(image: Installation view with Emily Miranda's Arctic Passion Cake (after J. Wieland), 2010 in foreground and in background Lawrence Weiner, The Arctic Circle Shattered, 1969 and Glenn Gould, Idea of North CBC Poster, 1967)		MAGNETIC NORTHS
		Leonard + Bina Ellen Gallery
		Feb 25 - Apr 17, 2010
		a project by CHARLES STANKIEVECH
		WITH WORK BY:
		AKUFEN BLACK CAT SYSTEMS LANCE BLOMGREN CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION THOMAS EDISON R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER WILLIAM FURLONG GLENN GOULD LAURENT GRASSO TIM HECKER ZACHARIAS KUNUK + NORMAN COHN ALVIN LUCIER GERARDUS MERCATOR PETER METTLER	EMILY MIRANDA N.E.THING CO. DAVID NEUFELD R. MURRAY SCHAFER KEVIN SCHMIDT MICHAEL SNOW CHARLES STANKIEVECH TR’ONDËK HWËCH’IN FIRST NATION UNITED STATES AIR FORCE LAWRENCE WEINER JOYCE WIELAND OSWALD WIENER + HELMUT SCHOENER DOUGLAS WILKINSON / NFB
Read the exhibition essay online and see the full Exhibition catalogue listing here.
See the Events Schedule for Film Screenings + Lectures here.
From afar, the shifting phenomenon of magnetic north provides guidance not unlike Polaris, but as one draws close to the shadowy realm of the Arctic, navigation and communication begin to go awry, forcing the nomad to experiment within a no-man’s land. Military and religious colonization, hazardous testing, and a disregard for a fragile ecosystem mark the past of the Arctic, but so do inventive and sensitive histories. Within the White Cube of the gallery — here posited as a substitute for the minimalist landscape of the Arctic Sublime — the exhibition takes as its starting point Mercator’s imaginative speculation of dual magnetic north poles from 1595, and ends with recent geomatic renderings by an indigenous government. Between these visual landmarks, a constellation of documents, photographs, sculptures, radio broadcasts, film screenings and installations weave together the overlapping territories of utilitarian artifacts and conceptual artwork. The survey of work starts with techno/military enterprises such as those of Thomas Edison, R. Buckminster Fuller, Canada’s NFB, and the US Air Force; revisits conceptual art from the 1960s and '70s by Glenn Gould, N.E. Thing Co., Lawrence Weiner, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland and others; and includes a selection of contemporary artists whose work combines both axes. Far from being an empty terra incognita, the Arctic, and like it, Magnetic Norths, functions both as a historical repository and as a fantasy projection space that generates electro-magnetic distortions, pay dirt, pissing contests, sci-fi warfare, psychedelic skies, conspiracy theories, critical confections, shamanistic loss and shattered cartographies.
Press:
Canadian Art Review (Bryne McLaughin) April 2010
Le Devoir (Jerome Delgado). April 3, 2010
Canadian Art Agenda Spring 2010
Montreal Mirror (Stacey DeWolfe) Feb 25th, 2010