• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Left Atrium the bride. The beaming grandfather at and bladder stones. It becomes clear ting sick (afebrile, O2 sats of 95% and a a baptism. He is one half of a lifetime that the intensivists do not deem him to clear chest exam), Alex gets sick. Vera love affair. Now, lying in his hospital be a candidate for the ICU; they urge trusts me and listens to me but she will bed or perched awkwardly in a me to deal with the issue of code status. only hear what she is able to hear. gerichair, he is an absence guarded by Vera is backed into a corner, but in- Birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s, pictures of the Blessed Mother. stead of coming to some acceptance of anniversaries — the family gathers From Vera I hear a litany of com- Alex’s precarious existence, she redou- round to celebrate Alex’s life. More pic- plaints; from the nurses, equal and op- bles her efforts to keep him alive. She tures are added to the bulletin board. posite laments. Vera washes Alex, turns takes leave from her job to watch over More prayers are said; a rosary hangs him, does physiotherapy, massages him, him night and day, sleeping fitfully from the bed. feeds him and gives him his medication. across three chairs, waking frequently Everyone has an opinion: Vera is Nobody can do for Alex what Vera can to suction or do chest physio. Some of- driven by unresolved guilt or grief or do for Alex. Some nurses sympathize ficial attempts are made to send her anger; she isn’t facing reality and with her; others are like sparks to dyna- home, but because no one wants to face should be pitied; someone should get mite. Vera has become a patient: she is the unpleasantness of security staff firm with her; Alex has no meaningful stressed, working half-time at the store dragging a distraught woman to the bus existence; he is unaware of the care and and spending obsessively long hours stop at the hospital entrance, compro- love lavished on him let alone able to caring for her husband. She assures me mises are made. respond to it; Alex is just a shell; he that I don’t have to be her doctor; she I struggle with my role in the mid- should be allowed to “go” with dignity. already has one, whom she will see if dle. I understand the futility of Alex’s Vera has her own opinion about necessary. There are case conferences care and discuss this with Vera, the Alex. “Thank God he has life,” she tells with social workers, priests, chaplains, nurses and my medical colleagues. I un- me. His heart beats and he breathes. the palliative care team, the hospital derstand the stress of the nurses having She will hold onto that life and dignify risk management staff. Vera states that to deal with someone so seemingly un- it. Vera knows Alex. it is Alex who is suffering and that we reasonable. But I am also moved by should be occupied with him. such unfailing love in the face of hope- Chris Giles Inevitably, Alex suffers complica- lessness. I can’t deny that Vera knows Family physician tions: aspiration pneumonia, urosepsis Alex, and that if Vera says Alex is get- Hamilton, Ont. Lifeworks The aesthetics of immersion Janet Cardiff A Survey of Works, including Collaborations with George Bures Miller May 25 to Sept. 8, 2002 Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Paradise Institute June 28 to Sept. 2, 2002 National Gallery of Canada his mid-career survey of work by Janet Cardiff T and her collaborator/husband George Bures Miller was substantially put together by P.S.1 Contem- porary Art Center in New York with Carolyn Christov- Barargiev. It comes on the heels of the artists’ stunning success as Canada’s representatives at the Venice Bien- nale (the art-world’s equivalent to the academy awards), where they received one of three special jury awards for Paradise Institute. Immerse yourself in Forty-Part Motet: a reworking of Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, 1999. The Muriel Lake Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis, 1575 (2001). Forty large Incident. Installation multimédia speakers, propped up on stands (each is roughly mouth- CMAJ • AUG. 20, 2002; 167 (4) 383 De l’oreille gauche height), are installed around the past with convincing de- the circumference of a large tails, precise sight lines and ex- white cube. (Its original instal- treme foreshortening. As al- lation under the fan vaults of ways, the artist’s voice draws the reconstructed Rideau you in and redirects your at- Street convent chapel at the tention away from the movie, National Gallery in Ottawa af- which