Emily Smit-Dicks, Second Skin (Front)
March 27 – April 7, 2012
Opening: Thursday, March 29, 6–7 p.m.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ART CENTRE
15 Kings College Circle
Toronto, ON M5S 3H7
T: 416.946.3029
E:xxxxcollective.@gmail.com
carmen.victor@utoronto.ca
Hours: Tue – Fri 12 – 5, Sat 12 – 4 p.m.
XXXX Collective consists of Shannon Garden-Smith, Corrie Jackson, Emily Smit-Dicks and Polina Teif.
Threshold investigates how our experience of the body is shaped by its physical and perceptual boundaries. A threshold marks a starting point for a new state or experience, and it also refers to the smallest detectable sensation. Threshold explores this point as it relates to the body and its function both as a physical object and a sign capable of producing various meanings.
The threshold as a physical space, denotes a hallowed-out absence that functions as an interstice between definite places. Thresholds are discernible points in space, but they necessarily refer to that which is behind or beyond. In a sense, the threshold’s identity depends upon the existence of space outside of it. As an emptied-out centre, the threshold shifts the locality of interest onto the “frame,” which—digested in bodily terms—also becomes the skin.
Identity is often illustrated through the body and the manipulations made to it that mark it as one’s own and the mediator between internal and the external world. With that said, there is a limit to the amount of control one has in regards to the body—it functions or fails without our consent. There are limitations to manipulations, alterations or “improvements” in that they can only go so far…