Altération Générale
Curatorial project at Chris Andrews
Montréal
with works by Andrew Hoekstra, John Knight, Liza Lacroix, Craig Jun Li, Bonny Poon, Jackson Slattery, Justin Tenney
26.9.2024 - 14.12.2024
Before they said Chris Andrews, the windows of this space were doubly inscribed with the phrase ‘Altération Générale’, advertising the tailoring services provided within. We’ve spent some time in this room since its name and occupation changed. We reupholstered the platform at the entrance for the inaugural show in which our work was included. We presented a solo exhibition here. As the curator of this show, we’ve organized thoughts and artworks with people holding multiple occupations within the ‘art world’.
We started thinking about a sensation induced by singing someone else’s song - a temporary transposition into the melody of another. We thought about covers and karaoke, but also about a garment previously fit to one body and altered to the shape of another. Together, we introduced ourselves to Imi and Imi, we spoke about Degree Zero, Acéphale, and the aestheticization of non-material practice, singing the songs of predecessors who were also after the empty center. We organize ourselves in proximity to movements, shapes, cultural memory – oblique angles circling towards this empty center.
There are invisible overlaps between us, we are wearing many hats - artist, gallerist, assistant, fabricator, handler, writer, performer, curator…What can aesthetic gestures say about our togetherness? We switch hats and sometimes lose our heads to the organization too. Sometimes we don’t feel our own hands. Sometimes our name is eclipsed by another of the same name. We and everything are is continually being altered and the world reorganizes itself around us.
We are interested in blurring roles, acting as proxies, sourcing and fabricating works from a distance, receiving instructions. Our own work has been restaged by another artist, so now it has 2 authors. We are beginning to think of it as our piece. Its original title translates to “I am are the immaculate conception”, a strangely pluralized utterance of immaterial wholeness by a 19th c. Marian apparition. We instructed us to build and upholster a second stage. We continue to cast actors and make use of stand-ins. We are speaking a pluralized conjugation of destiny.
- Liza Lacroix. Ooh stop, 2024. Playlist, eighteen songs, 56 min.
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Craig Jun Li. p.m. 29, 2024. Cast silicone, iron oxide, maroon oxide pigment, phthalo blue red pigment, aluminum hardware,16 x 9 inches.
- Craig Jun Li. p.m. 27, 2024. Cast silicone, iron oxide, silicone pigment, maroon oxide pigment, aluminum hardware, 16 x 9 inches.
- Craig Jun Li. p.m. 28, 2024. Cast silicone, iron oxide, yellow oxide pigment, lycopodium powder, aluminum hardware, 16 x 9 inches.
- Jackson Slattery. INSTED, 2024. Oil on linen, 13 x 120 (two parts).
- John Knigh. Tomorrow dreams away, 2024. Carpet, lumber, plywood (replica of existing gallery platform), 128 x 27 x 8 inches.
- Bonny Poon. Bad weather, flat tires, failed engines, missed connections, traffic jam, and road closures, 2024. Restaging of an artwork by Alli Melanson from her solo exhibition, "Attention," at the same gallery (Chris Andrews) and in the same location.
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Bonny Poon. Labour actions, pirate hijackings, and national borders. 2024. Recasting Arlen Aguayo as Alli Melanson, this performance revisits Alli's earlier work where she used Arlen as her double. Photograph by Justin Tenney.
- Justin Tenney. The Visitors 1-4, 2024. Silver gelatin print, mat, glass. 16 x 20 inches (framed).
- Andrew Hoekstra. Untitled, 2024. Aluminum, wallpaper from closed Hollywood bar. 48 x 11 x 6 inches.