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4.99 Bridges The Gap Between Sanity And Insanity The year is 1999, and the artist formerly known as Prince is ruling the airways with his catchy tune. Many questions remain unanswered as society hurls itself towards the millennium - am I going to die? Is the world coming to an end? Is there life after death? Am I ever going to survive UNB? While these questions remain unanswered, some Fredericton artists are drawing their inspiration from them. Questions, are the paradoxical nature of the installation aptly titled “4.99”. Bridging the gaps between sanity and insanity, the past and the future, and the ordinary and the extraordinary, Lee Horus Clark, Adam Garwood, Chris Giles and Troy Stanley gathered different media for this specific installation at the UNB Art Centre located at Memorial Hall. Conveniently spewing forth a melange of mismatched items, they have assembled an alternate environment that attempts to present a futuristic perspective from a primitive angle. Inherent in this setting is the implication that humans have taken metals, clays and silicon from the earth, moulded it, shaped it, caressed it, and redefined its character. From this character, life has attached itself with unparalleled imaginations. It is from this that we have the future - and here we have the vision. Spanning the East and West Galleries are two different worlds in which the viewer can traverse. One contains masses of welded, twisted, and moulded metal forms, shapes, and silhouettes with huge black and white photos on transparencies. The metal shapes the room while the transparencies fill the room with sharp images. Progressing further into the gallery, we see an assembly of machines, monitors, and mannequins that all seem to draw life from materials that never was alive. While the presentation does not break new ground, and the techniques have been used before, I almost believe that these machines do alight with life at night to create the transparencies that fill the room. Maybe those are what they see . . . The other gallery continues the same trend, albeit with completely different presentation. A hospital bed with oxygen pipes and ceramic creations atop immediately arrest the voyeurs’ attention. Viewing through the two circular telescopes, one is clearly directed into another world. Further into the gallery, a huge rusted circle seemingly presents a porthole into another dimension . . . perhaps signalling the end of human breath in advent of machinery life? The constant juxta-positioning of large ceramic creations, made beautifully by Lee Horus-Clark - a human, connected by a blood-red umbilical cord to machine and the porthole, causes the voyeur’s senses to crash. Only when stopping to think can we fully appreciate its beauty. The opening of the installation was also the forum for Eric Hill’s ‘99 - the third full length performance in a continuing series called fault lines. This performance attempts to “trace the cracks between logic & passion, civilization & brutality, thought & action which force behaviour to go astray from time to time.” In this spoken word piece, Hill re-enters the mind of a comatose character who is on life support after a suicide attempt. The stream of consciousness technique employed here is translated through live music (drums, oboe, and guitar), words, and sound clips too bizarre and numerous to mention. Again, the theme of Questions dominate the character’s identity. Perhaps Hill is way ahead of his time, or perhaps I don’t have the necessary capacity to appreciate his work. Perhaps his work could be presented more so that the audience could grasp it better. . . but regardless, there were ups and downs in the performance. It began with erratic, almost jazzy trial drumming dancing in syncopation with the oboe. . . which then launched into a steady and constant strumming beat with the electric guitar. Upon building to a frenzied climax, the music quiets to Hill, spoken word, and soundscapes. The eclectic nature of the words left very little with me . . . and the impressions short lived. Perhaps I just don’t have the capacity to fully enjoy the mind trip of his character in this performance. In the past, I have listened and fully absorbed Hill’s presentations - allowing his creative integrity to flow through me. But this time, it just didn’t happen that way. And that wraps up the first installation of this year. By
Chris Barnes |