Michael Snow – Ciel variable Magazine

Michael Snow, The Artist’s Maman Book — Jean Gagnon

Ciel variable 122 – NIGHT ROUNDS | Essays
Authors: Jean Gagnon | Artists: Michael Snow

[Winter 2023] Michael Snow, The Artist’s Maman Book By Jean Gagnon [Excerpt] At age ninety-four, Michael Snow has published My Mother’s Collection of Photographs,1 which he called his “maman book” during its production. As the title does not indicate, the photographs in question were not taken by an artist but are typical family pictures, a […]

Contact 2017, Focus on Canada – Jill Glessing

Ciel variable 108 - GOING PUBLIC | Essays
Authors: Jill Glessing | Artists: 2fik, Johan Hallberg-Campbell, Katherine Knight, Luis Jacob, Margo Pfeiff, Mark Lewis, Michael Snow, Michelle Latimer, Sandra Brewster, Suzy Lake

June 15, 2021 [originally published in French only in CV108 in Winter 2018] —
Promotion for “Canada 150” – marking the inception of the colonial enterprise of the “Dominion of Canada” and its unequal union with Quebec – was tepid, perhaps foretelling the inevitable response: a hundred and fifty years old – really? The land, of course, had been inhabited a little longer than that – about twelve thousand years – by Indigenous peoples…

Michael Snow’s Bent: Image distortion in 1956 – Robert Fones

Ciel variable 100 - REPLAY | Essays
Authors: Robert Fones | Artists: Michael Snow

May 8, 2019 [originally published in CV100 in Spring 2015] — As a child, I learned from a book on cartooning that my mother bought me that a cartoon character’s body could be distorted or exaggerated to express astonishment or alarm. I vividly recall an illustration in the book of a character with eyes popped out, jaw dropped to the navel, and the whole body stretched vertically…

Letter to Paul Wombell, Post-scriptum and Afterthoughts About the Automated Image – Jean Gagnon

Ciel variable 96 – PERFORMING FOR THE IMAGE | Essays
Authors: Jean Gagnon | Artists: Michael Snow

June 18, 2018 [originally published in CV96 in Winter 2014] — I had the pleasure of being invited by Chuck Samuels, the director of Le Mois de la photo à Montréal, to join Paul Wombell, the curator of Le Mois de la photo 2013, at the screening of art video shorts and a presentation of Michael Snow’s La région centrale (1970) at La Cinémathèque québécoise…

Land/Slide, An exhibition on possible futures – Janine Marchessault, Activating the Archives

Ciel variable 95 – CYBER / ESPACE / PUBLIC | Portfolios
Authors: Janine Marchessault | Artists: Dave Colangelo, Jean-Michel Crettaz, Jennie Suddick, Mark-David Hosale, Michael Snow, Patricio Davila, Philip Hoffman

May 22, 2018 [originally published in CV95 in Fall 2013] — Images are connected to our physical environments more dramatically than ever before – literally opening up new spaces of interactivity and connection that transform the experience of being in the city, its semiotic forms, and its modes of public gathering, navigation, and movement…

Archival Dialogues: Reading the Black Star Collection – Andrea Carson Barker

Ciel variable 94 – PUBLIC ART | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Andrea Carson | Artists: Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Michael Snow

February 12, 2018 [originally published in CV94 in Spring 2013] — Curator Peggy Gale and Ryerson Image Centre director Doina Popescu smartly chose to inaugurate Ryerson University’s new building and gallery with an exhibition specifically about “The Archive.” In this case, the focus was the world-renowned Black Star Collection, comprising over 290,000 photojournalistic prints, which had been donated anonymously to Ryerson University in 2005.

Michael Snow, Repeat Offender – Martha Langford, From Repeat Offender to La revue

Ciel variable 83 - MEDIUM : MAGAZINES | Portfolios
Authors: Martha Langford | Artists: Michael Snow

[Fall 2009] Repeat Offender (1986), by Michael Snow, is a reprint, inverted and in black and white, of a Penthouse portfolio. First published in the now-defunct Toronto photography magazine Photo Communique, this project was produced upon invitation of Elke Town for an issue with the themes of mass mediation and appropriation. In the context of […]

The space of the magazine

Ciel variable 83 - MEDIUM : MAGAZINES | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon | Artists: Christian Boltanski, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Michael Snow, Ron Terada

[Fall 2009] by Jacques Doyon What do the images in a magazine say? What is revealed by the reiteration of certain types of images – as well as their format, positioning, and grouping? Photographs are central to the definition of magazines, often equal in importance to textual content. For the image, the magazine goes beyond […]

Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre – Judith Parker

Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Judith Parker | Artists: Gregory Crewdson, Michael Snow, Paul Outerbridge Jr., Yasumasa Morimura

[Fall 2007] National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa June 16 – October 1, 2006 The exhibition’s introductory panel included the statement, “In the last 20 years the staged photograph has occupied a prominent place in the broader world of contemporary art, straddling the borders that traditionally separated photography from other media.” Accordingly, Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre […]

Le mois de la photo à Montréal: Image and Imagination – Anna Carlevaris

Ciel variable 70 - MATERIA ET LUMEN | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Anna Carlevaris | Artists: Adad Hannah, Diane Borsato, Michael Snow, Mike Yuhasz, Polixeni Papapetrou, Rafael Goldchain

[Winter 2005-2006] Le mois de la photo à Montréal September 8–October 10, 2005 Montreal’s biennial of photography marks its ninth edition this year under the artistic stewardship of Martha Langford, founding director and former chief curator of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (1983–94). It takes someone with Langford’s expertise to curate what has become […]

Michael Snow: Digital Snow – Mario Côté

Ciel variable 67 - STILL MOVING | Book Reviews
Authors: Mario Côté | Artists: Michael Snow

[Spring 2005] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Michael Snow: Digital Snow Collection Anarchives Collection Anarchives (sous la direction d’Anne-Marie Duguet) Paris, Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 2002

The Bigger Picture – Karen Love, The Bigger Picture: Portraits from Ottawa

Ciel variable 62 - TERRITORY | IDENTITY | Portfolios
Authors: Karen Love | Artists: Alexandre Castonguay, Allan MacKay, Arnaud Maggs, Barbara Woodley, Charles Gagnon, Chris Lund, Chris Mikula, David Barbour, David Cation, Duncan Cameron, Evergon, Germaine Koh, Jeffrey Thomas, Jerry Grey, Justin Wonnacott, Ken Lum, Larissa Fassler, Lynn Ball, Max Dean, Michael Schreier, Michael Snow, Paul Couvrette, Rod MacIvor, Sylvain Cousineau, Tony Fouhse, Trevor Gould

[Winter 2003] The Bigger Picture: Portraits from Ottawa, organized for the Ottawa Art Gallery by Karen Love, gathers together over 200 Ottawa portraits by 78 image-makers, presented thematically in order to provoke a range of questions about how we understand the idea of a portrait. No longer simply an accurate depiction of physical characteristics or […]