{"id":1916,"date":"2013-12-03T10:19:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T17:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2013-12-03T10:28:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T17:28:55","slug":"art-fag-city-we-went-to-toronto-cronenberg-and-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/?p=1916","title":{"rendered":"Art Fag City – We Went to Toronto: Cronenberg and Bowie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe Went to Toronto: Cronenberg and Bowie<\/a>
\nby PADDY JOHNSON AND CORINNA KIRSCH on NOVEMBER 27, 2013 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Jeremy Shaw, Introduction to the Memory Personality<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

David Cronenberg: Transformation: Candice Breitz, James Coupe, Marcel Dzama, Jeremy Shaw, Jamie Shovlin, Laurel Woodcock <\/a>
\nThrough Dec 29, 2013
\nMuseum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), organized by MOCCA and the Toronto International Film Festival<\/p>\n

What\u2019s on view: Six artists were given the task of creating art inspired by the distinctive Canadian film director<\/em><\/p>\n

Corinna Kirsch<\/strong>: I was surprised that so many of the works that were asked to \u201crespond\u201d to Cronenberg ended up borrowing from the director\u2019s films: Candace Breitz used footage from The Brood; Laurel Woodcock adhered vinyl lettering with words from Cronenberg\u2019s films; and Marcel Dzama paid homage Cronenberg\u2019s most memorable scenes\u2014the ones that get scratched into your brain like the monstrous births<\/a>, forced TV watching, and heads exploding\u2014by showing similar events in his own film, A Jester\u2019s Dance<\/a>. Maybe that\u2019s a sign of distinction. Cronenberg\u2019s films are too one-of-a-kind; you can\u2019t be Cronenberg-like without seeming derivative.<\/p>\n

I wonder, could there be no such thing as a painting that\u2019s Cronenberg-like? (In this exhibition, the response is the sound of crickets.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

James Coupe's Swarm<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

There were a few works that weren\u2019t derivative. James Coupe\u2019s Swarm, an installation of 16 flatscreen monitors lined up overhead into a square shape, held up by a series of poles. A wall-label noted you\u2019d be filmed, too. The monitors showed what looked like an earlier crowd of people gathered at MOCCA, and as you walked around the square, the crowds changed. Some of the monitors were empty, but you never saw yourself. I assume we were being recorded as raw footage for later visitors, but I don\u2019t know. After all, how functional can surveillance be if the watchers\u2019 purposes are known? Anyway, maybe I\u2019m setting the bar low here, but I was pleased this work wasn\u2019t plastered all-over with \u201cCronenberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paddy<\/strong>: Given the perameters of the show I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s fair to call the work derivative, though we can certainly say that the approach didn\u2019t yield the results one might hope for given the \u201cassignment\u201d feel to the show. Honestly, I think it\u2019s hard to evoke the terror Cronenberg produces in a movie theatre designed for 90-minutes-plus of movie watching in a gallery space designed for much shorter term viewing and transformative experience. They are almost inherently safe places.<\/p>\n

With Coupe, I rather liked that the motion detector that flicked your image off the screen and onto another wasn\u2019t hidden. It was attached to the pole of TVs and a light went off whenever it recognized a body. I read that as a message about surveillance\u2014it doesn\u2019t have to bother hiding\u2014and I guess that\u2019s the case, because apparently the piece uses social media algorithms to group visitors. Presumably, at some point, we too are integrated into these groups on the screen.<\/p>\n

What it tells us about social media is a little murky, imo, because it\u2019s not using any of the information that makes media social; it doesn\u2019t know my friends, my interests, my buying behavior and I wouldn\u2019t freely offer it if asked. So what exactly is it evaluating to make these groups? And what is it telling me about how it functions? I wish it were more.<\/p>\n

Corinna<\/strong>: You\u2019re right; if it tells us anything about social media, it\u2019s that we don\u2019t know how we\u2019re being \u201cused\u201d by it.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jeremy Shaw, Introduction to the Memory Personality<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Paddy<\/strong>: Overall, Jeremy Shaw\u2019s video, \u201cIntroduction to The Memory Personality\u201d had the most to say and oddly enough, it was the easiest to miss in its location beside the front desk, and outside the exhibition. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you forget. Your subconscious will remember what your conscious mind will remember it has forgotten,\u201d says a voice over a hallway before a flash of black interupts the viewed image. *Blink*. The hall image shifts slightly. *Blink* The voice now talks over a sunset. *Blink* The image erodes, *Blink* and erodes.<\/p>\n

I wrote all this down, as I watched it, assuming both my subconscious and conscious mind would forget the video (I\u2019m afflicted with a terrible memory\u2026or am I???).<\/p>\n

Corinna<\/strong>: Nope. I did the same, and wrote down most of what the narrator said. Maybe it has to do with how all that repetition evokes rote, secondary-school memorization? But of course that saying \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what you forget. Your subconscious will remember what your conscious mind will remember it has forgotten\u201d made me feel a little better about my futility.<\/p>\n

Paddy<\/strong>: More than that ominous voice, though, we then see a collage of spooky images, a data stream the resembles the matrix, epilepsy evoking image changes, a CD and a deep voice styled from the 90\u2019s saying \u201cRemember dancing? Remember not sleeping? and time becomes a loop\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It felt like I was living an episode of the X-Files, and was willing to participate in the idea that my mind might get hijacked.<\/p>\n

Let your conscious mind stay relaxed.<\/p>\n

Do your past failures still bother you?<\/p>\n

Does life seem vague and unreal to you?<\/p>\n

You are aware of everything.<\/p>\n

No need for awareness.<\/p>\n

By the time the piece was through, I was wanting my mind hijacked. There was a very Matrix moment in the film, except you chose the reprogramming pill rather than awareness. In 2013, somehow that seemed like a good option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

Art Fag City discusses Swarm<\/em> as part of Cronenberg:Transformations<\/em> at MOCCA, Toronto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1916"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1935,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916\/revisions\/1935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jamescoupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}