[becoming] The Logic of Memory

Opening reception: January 23, 7:00–9:30pm
Art Crawl: February 14, 7:00–11:00pm

To paraphrase Deleuze, we can only function in the present, but we are always in motion, always becoming. Our past makes up who we are, but by contemplating these moments of the past, we are no longer remembering, we are constructing something new, in turn affecting our future understanding of the present.

Each of the artists in this exhibition explore the concept of memory. Their diverse perspectives weave together and encourage visitors to consider notions of memory, nostalgia, time and loss. Corinne Duchesne’s layered mixed media drawings on mylar philosophically consider loss as a locative site of memory, using grief as an anchor to merge anthropomorphic forms with objects. Peter Horvath’s 2-channel video installation, Memoir, compares and juxtaposes the biographical similarities between his mother Eva and friend Denise, who both emigrated to Canada from Hungary, albeit decades apart. The installation is structured to reflect upon the nature of memory, manipulating the space between truth and fiction, past and present. Anna Torma’s Sample textile installations compare the human body to organic forms found in the places she’s lived and visited. While a comment on the codependent relationship between humans and the natural environment, the installations also recall and reconstruct memories of a place, calling to mind reflections on the nostalgia of home, and the immigrant experience.

Combined, through the use of these personal assemblages, the works in this exhibition reflect on the location and constructed nature of memory and its ability to influence and shape our understanding of ourselves in the present.

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An award-winning Canadian artist for over twenty years, Corinne Duchesne has exhibited extensively in Canada, the United States, South Korea, and Europe. A graduate from the Ontario College of Art (and Design), during her final year she studied at the Off-Campus Program in Florence Italy with Tom Lapierre. Duchesne is a full time Drawing Professor at Sheridan College, Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design, in the Visual and Creative Arts Program.

Peter Horvath works in video, sound, photo-based and new media and is the co-founder of 6168.org, a site for net.art. Exhibitions include the Whitney Museum Of American Art‘s Artport, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City), The 18th Stuttgarter Filmwinter (Stuttgart, Germany), FILE Electronic Language International Festival (Sâo Paulo, Brazil), Video Zone International Video Art Biennial (Tel Aviv, Israel), the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Québec City, Canada), as well as venues in New York, Tokyo, London, and numerous net.art showings.

Anna Torma was born in 1952, Tarnaors, Hungary. Her interest in working with textiles goes back to early childhood when she learned to sew, knit, crochet and embroider from her mother and grandmothers. Torma graduated with a degree in Textile Art and Design from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts, Budapest, Hungary, where she studied from 1974-79. She has been an exhibiting artist since that time; producing mainly large-scale hand embroidered wall hangings. She immigrated to Canada in 1988.