Nomads
Josée Drouin-Brisebois
This thematically based publication focuses on works by Vancouver-based artists Gareth Moore, Geoffrey Farmer, Myfawny MacLeod, Hadley & Maxwell, and Althea Thauberger whose practices manifest different interpretations of nomadism - or a way of life that takes place in a non-structured environment where movement plays an important role. At times it is the artists’ practice that is nomadic: they travel specifically to gather materials and document interventions made along the way. In other cases the objects themselves are nomadic, becoming staged sets or kits that adapt to their specific context of display. In further instances the works are event-based, favouring interaction and collaboration with a particular community. The artists in Nomads shift our expectations of the art object and question notions of authorship, authenticity and museum display.
National Gallery of Canada (04/2009) 88 pp col. ill. 8 x 6 in softcover 978-0-88884-862-8 $22.00 Can. $23.95 U.S. (15 euros)
Geoffrey Farmer
Pierre Landry, Jessica Morgan & Scott Watson
Geoffrey Farmer est certainement l'une des voix les plus déstabilisantes de la communauté artistique de Vancouver. Farmer est connu pour ses installations évolutives qu'il modifie souvent en cours d'exposition, voire même après. Dans les présentations subséquentes, il arrive fréquemment qu'il réorganise, modifie et révise l'œuvre, menant ainsi à des lectures autres et à des projets au contenu complexe qui se prolongent dans le temps. Caractérisés par une recherche méticuleuse et une rigueur conceptuelle, ces travaux à grande échelle comportent habituellement des objets trouvés, du dessin, de la sculpture, de la vidéo et de la photographie. Réunissant des œuvres anciennes et un travail conçu expressément pour Montréal, cette exposition propose un bilan important de l'œuvre de Farmer. Cette publication constitue un premier bilan sur la pratique de Geoffrey Farmer. En français et anglais.
Geoffrey Farmer has one of the most destabilizing voices of today's young Vancouver artists. Working mainly in installation and photography, he integrates video, performance and other means associated with conceptual art. Through an aesthetics of accumulation he explores pop culture, art history and the very act of exhibiting. Among the works presented in this first monograph are an installation originally created in a bank and a life-sized reconstitution of a Hollywood-style trailer. Refigured through an array of tangents and additions, Farmer's installations are at once subtle and overwhelming. The publication presents major works produced over the last fifteen years along with new pieces produced especially for the exhibition. In English and French. Geoffrey Farmer's career has taken off meteorically in the last few years with exhibitions, in just 2007, at the Drawing Room and Tate Modern. Pierre Landry is curator at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. Jessica Morgan is curator at Tate Modern. Scott Watson is director of the Belkin Gallery at the University of British Columbia.
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (04/2008) 112 pp 30 ill. coul. 10.5 x 9 po/in softcover 978-2-551-23607-7
$29.95 Can. ($32.95 U.S. / 24 euros)