Curated by Emese Varga with the intent of bringing "contemporary Canadian artists and a composer together under one roof to juxtapose perspectives and expressions of what music/sound is to them", Permeate features visual artists Katie Pretti, Scott Everingham, Amanda Clyne, Ezra Gray, Margaret Nieradka, Sarah Fardon-Choi and Christopher Wong, all inspired by the intersection of visuals and sound. When I initially caught wind of the concept of this exhibit, I figured it would explore the intersection of art and music through new media and video, but I was pleasantly surprised when - as composer Ted Dawson stood up to speak about his work - I realized the limits of each artform were maintained. Instead of a typical pomo-boundary-breaking-fest, an experimental sense of collaboration between such distinct artforms was the key focus of the exhibit.
Ted Dawson - a well known name in both the Montreal experimental/ multidisciplinary music scene of the 70's and the modern/postmodern academic music world - used his revolutionary work in the visual notation of avant-garde music as a launching pad for describing how the visual and the auditory are intimately related. His visual representations of dissonant and wildly emotional avant-garde pieces explore the nature of communicating the auditory experience via a visual medium, and vice versa. With tables and walls lined with his revolutionary visual notations, I couldn't help but be inspired by the refreshing and transgressive nature of his multidisciplinary work.
Juxtaposed with the modern visual art of young Toronto artists, Permeate offers an interesting comment on the boundaries between artforms and senses, as well as the ability to move beyond classical interpretations of such. I'd definitely recommend checking it out.
The exhibit is on until March 26th, 2009.
2 Comments
Ted Dawson says:
Many thanks for the review. Glad that you enjoyed the material. I foundSteel Bananas by chance online. If you would like to cover other programs that we offer at the Foundation, please drop me a line.
Re the material presented at Permeate, I also have my own site at http://www.teddawson.truenorthfdn.org
Thanks and regards.
Ted Dawson and Avant-garde Notation | >fruitlet says:
[...] met Ted Dawson a just over year ago in February 2009 at the opening of the Permeate Exhibit at the Music Gallery, exploring intersections between music and visual art. Before then, I knew [...]