Below is photo documentation of various installations/ projects going back to 2008.
To view the videos themselves, or for more description about the works —what are they are about?— see the VIDEOS page.
F.F.F.F. at Unit 17 Gallery, Vancouver (2023)
F.F.F.F. is animated video I made in collaboration with Paul Kajander. It’s a double projection, 3840x 1080, onto 2 sheets of painted plywood, separated by a brick pillar— the pillar came with the gallery! One screen is slightly in front of the other, and each screen is wedged in between some wooden beams and the pillar (these beams came with the gallery too). The outside edge of each screen rests on a big speaker. There’s an intentional mess of cables and a mixer behind the screens, on the floor. While you can’t see these install details in the photos, they had presence in the show.
As you can see, we painted the windows with cheap acrylics. Not the stations of the cross— but if you ask me, just as beautiful! In the real Summer sunshine we had in Van that July/August, the window colours bled onto the screen colours, which I had set to some steroid “vivid” setting on the projectors. If you entered the gallery from the garden, you’d see the rear of the screen and the cables & equipment, as well as the glow from the ‘stained’ windows— interrupted by flashes of video light bouncing off the plywood. People sat on coolers. Why coolers? The narrative in F.F.F.F., is punctuated with product placements featuring a luxury synthetic ice called Nevermelt. (It doesn’t).
The project was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Photo credit: I don’t know. I asked.
For video clips: see the EXTRACTS page.
Obviously: at PERF, AXENEO7, Gatineau (2021)
Obviously (2021) is a sound installation featuring a fictional conversation between a WWE executive (loosely based on Stephanie McMahon) and a debuting performer (loosely based on Ronda Rousey), about the latter’s Wrestlemania entrance. Wrestlemania is an annual sports-entertainment extravaganza staged by the WWE, the world’s leading professional wrestling promotion. The event often makes Forbes’ list of the top 10 most valuable global sporting events.
Obviously reduces the wrestling ring to 3 pieces of cotton twine strung across the room at regulation heights, while the arena-sized Wrestlemania sign is rendered as a logo printed out on a letter-sized sheet of photo paper, held in place with fishing twine. A dangling microphone suggests the presence of a performer. The sound component (which comes out of the microphone) is derived from a scene in my video Kayfables (2020).
This version of Obviously was installed for the first night of PERF performance biennial, at Axenéo7 in Gatineau, Fall 2021. It is staged in a room with a large window- so the illumination varies over the course of the day. A rather dramatic DJ pin spot illuminates the Wrestlemania sign. A much subtler pair of track lights illuminate the white ropes. On the floor beneath the window, are a letter-sized printout of a meme and a roll of painter’s tape. The meme (author unknown) is a close-up of former MMA athlete Ronda Rousey’s face as she’s being punched unconscious by Amanda Nunes, in what turned out to be Ronda’s last fight in mixed martial arts at UFC 207. Following this defeat, she joined the WWE.
Obviously: at Dazibao, Montréal (2021)
This is the original version of Obviously, set up as part of a larger installation named If It Bleeds, at Dazibao, Montréal in the Summer of 2021. This version features a gold tinsel curtain and illumination from a pair of Ikea lamps— sculptural elements which recur elsewhere in the gallery. The meme of Ronda’s KO’d face is taped to the wall outside the room, above a cluster of fake beer cans.
If It Bleeds: installation at Dazibao, Montreal (2021)
Photo credit: Marilou Crispin.
