April 4–15, 2012
Opening: Thursday, April 5 , 7–10 p.m.
GALLERY 1313 Cell Gallery & Window Box Gallery
1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON, M6K 1K8
T: 416.536.6778
E: director@g1313.org
www.gallery13131.org
Hours: Wed–Sun 1:00–6:00 p.m.
In Christos Damianos’s *DETAINED* installation, the Cell Gallery is dominated by thousands of sunflower seeds on the ground. A cracking sound created as visitors walk around the room is combined with the tweeting of a bird. Unlike Al WeiWei’s thousand hand-painted clay versions used at the Tate Modern, these sunflower seeds are real. The visitor breaking shells creates a climate of fear or the fear of abduction, detainment or even death in the hands of a repressive government. Detained explores the way in which the Internet and digital technology co-exist in an increasingly destabilized cultural environment.
The installation, purposely cramped in the Cell Gallery, unfolds slowly to the patient observer with an optimistic and ethereal view of passing time. The intimately stacked thousands of seeds on the ground do not represent Al’s installation as much as they speak to his imprisonment. Rather than isolating WeiWei in a cell, his personal space was reduced by the presence of police officers that monitored him around the clock, often sitting only inches away. In these etching monoprints and drawings, a line was drawn for each breath he took during a set period. This is an intuitive and steady process, reminiscent of the grids of Agnes Martin or Terry Winters. As such it is more performance than painting. The intimate act of being aware of one’s body—each breath, pulse, muscle ache—connects the artist with the experiences of prisoners who have shared this specific cell, as well as those who have shared the cell of political activists such as WeiWei. The ShhShh repeated across the wall, the chirping heard overhead and the prints on the walkway are not just metaphors of mandatory compliance, social networking and political protest but also serve to expand the artist’s practice and use of materials.
The eighteen etchings and drawings pinned to the wall in a grid-like formation out of the viewers’ initial sight stand for the hard drive, diaries, archives and other materials confiscated from those illegally detained and/or abducted. The viewer experiences them only after entering the space and cracking some shells, thereby becoming a sort of activist. The paper responds to the stark white of the walls and the movement of the viewers by reflecting the light and fluttering in the breeze created by the viewers’ passing. As part of the performance, the artist hands out sunflower seeds to visitors in both the gallery and the courtyard.
Window Box Gallery includes a large pile of sunflower seeds and a red tongue-shaped object drenched in blood, similar to that depicted in Picasso’s Guernica. This installation is an allegory or tribute to WeiWei and thousands of outspoken, sharp-tongued sacrificial critics.