material + time
January 24 - April 15, 2022
Kenderdine Art Gallery
Organized by Cole Thompson
Drawn from the University of Saskatchewan Art Collection, material + time presents divergent associations with structural forms, moving away from static events – the blueprint, the cross-section, the flow chart – towards structural conceptions rooted in ongoing processes of dissolution. Considered against the backdrop of multiple historical, cultural, and affective entanglements, structural permanence becomes an improbable aspiration.
material + time explores the implied stability of structural perceptions by bringing varying registers of time to bear on seemingly inert forms. Here, forms perceived as momentarily stable become malleable in duration: technology antiquates, architecture crumbles, and history fractures.
Artists in material + time include Vikky Alexander, Ralph Allen, Carl Beam, Jill Crossen-Sargent, Paul de Guzman, Gay Outlaw, Cherie Moses, David Rokeby, Margot Wawra, Elizabeth Willmott and Morgan Wood, with additional material courtesy of the University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections, the City of Saskatoon Archives, and the Star Phoenix Archives.
Film Program:
As part of material + time, multiple film screenings occurred during the exhibition. These films expand on exhibition themes through meditations on temporality, materiality and built form. Each work presents complex and layered accounts of historical moments and worldviews, bringing societal ambitions for progress into question. These concerns are summarized in a narrated sequence from Daniel Eisenberg’s Persistence: “things have become better than they were a year ago, though not much. Or, has one simply grown used to the rubble?”
Rea Tajiri, Lordville, 2014, 67 minutes
with curatorial introduction by Cole Thompson
February 17, 2022, 7:00 PM
University of Saskatchewan Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241)
Daniel Eisenberg, Persistence, 1997, 81 minutes
with introduction and post-screening discussion led by Daniel Eisenberg
March 3, 2022, 7:00 PM
University of Saskatchewan Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241)
Sky Hopinka, maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore, 2020, 80 minutes
with curatorial introduction by Cole Thompson
March 17, 2022, 7:00 PM
University of Saskatchewan Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241)
Vikky Alexander, La Fenetre, Versailles, 1996, Cibachrome on paper, 102 x 152.5 cm. Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, 1997.
Jill Crossen-Sargent, Untitled, c. 1979, plastic and copper foil on wood, 183.7 x 119.7 cm. Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Purchase, 1983.
About
material + time developed in relation to the overarching ethos of The Structurist journal, founded by Eli Bornstein in 1960 at the University of Saskatchewan. As recipient of the biannual Structurist Prize Award, scholar, curator and filmmaker Márton Orosz will present a new documentary film on the Hungarian artist, theorist and educator György Kepes at Remai Modern in March 2023. During this time, Orosz will also present his research and participate in a symposium hosted at the University of Saskatchewan. material + time exists in conversation with these events.
For more on the Structurist Prize Award, click here.
