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Espace Sculpture

Pipilotti Rist Peter Dubé

Sculpture publique Public Sculpture Numéro 53, automne 2000

URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/9574ac

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Éditeur(s) Le Centre de diffusion 3D

ISSN 0821-9222 (imprimé) 1923-2551 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu Dubé, P. (2000). Compte rendu de [Pipilotti Rist]. Espace Sculpture, (53), 51–52.

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Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ the experience of his lack(ing). lectually, the effects of which are Conversely, by declaring that the (strong) lasting forces of lack, he also points to the full­ (our) becoming. These forces ness (which he seems unable to extend back to the ancient appreciate at this moment)— his Amazons with whom, in part, multiplicity — the co-existence otherness started and was of sex(es) within one/his sub­ overtly displayed. I ject. Here, Taylor fascinatingly Picturing the Modern Amazon Pipilotti sutures us into the landscape of PETER New Museum of Contemporary Art, the protagonist's psyche D U B É New York through a stylistic device that March 30-June 25,2000 makes us aware of subjective multiplicities and of that painful NOTES: gap that we cannot fill except 1. I extend my sincere thanks to Alice hough admittedly a truism, internal conflicts. The piece the through movement of Ming Wai Jim for her editorial builds on the profound chal­ thought that provokes reactions. it's hard to deny that contributions. T lenge to the hermetic boxes of As articulated, the strong forces 2. The right breast is, indeed, absent reading is a difficult process. traditional video — fine art and of desire — of becoming — and in some antique statues of Amazons broadcast — that marks the this video's theoretical base, I (Roman sculptures modelled after Trapped in the surface, between work of Bruce Nauman and Gary would argue, can not be fulfilled lost Greek marbles). the words, images, signs, and Hill, for example. A projected (or not yet, perhaps). In a sense, 3. Plato, Laws, Book VII. For an interesting discussion, read work, it troubles most of the desire must be kept in flight so the unretrievable "signified" we Monique Canto, "The Politics of formal, iconographical and dis­ as to allow the cleaner, as the Women's Bodies: Reflections on hope lies behind them, we all cursive assumptions about voice over insists, to "come back Plato," Susan Rubin Suleiman ed., video art. The magnified image for more" — to embrace. struggle to carry something The Female Body in Western foregrounds troubling, grainy Indeed, he must come back, for Culture, Contemporary Perspectives away from the book and the pixels, disrupting the tendency all is not successful. Armide (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard to read oversized images as 2000 points to failures that University Press), 1986, 339. gallery. filmic. The fragmented bodies occur in communication 4. Elizabeth Grosz, "Becoming... An And, gallingly, the text always displayed are never complete as between individuals (perhaps as Introduction," in E. Grosz ed., contradicts itself. they move through hallucinatory socially alienated as the cleaner Becomings: Explorations in Time, Memory and Futures (Ithaca, New The best texts do it over and water. They are constantly dou­ may be) and groups of people, York: Cornell University Press), over again. That's one of the rea­ bled on the intersecting walls. where there is no space for dia­ 1999. 