relatively gentle ways of touching
Soft Turns – 2016
“relatively gentle ways of touching follows a series of copy, cut and paste procedures. Models modeled on other models, reflections of reflections, slow processes and intricate movements. Works seem to be in the process of decay or irreversible (perhaps dangerous) change.”
This exhibition considers curious objects and circumstances that are difficult to comprehend. Google maps locates the Terra Nova islands off the east coast of Antarctica, but since 1989, they have been known not to exist. Ptolemy’s ancient elaborate system of ‘epicycles’—a brilliant design to map out the heavens—falls just short, placing the earth at its center. Displays of handmade botanical models, artifacts of archaic 19th century teaching methods, sit behind warbled glass, interfering further with our ability to comprehend their strange codes of function.
Disproven theories do not necessarily fall into an oblivion of the false—they can surface through revisions, linger as histories of error, stand in for once held truths, or recur simply as amusing, obscure references. Their being may be crossed out, but not completely wiped away; they may reappear unexpectedly like a chunk of text that is copied and cut out of the canon of truth and then filed, ready to be pasted back in another paragraph.
‘relatively gentle ways of touching’ follows a series of copy, cut and paste procedures. Models modeled on other models, reflections of reflections, slow processes and intricate movements. Works seem to be in the process of decay or irreversible (perhaps dangerous) change. Yet what should disappear is reconfigured, repeated; this excess of material and content spills over into some shelving, various objects and several videos, as each work resonates with an aspect of another.
About the Artists
Soft Turns (Sarah Jane Gorlitz and Wojciech Olejnik)—
Soft Turns is the collaborative effort of Sarah Jane Gorlitz and Wojciech Olejnik. They consider the encounter with something ‘other’, as an ever-changing space between the foreign and the familiar, the accessible and inaccessible; and interaction with such spaces—these brief moments that weave the background of everyday existence—forms the basis of their practice. Their collaborations employ found objects, readily available materials, D.I.Y. methods, and experimentation to create videos, stop-motion animations and mixed media installations.
Currently based in Toronto, Canada, they were featured in the Fall 2011 edition of Canadian Art and Syphon 3.1 in 2015. They have received support from the Swedish Edstrand Foundation, the Toronto, Ontario, and Canada Councils for the Arts; the latter awarding them the 2008 Joseph Stauffer Prize and a 2013 Paris Residency. Recent exhibitions include: Centre Clark (Montréal), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Foundation 3.14 (Bergen), Greusslich Contemporary (Berlin), University of Waterloo Art Gallery (Waterloo), 18th Videobrasil (São Paulo), Skånes konstförening (Malmö), Oakville Galleries (Oakville), O’Born Contemporary (Toronto), and Trinity Square Video (Toronto).