Millie Chen + Warren Quigley, Susan Gold, Paul Mathisen, Evelyn Von Michalofski, Carl Skelton, Janet Werner, and TIm Westbury

Curated by: Jennifer McMackon

1 April 1993 - 24 April 1993
Opening Reception 1 April 1993 8pm

Main Gallery

The Heliotropic

MEDIA RELEASE

Part I: April I – April 24, 1993
Opening April 1 at 8:00 pm

Part II: April 29 – May 22, 1993
Opening April 29 at 8:00 pm

The Heliotropic an exhibition in two parts which takes as its starting point a matrix of issues brought together under the term ‘heliotropic’. By definition, a heliotrope is a form of quartz know to medieval doctors and lapidaries for its divining properties; the sundial, the first device ever invented for the systematic measurement of time; a plant whose flowers follow the movement of the sun in the sky.

In the summer of 1992, curator Jennifer McMackon published a call for submissions, inviting artists to address cultural and aesthetic issues encompassed by the term ‘heliotropic’: the validation of truth, the measurement of time and the economies of growth and light.

The exhibition includes mixed media installation work by artists from across Canada as well as the United States. Works in the exhibitions draw on popular imagery such as a multi-coloured Popeye, adopt the strategies of medical technologies, incorporate the production of perfume, operate on solar power or reconfigure the operation of clocks.

In her catalogue essay, McMackon likens her curatorial methodology to a hand extracting from the ‘tropic pool’:

A call for submissions can be viewed as a figurative play whereby points of reference are exchanged for artistic proposals.