3- sons — a good one — we return Legs, arms and torsos melt into logue, despite physical prox­ 5. Gilles Deleuze, Negotiations: 1972- to them time after time; to try their twins at the building's imity, as in the gym. To repeat, 1990, trans. M. Joughin (New York: and trace the forks in the path of seam, anonymously, since no the cleaner remains invisible to Colombia University Press), 1995, possibility. Contemporary texts, head is ever revealed. Brightly his attendants. Taylor stages an 146. More also in Patrick Hayden, burdened with the baggage of coloured detritus sinks to the ignorance ofthe other while Multiplicity and Becoming. The post-modernity, contradict bottom. All of it is distorted yet emphasizing a desire for other­ Pluralist Empiricism of Gilles themselves with a rich dose of familiar, kitschy yet disturbing. ness by way of apparent binary Deleuze (New York: Peter Lang), 1998. self-consciousness. The work All of it moves like TV, is accom­ oppositions that produce pro­ 6. For the production of Armide 2000, displayed at The Musée des panied by a recognizable pop ductive tensions; so strong are Taylor hired actors Jarod Gibson, Beaux-Arts de Montréal by Swiss tune, and is so clearly not the they, however, as to become Greg Keller and bodybuilders artist Pipilotti Rist does so with a comfortable patterns ofthe untenable. That is why we have Rosemary Cheeseman, Betty Moore noteworthy exuberance. nightly entertainments. contrasts of skin tones, slender and Valrie Peart. It is clear from the exhibi­ But this interrogation of scale and muscular bodies, weakness 7. Dorothea Olkowski, "Flows of tion's first closed room, in which and sense extends throughout and strength, which, through Desire and the Body Becoming," in the artist's Sip My Ocean the show. Seipess In The Bath Of desiring forces — the women in E. Grosz ed., Becomings, 107. sprawls across a corner, that Lava, in the next room, pointedly pursuit ofthe athletic, powerful 8. This is further discussed by these objects revel in their undercuts the heroicizing of body, the cleaner disguised as P. Hayden, 3 ff. large-scale works with its pre­ woman desiring that black, femi­ sentation of a minuscule mon­ nine physique —, start disman­ itor set in a hole in the floor that tling singularities of thought. literally commands all ofthe oth­ The acceptance of multiplicities erwise empty space. on all levels, individually and socially, requires such a disman­ Rainwoman (I Am Called A tling.7 As Armide 2000 prob- Plant) — among the show's high- lematizes boundaries of gender points — slams into the viewer's and race, it offers, through the anticipations with singular personification ofthe cleaner as effect. Here too, a large image (desiring) mediator, an event of fills the space, depicting a nude unfoldings that anticipate a time body prone in a downpour; a of futurity. Futurity, as the ulti­ figure that might well be dead mate of new perspectives in save for the occasional — thinking and living, is where startling — movement. The tape moments of becoming turn into is projected atop a wall of cabi­ being.8 Armide 2000 positions nets and kitchen counters, itself as critical discourse Pipilotti RIST, Désintéressée playing the image's grain without firmly positioning the dans le bain de lave (Selfless against the bold contrast of the viewer. We are only caught or, In The Bath Of Lava), 1994. smooth, determinedly finished better still, arrested, by the tem­ Video installation. Courtesy effect ofthe surfaces beneath it. porality of event, but we are also Hauser and Wirth Gallery As the viewer moves closer, the mobilized emotionally and intel­ (Zurich), and Luhring effect ofthe contrast is height­ Augustine Gallery (New York). ened. It provokes a parallel con-