Installation views of If It Bleeds at Dazibao, Montreal, Summer 2021. The installation includes several works exploring the spectacle of exploitation and domination which drives the world of combat sports— by which I mean both the real fighting of Mixed Martial Arts and the fake fighting of the WWE. Near the gallery entrance, an untitled video projected onto foam core slats introduces the cast of If it Bleeds. If it Bleeds (2018/2021) is a triple projection occupying 2 adjoining walls, spanning 40 x 7.5 feet. Dangling coils of speaker wire draw shadows onto the projection. Other small sculptures such as a yellow-painted Styrofoam ball and several fake beer cans occupy patches of floor adjacent to the projection. The seating consists of 2 steel folding chairs, acutely misaligned —encouraging the viewer to move their chair to wherever they want it (strangely, some visitors replaced the chairs nicely side by side when they were done watching). soup and stock (2021) consists of 3 mini-projectors throwing video at oblique angles from/onto an assemblage of tables, steel folding chairs, a ladder, a green screen painted wall, cut foam core boards, painted Styrofoam balls, and various other mixed media. The footage presents extracts from the real-life, highly farcical doping violation case of the Nevada State Athletic Commission vs. Mixed Martial Artist Nick Diaz from 2015. In editing, I captioned the clips such that the participants are frequently obscured by blocks of large-font text-- ie, they are hiding behind their own words. This kangaroo court/marijuana trial inspired the fictional disciplinary hearings in Bleeds. If you happen to be at the right time and place in the installation, you might witness both performances throwing shade at each other— an eclipse of sorts. Obviously (2021) is a sound installation in the alcove behind the gold curtain. The sound is a fictional conversation between a WWE exec and a debuting performer, about the latter’s Wrestlemania entrance. The sound plays out of the microphone. It’s a bit hard to make out all the physical components in the photo, so scroll up and watch the video documentation.
Below: video documentation of Untitled, video-sculpture assemblage near the gallery entrance. The video is silent. It introduces the cast and characters of If it Bleeds.
Below: short video documentation of various parts of the installation. It focuses on beer cans that appear in or around the videos Untitled (projected onto foam core slats), If it Bleeds (2018/2021) and soup & stock (the assemblage of videos, tables, chairs and ladder).
Kayfables: installation at MAC (2021)
Isabelle Pauwels, Kayfables, 2020 presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in the exhibition La machine qui enseignait des airs aux oiseaux. Photo: Guy L’Heureux
if.it.bleeds.splinters.mix1 at Unit 17 (2020)
when I was invited to show If It Bleeds in the group show Crocodile Tears (part 3) at Unit 17 Gallery in Vancouver, I adapted the work for a small space. It consists of 6 fragments (or splinters) extracted from the full length video, and some sculpture referencing objects that appear in the video. The “screen” is a piece of foam core balanced in the chair legs. Photo credit: Cemrenaz Uyguner.
If It Bleeds: Production shots (2017)
Technically not installation shots— but a video shoot in Studio 1 at EMPAC-RPI feels like a live installation! So here are some of the sights, July/Aug 2017. Photos by Mick Bello/EMPAC.
and some more…
,000, 2d version: gallery installations
The 2d version of ,000, has been in two group shows at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montreal: I’d Rather Something Ambiguous. Mais Précis à la fois (2016) and Qui Parle? / Who Speaks? (2018). They’re barely “installations—” they’re both blackbox setups— but we all know the second you put something in the gallery it becomes an installation… The Qui Parle? version with the larger room & re-arrangeable seating is the best version— though it doesn’t photograph as well. 2016 version (with the word Primary Custody) by: Paul Litherland. The other photos by: Paul Litherland/Studio Lux. All courtesy of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
,000, (multimedia version, 2014)
,000, was performed twice on October 30, 2014. The multimedia installation includes: 27 channels of audio (the speakers are set up in various parts of the room), 9 channels of video ( one large projection screen and a circle of 8 monitors), timed lights, sculptures, and a live audience. The documentation below shows different parts of the set, and some video stills (the graphic images). See the VIDEO LINKS page for a 6 min. excerpt of the performance, with audience present. The performance was commissioned by EMPAC / Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Additional funding by the BC Arts Council.
Install shots by: Eileen Krywinski & EMPAC.
W.E.S.T.E.R.N. & JUNE 30
W.E.S.T.E.R.N. is sometimes paired with June 30 (their soundtracks compete with each other). June 30 is always projected directly onto a wall. W.E.S.T.E.R.N. comes as an exotic or a suburban version, both equally generic. The exotic version is a palm frond hut, with the video projected onto a piece of drywall sticking out of the hut. In the suburban version, the video is projected at an angle onto the back of a vinyl-sided wall. Neither version has any seating, because the gallery visitor wasn’t meant to watch the video from start to finish. The installations often included a photo series, which I didn’t focus on here.