nevertheless provides a forded far more drama.) Ap- visual analogue to the vaguely parently unscripted sounds can menacing situation being por- be heard of the choir members trayed outside the frame. In- preparing themselves for per- teresting but (perhaps more formance. They exercise their important) entertaining. voices, make small talk and The avant-guard once saw clear their throats. Mildly un- its mission as subverting the nerving: some of these sounds Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal hierarchies that defined au- may be coming from the other Janet Cardiff, 1997. Playhouse. Multimedia installation. thors and patrons, and nurtur- visitors in the room, but you ing a creative readership by de- can’t be sure. Then it starts: a soaring the city in a series of audio and video veloping new aesthetic strategies. Today rendition of the choral motet. Breath- walks that have become her signature. artists are veering away from such lofty taking. You might want to sit down and Using the audio-guide (a staple of mu- ideals, as if any notion of dynamic view- close your eyes, in the well-accepted seum education departments for the ers participating in the cycle of artistic pose of long-haired music consumers, past two decades) as her format, the production and reception were better and completely lose yourself. Don’t, or artist leads viewers with her recorded left to pinkos and anarchists. you’ll miss a unique surveillance oppor- voice through unofficial and private Cardiff and Bures Miller’s work is tunity. Each singer was recorded indi- itineraries designed specifically for each like a highbrow theme park. It’s smart, vidually with dedicated audio tracks site. As the tours proceed, ambient fun and stylish. Forget the unfulfilled piped to the separate speakers: one sounds, vague allusions to crimes and promises of “interactive,” we don’t use speaker — one voice. Move around and the voices of fictional characters are wo- that word anymore. Try “immersive”: the individual singers start to emerge. ven in. The audio quality is immaculate no pretension to utopian aesthetics, but This isn’t remarkable in itself, except and employs a technique referred to as still very sexy. that because the voices are not voices, binaural recording. Two microphones but mechanically reproduced traces, mounted on a foam head approximate Marcus Miller they can be scrutinized with a degree of the geometry of human hearing and Montreal, Que. intimacy not possible in the flesh. Get give a surprisingly spatial dimension to right up close and have a good listen. the sound. The effect is unsettling, and You won’t embarrass anyone, and if you can’t be sure whether the children’s In perpetuity you’re lucky you’ll catch some glitches. voices heard in the distance or the jet To Touch (1993), one of the earliest flying overhead is real or not. Cardiff’s The rain works in the show, presents an old own voice is deadpan and conspiratorial. acidic with pollution worn table surrounded by wall- She aims for passive neutrality: what she weathers the faces mounted speakers in a darkened room. refers to as a “trance voice.” of our tombstones The distressed table top is equipped Cardiff calls the Paradise Institute “a erasing names with sensors that trip audio recordings mystery-spy movie,” and that might sig- of those who paid of conversations, breathing, music and nificantly characterize much of the work with fame or cash clips of old movie soundtracks: a varia- profiled here. Both Playhouse (1997) and for chiselled monuments of lime tion of the adage, “if walls could talk.” The Muriel Lake Incident (1999) are im- ensuring immortality. Like much of Cardiff’s work, the savvy portant precedents for the Venice entry, use of new technology substantially ac- and are really variations of the same Soon the blurred and fading epitaphs counts for its allure, and there is a per- work. While B-thrillers provide the will be forgotten. vasive but unspoken promise of an “in- mood (and style), these pieces push the teractive” experience. In the end, the mystery outside the film screen into Try granite extent of agency viewers have in To your head (via headphones), and pro- next time. Touch consists of tripping one of nine voke reflections on the cinematic appa- Robert C. Dickson prerecorded soundtracks. ratus itself. Each piece is a tour de force Family physician Cardiff’s furtive control extends of model making and recreates, in Hamilton, Ont. throughout the museum and out into miniature, the grand movie theatres of 384 JAMC • 20 AOÛT 2002; 167 (4).

Load more

  2

Copy Link