ESPACE 53 AUTOMNE / FALL 2000 flict in the studied counterbal­ imperial corporatism? Or is it a ance of opposing images of tragic representation ofthe faint nature and a kitchen; of water consolations of reverie trapped untamed with water running hot under the heel of consumerist and cold, and ofthe human body ideology? in a «wild» context with Of course, one could — or per­ domestic spaces stripped ofthe haps even ought — to grapple human. with all of these. There is some­ The most overt upending of thing in the uncertainty present viewer expectation occurs in Das in the images, their rhythms and Zimmer (The Room), with its delight in layering so much satu­ £hrristiani e over-sized furniture and console rated colour atop texture. LAURIER television set. Clearly out of Something in the languorous LACROIX scale, the vast sofa and armchair almost choral movement HABOT are set in the centre of a room through recurring imagistic pat­ Jci completely collaged with terns and in the constant, blank images. One may sit on the furni­ presence ofthe face that both Retour à la nature ture and use an equally out- allows and requires it. sized remote control to select a Something one is almost es formes naturelles ont présence de l'homme, qui channel on the TV and view the tempted to link to that most influe sur les corps naturels, et Rist videotape of one's choice. ambiguous of terms; beauty. Lfourni et continuent de four­ avec laquelle ces corps doivent nir des modèles extrêmement Spoofing the position of broad­ And, like everything really composer. cast programming wonderfully beautiful, the videotapes are fertiles pour l'invention et la Ce que nous apprennent ou through an installation in which eminently accessible; open, création. Les domaines de l'ingé­ nous rappellent les œuvres de the televisual set-up has greater eager to be looked at and read Christiane Chabot, c'est que la nierie, de l'architecture et de weight and presence than the — with or without any theoret­ nature est aussi un matériau viewer, the piece also undercuts ical framework. It is the one l'informatique, pour n'en citer contemporain, transformé, mani­ itself by creating a false choice thing they unquestionably do que quelques-uns, puisent dans pulé, hybride, renouvelable cer­ in which anything one selects is pick up from music videos, les modes d'organisation et de tes, mais dont la durée sous sa the product of a single hand. It is regardless ofthe popular forme actuelle est comptée. Ses a cogent critique and one that reading of Rist's work that finds structuration du monde végétal interventions visent à réinsérer points out the too-often over­ them far more deeply indebted des exemples qui, une fois adap­ cette nature modifiée dans un looked political edge to some of to that form. A reading, I would tés, proposent de nouvelles solu­ environnement lui aussi en muta­ the artist's output. argue, that puts aside my ques­ tion. Ses œuvres pointent vers tions aux problèmes formulés Another — and ambiguous — tions about their seductive self- de nouveaux alliages où art et example of this political edge contradictions, their polyphony parla science. nature se conjuguent dans un animates / Couldn't Agree With if you will. Music videos, after Compréhension des phéno­ ordre nouveau. You More. Here a towering all, are less concerned with a mènes naturels et connaissance Les opérations qui constituent woman's head commands the tease than with a sell. Rist's scientifique semblent pro­ screen with a curious, combination is really more pow­ gresser de pair. L'élargisse­ unchanging presence; an immo­ erful; something beautiful that ment de notre capacité de ,;_•; bile expression that suggests any provokes questions, something saisir les différentes facettes number of emotions at different seductive that changes its mind. de notre environnement points in the tape. Superimposed It echoes, in some respects, serait ainsi en adéquation 1 on the face — and occasionally the American critic Dave Hickey's directe avec le développe- hovering to the left or right — is a observation (in his The Invisible ment de moyens dont les » second image of naked people Dragon)that beauty — as the humains disposent pour moving through a wooded area agency of visual pleasure, as the s'adapter aux conditions de at night, while behind the central efficacy of art — was likely to be vie dans notre univers. figure the ground continually the issue ofthe nineties. Clearly, La saisie des mutations shifts. At some points, we are sit­ Rist's interrogations rely on our de certains éléments de là uated in what we presume to be desire to believe in them, in our nature afin de les transfor­ the figure's home. At others, we willingness to stand and watch mer en nouveaux savoirs ; are swooping over a highway, them to their ending. A challenge semble constituer le pro- ff and at still others we stalk the is more palatable when accom­ gramme au cœur de la aisles of a shop as the camera panied by charm. That's a prob­ recherche de Christiane lingers over the multitudinous lematic thought for many of us, Chabot. Sa production est wares on display, pulling us though, privileging as it does the fondée sur un esprit d'observa­ ce travail sont autant d'étapes toward the brightly-coloured «object» and the object's work in tion et de conservation de d'un processus continu où, à packages. It is the compelling the world at the expense of an l'évolution de la nature chacune d'elles, se dévoilent des tension between these disparate abstracted hermeneutics. Still, in lorsqu'elle est considérée à strates propices à l'émergence images that fascinates and pulls light of the Mapplethorpe contro­ l'égal d'un artefact. Ainsi, selon de différents niveaux de sens. Le us into the implied narrative. It is versies and their wake, and in elle, le réservoir des informa­ prélèvement d'échantillons de a conflict present in the work's the path from there to the para­ tions fournies par la nature spécimens : pierre, feuille, pétale very title. doxical and reductive preference n'existerait pas pour lui-même, et fruit fournit la matière pre­ for viewing Rist's work as so What is assented to? The vast dans un état original, stable et mière d'un vocabulaire formel et much highbrow borrowing from a cultural and political distances permanent, mais plutôt comme symbolique en élaboration. Ces marketing tool - perhaps Hickey between the nudes playing in an une substance en développe­ éléments sont à la fois choisis wasn't so far off the mark. Just a image ofthe natural world and ment, dans l'évolution d'un pour leurs qualités propres et few years early. I the store counters? Or are we to cycle où il est intégré à des pour leur capacité de s'amalga­ draw the implied causal chain Pipilotti Rist ensembles plus larges fournis mer entre eux. Chaque fragment between a mythic "state of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal par d'autres matériaux. La est célébré de façon isolée par le nature" and the triumph of an May il, 2000 to August 6,2000 nature est ainsi altérée par la biais de la photographie en cou-

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