Geoffrey Farmer: A Pale Fire Freedom Machine, Joelle Tuerlinckx: NO'W' (no Rest. no Room. no Things. no Title), Ignacio Iturria: Everything Has a Face. Each artist focuses on the formal properties of gallery space, the role of public art galleries, and the relationship between visual art institutions and the viewing public.
Geoffrey Farmer: A Pale Fire Freedom Machine, Joelle Tuerlinckx: NO'W' (no Rest. no Room. no Things. no Title), Ignacio Iturria: Everything Has a Face
This autumn, The Power Plant premieres two works created specifically for the
gallery: A Pale Fire Freedom Machine by Vancouver artist Geoffrey Farmer and NO'W'
(no Rest. no Room. no Things. no Title) by Brussels artist Joelle Tuerlinckx.
Each artist focuses on the formal properties of gallery space, the role of public
art galleries, and the relationship between visual art institutions and the viewing
public. The gallery also presents Everything Has a Face, drawings, paintings and
sculpture by Uruguayan artist Ignacio Iturria.
Vancouver-based artist Geoffrey Farmer's interest in the latent potential of the
gallery as a site for social engagement has led to the development of a number of
works in the form of installation kits. These ongoing, process-based pieces stage
disparate social and cultural histories within diverse sculptural environments. A
Pale Fire Freedom Machine revolves around a fireplace created in 1968 by French
designer Dominique Imbert. Manufactured in black steel and hanging from the ceiling
by its exposed flue, the iconic lozenge-shaped Gyrofocus has come to embody the
design ideals of the 1960s. Here, rather than burning logs in Imbert’s fireplace,
furniture is used as fuel. The furniture is amassed in an installation that is
slowly transformed through the progressive dismantling and combustion of its
individual pieces. Curated by Reid Shier.
Belgian artist Joeumlle Tuerlinckx's institutional critiques are distinguished by
their ephemeral, transient and contingent nature. Tuerlinckx subtly manipulates
gallery space, building found and handmade objects into elaborate architectures that
respond to their environment. In her Toronto exhibition, Tuerlinckx will show a
selection of interrelated works, the centrepiece for which will be a number of books
created in the weeks leading up to the opening. The books are constructed with paper
that has first been stapled to all the surfaces of The Power Plant's exhibition
walls, then removed, bound and cut. The project effectively transcribes The Power
Plant, making an atlas in 1:1 scale of the gallery. Curated by Reid Shier.
Everything Has a Face is an exhibition of drawings, paintings and sculpture by
Montevideo-based artist Ignacio Iturria. Employing both kitsch impulse and the
artist’s moral rudder, his paintings reveal rituals of everyday life. Innocuous
apartments become human containers with expansive windows, symbolic of the psychic,
surreal turmoil endemic to urban life in Latin America. A fully illustrated 136-page
colour catalogue will be available for purchase at the gallery. Curated by Wayne
Baerwaldt
The Power Plant recognizes the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the
Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through Toronto Arts Council.
Exhibition Openings: Friday 23 September, 7-10 pm
The Power Plant Gallery
231 Queens Quay West - Toronto
Open Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. and Wednesday until 8 p.m. (free admission Wednesdays after 5 p.m.).
Children and members have free admission.