Nelson Henricks -Montreal, QC.
Exhibition Dates: August 1 – August 23, 2008
PAVED Arts presents: Map Of The City –an exhibition of two recent video/sound installations by Montreal-based artist Nelson Henricks. The 16-page, colour publication for this exhibition was co-produced with BlackFlash Magazine.
In the Main Gallery:
MAP OF THE CITY is a two-screen video installation that explores the notion of building-as-book. Initiated during a six-month residency in Rome, this work sees the city as a text environment that requires both readers and writers. Urban space is compared to a library. This work is inspired by chapels and cathedrals, which act as three-dimensional representations of the Bible, the physical manifestation of the spiritual. Quotes from the Gospel of Thomas and the Bible are interwoven with original text, still photos and electronic soundscapes. The city is seen as an accumulation of gestures and desires containing the potential to outstrip the life of the individual.
In the Media Gallery
UNTITLED (SCORE) is a collaboration with composer Jackie Gallant. “For this score, Nelson Henricks chose to appropriate English musical notation, which uses letters from A to G to identify the notes of the scale. In combining these letters to make words like CAGE, FACE, DEAD or BED, he simultaneously offers up a semantic and melodic suite. He enriches this double reading with images that clarify or divert the sense(s) of the word. (…) Jackie Gallant, responds to Nelson Henricks’ proposal by creating a split between the score and the music. She thus plays on the flexible space between with is ‘dictated’ and what is ‘heard’.” (Sébastien Cliche)
Nelson Henricks was born in Bow Island, Alberta and is a graduate of the Alberta College of Art (1986). He moved to Montréal in 1991, where he received a BFA from Concordia University (1994). Henricks lives and works in Montréal, where he has taught at Concordia University (1995 – Present), McGill University (2001- 2003) and Université du Québec à Montréal (1999, 2003). A musician, writer, curator and artist, Henricks is best known for his videotapes, which have been exhibited worldwide. A focus on his video work was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of the Video Viewpoints series (2000). This year Henricks was the featured artist at Toronto’s Images Festival. His writings have been published in Fuse, Public, Coil magazines, and in the anthologies “So, To Speak” (Editions Artexte, 1999), “Lux” (YYZ Press, 2000) and “Caught in the Act” (YYZ Press, 2004). Henricks was the recipient of the Bell Canada Award in Video Art (2002) and the Board of Govenors’ Alumni Award of Excellence from the Alberta College of Art and Design (2005). For more information, go to www.nelsonhenricks.com.
