Bag and Baggage

03.08.2006 - 09.09.2006

Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver / Canada

Bag and Baggage is a group exhibition with visual artists who take various approaches to their work with volume and includes Canadian artists, Bill Burns, Clay Ellis and Jack Jeffrey, along with French artists, Nathalie Chauvin, Alain Domagala, Mijares, Sylvie Réno end the videomakers Marion MAHU et Sophie URBANI
The exhibition brings together for the first time these artists, with "Bag and Baggage", who through their diverse three-dimensional practices question the social context of our every day material world....
To situate the work of Bill Burns, imagine a program to safeguard animals close to that organized by ecologists but with a logic pushed toward the absurd. His sculptures are often accompanied by sound recording which the artist records in the Canadian forests.
While exploring the maritime universe of shifting objects, Nathalie Chauvin became interested in ex-voto embroidery made by the wives of sailors. This has led to her current embroidery project concerning Amerindians.
Alain Domagala uses simple forms from industrial and domestic sources to create complex assemblages by adjusting scale, materials and context; this results in improbable relations which provoke the imagination.
After having realized a monumental work in Canada Clay Ellis began creating fragile structures from colored tent canvas with armatures close to those of camping supports. These are easily transported and placed in unusual situations. They are then photographed in situ.
Jack Jeffrey makes sculptures and installations based on spatial structures that he has observed in the street - structures that define social space and our ability to move within it. His works are often based on his vast photographic inventory of images from many cities.
Mijares, who in 2004 collaborated on a project with Domagala in Canada on the construction of a 3,33 metre square Rubik's cube, uses diverse materials to denounce certain ineptitudes, ideas and aberrations of our times. Her social critiques often contain ironic humour.
Sylvie Réno uses corrugated packing cardboard to construct diverse objects that have included large scale security safes and full size escalators. She often finds, in the same site as her installations, objects that one is surprised to see after she transforms them into her chosen material.
Marion Mahu and Sophie Urbani exhibit the new videos that they have realized in Marseilles for this manifestation.
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