Meeting Point

Artists: Laura Belém, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller cinemari (Cinthia Marcelle & Marilá Dardot), cinemata (Cinthia Marcelle & Tiago Mata Machado), Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, General Idea, Anitra Hamilton, Mike Hansen, Chris Hanson & Hendrika Sonnenberg, Micah Lexier, Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins and Rivane Neuenschwander

March 26 - August 14, 2010

College Art Gallery 1

Curated by Earl Miller

Organized by the College Art Galleries and the Doris McCarthy Gallery

Meeting Point features artworks that use ordinary objects, which often appear in pairs and are made by dual collaborators, to imply different types of relationships between two people (intimacy, love and friendship, but also disagreement and competition). The objects in Meeting Point— coins, life jackets and cassette tapes—are intentionally banal and free of artistic expression, to deflect direct focus away from them. They are nonetheless important because they hold significance as conduits— meeting points allowing for suggested and sometimes actual person-to person interaction. By encouraging viewers to find meaning away from the fictional art object, the artists in Meeting Point encourage narratives to become as much a part of real life as the everyday objects initiating them.

Take for instance, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s video Fucked Up Lover (2001). Comprised of couples discussing the meaning behind compilation tapes made for their respective partners, the conversations are remarkably revealing of each couple’s relationship. In Laura Belém’s Diplomatic Talks (2009), paired heads of coins from different countries face each other, setting up an imagined dialogue that may either be diplomatic or intimate. A canoe becomes an quiet sculptural space symbolic of the connection between collaborative artists and life partners Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller in the video installation Night Canoeing (2004).

Meeting Point offers an optimistic angle for current artistic debate through artworks by Canadian and international artists. This exhibition brings together major international work by artists whose highlight exhibits include the Venice, Lyon, Havana, and São Paulo Biennials, as well as the Carnegie International, ICA London, the Barbican, and Palais de Tokyo. Despite such exposure, many of these works will be new to Canadian audiences, particularly those of the included artists from Brazil.