Juliet Palmer

14 May 1998 - 20 June 1998
Opening Reception 14 May 1998 8pm

Project Room:

A Guided Viewing, Spidersense #5

Mercer Union is pleased to present the fifth part in the Spidersense series of six exhibitions curated by board members Reid Diamond and Evelyn Von Michalofski. For each Spidersense, a visual artist and a concrete poet engage in spatial activities: one artist in the project room and one artist featured in the brochure.

Is New Zealander Juliet Kiri Palmer, the composer and sound artist now living in Toronto, a fan of K.C.and the Sunshine Band? The clues are all there in her installation A Guided Viewing inspired by a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario where she experienced an audio guided instructional viewing of a Group of Seven painting. Palmer revisits this model by presenting a different grouping: seven unknown faces appear as backlit photographs on the floor of a darkened space. As one bends sown to view, they notice a low level sound is emitting from behind the photo image. Seven separate audio texts instruct, or ask you to experience them in a particular way. The closer you get, the more intimate the experience becomes. Palmer asks you to literally “get down”, and in fact confesses to being “attracted to music which grooves and teases, music which takes seriously the physicality of sound”. It may be an art gallery, but like a disco, the action is on the floor. “Do a little dance…make a little love…” You decide.

Reid Diamond

Juliet Palmer is a composer and sound artist from New Zealand currently living in Toronto. Her work has been presented by SoundCulture Japan, New Zealand’s Artspace Gallery, ABC’s Listening Room(Australia), BBC Radio, CBC Radio’s Two New Hours, American Public Radio, Radio New Zealand and by numerous festivals such as New York’s Bang on a Can Festival.