Above: W.E.S.T.E.R.N. installed at National Gallery of Canada, for the group show Storytelling. 2013-14. Photos courtesy of National Gallery of Canada— don’t know the name of the photographer.
Above: Original Installation of W.E.S.T.E.R.N. (paired with June 30) at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle WA. for the exhibition Incredibly, unbelievably / The complete ordered field. 2010. Photos by Richard Nicoll.
Above: W.E.S.T.E.R.N. & June 30 installed in The Distance Between You and Me: 3 Artists from Vancouver, Los Angeles and Guadalajara, exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011. Photos by Rachel Topham.
Above: W.E.S.T.E.R.N. and Eddie (2006, on the monitor) installed together in a topless double hut, at the Power Plant, Toronto, for the 2011 group exhibition The Plot. Photos by; Toni Hafkenscheid.
B and E
Documentation of video installation at the old Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, 2009. This exhibition paired B&E (in the East gallery) and B-----+----+----+-----E (in the West gallery). The screening rooms are separated by the middle gallery, which is brightly lit and empty except for two potted plants and a bench (and the gallery’s bookstore, out of the frame to the left). Photos by: Erik Hood.
The first series of photos below shows the middle gallery (just the first photo). and then it goes into the East Gallery with the B&E video. The certificates outside the room are my grandfather’s certifications related to his job as an agronomist in the Belgian Congo during the 1950’s. The visitor walks into a lit room, with chairs and a pull down screen. Upon request, the gallery attendant will pull down the screen, turn off the lights, and start the video.
The photos below show the B-----+----+----+-----E video. It plays on auto-repeat in a darkened room behind the steel door. The video is playing off a VHS cassette chopped down to about 13 minutes and 30 seconds. When it hits the end, there’s a brief moment of snow, then blue screen, as it audibly rewinds, then start up again (the deck is set to auto-repeat).
B&E has been exhibited separately, usually in group shows. In those other shows, it just plays on a loop— you don’t need to ask an attendant to start it up. Grandpa’s certifications are usually not shown. B-----+----+----+-----E has only been installed this once. The dialogue between the porn flick and the home movie at Presentation House makes this one of my favourite installations of my work.
Triple Bill
Two different installs of Triple Bill, both with the ‘pocket theatre’ aesthetic (inspired by fly-by-night porno screenings). The photo by Blaine Campbell (with the monkeys) is from the original install at Artspeak, Vancouver, in 2008. The other is by Toni Hafkenscheid, at the Blackwood Gallery in Mississauga, 2008.
The Embellishers
The Embellishers installed at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, fpr the group exhibition eXponential Future, 2008. The room was constructed like a film set (the walls were door skin on 1x4’s, maybe some 2x4’s for safety— or some very flimsy material like that). Note the white plinth vs the landlord beige walls! Photo by: Howard Ursuliak.
Below: The Embellishers installed at La Mirage, Montreal, Summer 2014. La Mirage was a tiny gallery— the size of a storage space— and very close to the size of many Vancouver SRO’s (single room occupancy dwellings), which a lot of the off-screen characters in the video might have been living in. In fact at the time I was scripting this video in 2007, I was living in a room less than 200 sq feet on the Downtown East side. I did have my own bathroom though, so it wasn’t quite an SRO. I think the papers some of the viewers are holding is an adaptation of one of my old artist talks— something the curators Sophie Bélair-Clément and Vincent Bonin made available. The video is playing on a an old-school monitor, from a DVD-player— which Sophie & Vincent somehow managed to find in 2014… This exhibition ran concurrently with my show at Dazibao gallery, several floors below in the same building— where I presented a selection of my videos in the black box cinema room. Another detail I like is the beer cans— Pabst, for some reason— which prefigure the Coors and Bud cans in my installation If It Bleeds, several years later at Dazibao. Photo credit: Sophie Bélair-Clément.
