disappearing, as they engage in \u201cdoom scrolling.\u201d They soon begin to adorn their skin with hyper-reflective silver glitter and dress in all-white body-modifying clothing. The glitter artfully conceals their gender and race as they approach a stage, where an eager and almost obsessive audience awaits. As they arrive on stage the screen fades to black. To view the performance, gallery users must follow this alluring person to the second screen (the action of following immediately evoked the act of \u201cfollowing\u201d on social media), on which they step out onto a stage reminiscent of a wrestling ring. The sound of a highly digitized voice and the crackling of electrical circuits swell within the gallery. This being and the immersive sound they generate expertly distract from their shrinking body, which flinches in pain as each electrical impulse crackles. The arresting quality of The Looks <\/em>vividly evokes the display of violence as spectacle across media platforms. Similar to the experience of using social media, The Looks <\/em>symbolizes individuals avidly absorbing an endless stream of information. Rather than portraying blissful ignorance, however, it captures the complex sensation of performing for an audience. As the person sings \u201ccontent, content,\u201d they steadily begin to short-circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally from Mohkinstsis\/Calgary, Alberta, Vania Ryan is a white settler of Irish and Jewish-Canadian descent. She has a BA in dramatic arts from the University of Lethbridge and an MA in art history from Concordia University. She is currently based in Tiohti\u00e1:ke\/Mooniyang\/Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Francisco Gonz\u00e1lez-Rosas, Nico Williams, Vania Ryan<\/div>
Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Francisco Gonz\u00e1lez-Rosas, Nico Williams, Vania Ryan<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art,<\/strong> Montr\u00e9al
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