Sunday, April 12, 2015 to Friday, April 17, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, April 17th, 7 - 10 PM
Forest City Gallery is happy to present a project by Michelle McGeean. Michelle McGeean’s OPENING SOON consists of a sign reading “Opening Soon” during the installation of Nancy Anne McPhee’s exhibition Nictitate at Forest City Gallery. It will remain there until the aforementioned opening, after which it will be taken down. The words “Opening Soon” are up for interpretation: is it a physical marker of a transitory moment in time and space (the opening)? An advertisement for the upcoming event? Or is it (mis)information regarding a new business taking over the space—an idea especially ironic given that Forest City Gallery is one of the oldest artist-run centres in North America. This play on words initiates a dialogue between the sign and the McPhee’s exhibition, the building, the street, and the rituals of exhibition/opening attendance.
This project will share an opening reception with Nancy Anne McPhee’s exhibition Nictitate on April 17th from 7:00 - 10:00 PM.
About the Artist:
Michelle McGeean’s practice draws a link between language, sculpture and architecture via the page by intentionally confusing and conflating the ideas and associations of each. McGeean draws upon the puns, aphorisms and metaphors of Marshall McLuhan that are used as a strategy to approach Victor Hugo’s contraposition between built objects and the printed page typified in his “This will kill that. The book will kill the building.”
The term “page” here acknowledges not only its context within books, magazines and newspapers, but also extends to alternative forms such as television, computer and telephone interfaces. The page offers another space in which artworks or buildings may be presented. Counter to the page’s accessibility is the singular physical encounter with a sculptural or architectural object.