Work in Process, the University of Toronto Art Centre’s new show featuring pieces from emerging artists enrolled in the Sheridan/UTM Art and Art History programs, opened its doors on the evening of March 3, 2011. The curators of the show are Sarah Heim, Rachel Keeling, and Jilana Stuart, and the featured artists are K. Dorothea Hines, Sebastian Koever, Andre Markovic, Emily Mahon, Meaghan O’Brien, and Breann Ritchie.
The show’s statement, which greets the visitors beside the gallery’s entrance, says, “This project explores the process of an art show from three different perspectives: the artist, the curator, and the visitor. By documenting our interaction, the audience is brought into the curatorial process.” A video screen shows the curatorial process to the audience, projecting silent clips of the artists working in the studio. This video is not the only glimpse into the artistic process featured in the show; in the corner dedicated to artist Sebastian Koever, we see Koever constructing his piece “Makearium” on a video monitor.
A cardboard box, held together by wrinkled duct tape, is the centerpiece of Koever’s piece. An opening, near the box’s bottom, allows the audience to see the box’s contents — scattered white computer papers, black hair from a wig, empty plastic soda bottles, and a disco ball. “What matters here is taking a break from the world to exist in your head with what you know,” Koever says. “The box itself becomes a visual manifestation of my brain.” Behind the box, frames containing computer printouts of instant messenger conversations hang on the wall. Koever is a member of these conversations, which are characterized by nonstop internet slang. Koever, matching the show’s statement, attempts to establish an intimate relationship between himself and his audience. Conversely, the contents of his box and printed conversation, being more abstract than comprehensible, establish difference between the artist’s message and his audience.
Andre Markovic, whose work appears beside the show’s entrance, introduces the audience to another prominent theme of the show: repetition. His piece, entitled “Mantra: Breath,” is a train of rocks that runs along the wall, connected by a rope that is tied to each rock. “I am interested in the repetition of a sound, word or motto with the aim of instilling a change on both a conscious and subconscious level,” says Markovic. “However instead of verbal repetition, I have adopted a gestural one.” As the viewer moves from one work to another, Markovic’s rocks continue, lying under works by other artists. Markovic’s “Mantra” accomplishes its goal of producing change through repetition.
Mantra: Breath, rock and rope installation, by Andre Markovic. DAVID PIKE/The Varsity
Though only giving the audience a limited glance into the process that leads to the show’s creation, Work in Process shows a close relationship between the show’s themes and the content of the artists’ work. With Koever’s work, the audience sees an artist’s struggle to communicate his intimate thoughts without establishing differences between the two parties. Contrasting this dissonance between idea and content, Markovic presents a tighter union between those two components. Matching the theme, the show’s works reveal artists who are still within the bounds of the themes imposed on them by their assignment and who have not yet found their individual voices.
