Helen Robertson
hanging in the balance

2-12 March 2023
open: Friday - Sunday 12-6pm
and by appointment
preview: Thursday 2 March 6-9pm

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hanging in the balance 

treading on a forest green aerial view // soft furnishing satellite pictures of the Amazon rainforest // carbon capture statistics // 6.5 kilos of yarn //

feet push downwards into earth // pressing wet clay against steel // now fired matt black //

cast iron pipes transport water through air // words lose density// writing a black liquid pool //

the forgetting of air // inhale and exhale footfalls across the floor // breath and voice // bouncing off walls // the horizon in the balance //

Using the gallery architecture as a fulcrum hanging in the balance works reflexively with movement through and around the exhibition space to involve visitors in a sensorial engagement with ideas of breath, earth and political protest. 

Through a series of related floor-based works; a tufted carpet tailored to fit the entrance corridor, a poured painting and a foot-thrown pot made in collaboration with ceramicist Yuta Segawa attention is brought to ground and feet transforming the gallery floor into a painterly field.

The exhibition includes a video work developed with dancers (Antoinette Brooks-Daw, former premier dancer Northern Ballet and Daisy West), non-dancers and a musician in which danced movement is intercut with gestures of protest and the intermittent call of a solo oboe.

The installation is part of an ongoing body of work related to women and architecture but in this instance architecture and space are used to reflect on ecological relations. 

Credits
With special thanks to performers Antoinette Brooks-Daw, Daisy West, Yujie Duan, Yocheved Francis, Julia-Anna Simonchuk, Anastasiia Tikhonova, musician Amy Roberts and ceramist Yuta Segawa

Text based intervention combines fragments from The Promise of Politics and The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt and For More Than One Voice: Toward a Philosophy of Vocal Expression by Adriana Cavarero

John Latour
Ghost Town

14-22 July 2023
Open: Thursday- Sunday 12-6pm
and by appointment *info@johnlatourart.com
Preview: Friday 14 July 4-7pm

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Ghost Town explores the creative intersections between life, art and the paranormal imaginary through the presentation of new and recent works including modified photographs, maps from the otherworldly city of Ondon, and A Temporary Haunt for Wandering Spirits.

Since the late 2000s, Latour has used vintage found photographs of unknown individuals, friends and family gatherings as source material in his art practice. Each photograph suggests a story, although the personal histories of the subjects have been lost over time. Latour applies flecks of white paint overtop these figures – further obscuring their presence while highlighting their absence. For Ghost Town, he uses a recent selection of modified snapshots that are mounted in pages taken from an old photo album.

Here, Latour also brings to light a series of vintage maps from this spirit-world capital of Ondon. Composed of a vast network of sprawling and anonymous streets, Ondon is one of the most unnavigable and ahistorical cities of its kind. Through the artist’s interventions, these maps extend into the space of the gallery at Five Years.

A Temporary Haunt for Wandering Spirits is inspired by the tradition of spirit cabinets. Like the original cabinets of the 19th century, this ephemeral construction is made from humble materials. Unlike the original cabinets that were used by mediums to focus their psychic powers, this site-specific installation serves as a way station for nomadic spirits destined to travel endlessly throughout the world.

John Latour is a Montreal-based visual artist.

www.johnlatourart.com
www.pfoac.com

Image: John Latour, Young boy showing off his wiggly cat to a woman holding the boy’s bicycle (2021). Found photograph, white paint. 9.4 x 9 cm