Documentary Now! – Vincent Bonin
[Winter 2006-2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page.
Complete Archives
Ciel variable 75 – MUTATIONS
[Spring 2007]
Portfolios : RAPHAEL GOLDCHAIN, ORLAN, PAUL LITHERLAND.
Reviews : Alain Declercq, ECOTOPIA : Allegories of Disaster, Rodney Graham, Acting the Part : Photography as Theater, Chris Marker, Michael Schreier, Fischli & Weiss, Alain Paiement.
Authors : Martha Langford, Maxime Coulombe, Dayna McLeod, Sylvain Campeau, Maria Antonella Pelizzari, Marie-Josée Jean, Judith Parker, Niki Lambros, Petra Halkes, John K. Grande, Yam Lau.
Rafael Goldchain, Familial Ground – Martha Langford, The varieties of Goldchain experience
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Portfolios
Authors: Martha Langford | Artists: Rafael Goldchain
[Fall 2007] Familial Ground is the product of a process that started several years ago when Rafael Goldchain’s son was born. Goldchain gradually realized that his new role as parent included the responsibility to pass on a familial and cultural inheritance. Familial Ground is an autobiographical installation work that includes digitally altered self-portrait photographs, reproductions […]
Orlan, Pre-Columbian self-Hybridations – Maxime Coulombe, Le visage comme tableau
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Portfolios
Authors: Maxime Coulombe | Artists: Orlan
[Fall 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Abstract The author argues that in order to fully understand Orlan’s Self-Hybridations series, one must return to her highly controversial series of performances, The Reincarnation of Sainte-Orlan. In this earlier series, […]
Paul Litherland, Absolutely Fabulous – Dayna McLeod, Straight queerness and Alternative Models for Manhood
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Portfolios
Authors: Dayna McLeod | Artists: Paul Litherland
[Fall 2007] In Absolutely Fabulous, Paul Litherland playfully constructs stereotypical gender identities in himself, only to deconstruct them and raise his viewers’ awareness of cultural biases. The ten works that constitute this series evolved from a 1993 performance, Souvenirs. Each work is a self-portrait in which gendered clothing articles and props are used. In their […]
Alain Declercq, Embedded versus Wildcat – Sylvain Campeau
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Alain Declercq
[Fall 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Centre Vox, Montréal du 9 septembre au 21 octobre 2006
ECOTOPIA: Allegories of Disaster – Maria Antonella Pelizzari
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Maria Antonella Pelizzari | Artists: Adam Broomberg, Carlos & Jason Sanchez, Oliver Chanarin, Robert Adams
[Fall 2007] International Center of Photography, New York September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007 The debate over the effect of technology on the land has always been central to American photography and culture. In the nineteenth century, it was about the optimistic arrival of railroad tracks in the wilderness; in the early twentieth century, it was […]
Rodney Graham – Marie-Josée Jean
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Marie-Josée Jean | Artists: Rodney Graham
[Fall 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal du 7 octobre 2006 au 7 janvier 2007
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 […]
Chris Marker, The Hollow Men – Niki Lambros
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Niki Lambros | Artists: Chris Marker
[Fall 2007] Dazibao, Montréal November 16 – December 14, 2006 What becomes history most? A credible witness. Even if the observer stands on the opposite shore, across an ocean of time, it is still possible to see into ruins and bear witness to a probable course of events for those who have long since become dust. Mnemosyne, […]
Michael Schreier, Tears for an Empty Desert: The Interiors – Petra Halkes
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Petra Halkes | Artists: Michael Schreier
[Fall 2007] Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa October 2 – 26, 2006 A key image in Michael Schreier’s recent photo exhibition shows tourists jostling for space in front of Michelangelo’s Pieta. The famous sculpture is bathed in a golden light and clearly visible above the frantic crowd, which could not be more at odds with this emblem of […]
Fischli & Weiss, Flowers and Questions. A Retrospective – John K. Grande
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: John K. Grande | Artists: Fischli & Weiss
[Fall 2007] Tate Modern, London October 11, 2006 – January 14, 2007 Replicating the real, the Swiss duo of Fischli and Weiss play around with it all like so much spice cake. Since the 1970s, they have collaborated on numerous projects, and they have received their due recognition with this retrospective. Most often they fabricate meanings, or […]
Alain Paiement, Expansible – Mosaïques fluides – Yam Lau
Ciel variable 75 - MUTATIONS | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Yam Lau | Artists: Alain Paiement
[Fall 2007] Biological Sciences Building, UQÀM, Montréal, inaugurated on December 6, 2006. A new public work by Alain Paiement was recently installed at the Université du Québec à Montréal. I met Paiement a few years ago. Since then, I have came to appreciate his photographic practice as being somewhat apart from the norm, from that […]
Ciel variable 76 – MAPPING
[Summer 2007]
Portfolios : JOAN FONTCUBERTA, DAVID MAISEL, BIL VAZAN.
Focus : Projets photographiques pour le web / Photographic Projects for the Web.
Reviews : Lynne Cohen, Denis Farley, Michel Lamothe, Jeff Wall, New and Worthy.
Authors : Jacques Doyon, Sylvain Campeau, John K. Grande, Henry Lehmann, Serge Bérard, Sylvie Parent, James D. Campbell, Stephanie Gibson, Jean-François Bélisle.
Conceptual Mapping
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Summer 2007] by Jacques Doyon The works presented in this issue form conceptual mappings of territories in the midst of redefinition: the Internet, the natural environment, and circulation hubs. There is no cartography in the literal sense here; rather, these metaphorical mappings use the tools of cartography for investigations and approaches that examine our relationship […]
Joan Fontcuberta, Datascapes – Sylvain Campeau, Sutures et traitements numériques
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Portfolios
Authors: Jacques Doyon | Artists: Joan Fontcuberta
[Summer 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Joan Fontctuberta’s latest body of work, Datascape, is composed of two series: Orogenesis and Googlegrams. The first series was produced with software intended to produce photorealistic perspectives from topographical maps and […]
David Maisel, Black Maps – John K. Grande, Tapping topographies, An interview with David Maisel
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Portfolios
Authors: John K. Grande | Artists: David Maisel
[Summer 2007] David Maisel’s recent body of works, Black Maps, is composed of five series of aerial photographs, the subject of which is the undoing of the natural world by wide-scale human interventions. The latest of these series, Terminal Mirages – reproduced here – was shot from a helicopter flying above Great Salt Lake in Utah. In an […]
Bill Vazan, Itinéraires urbains 1960-1970 – Henry Lehmann, Tangible and Intangible lines
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Portfolios
Authors: Henry Lehmann | Artists: Bill Vazan
[Summer 2007] by Henry Lehmann The title was as brief and streamlined as the piece itself, called simply Worldline. With this unearthly 1971 project, based on the ultimate invisibility of pure line and on its infinite conceptual reach, Montreal artist Bill Vazan truly launched his career. Of course, most of this line, tangibly linked up […]
Bill Vazan, Itinéraires urbains 1960-1970 – Serge Bérard, Du concept au Cosmos, perspectivisme chez Bill Vazan
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Portfolios
Authors: Serge Bérard | Artists: Bill Vazan
[Summer 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Summary Since the end of the 1960s, Bill Vazan has been producing conceptual works in the form of urban itineraries for which he uses various modes of transportation (walking, driving, riding […]
Du statique au dynamique, projets photographiques pour le Web – Sylvie Parent
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Essays
Authors: Sylvie Parent | Artists: Isabelle Hayeur, Karen Trask
This article was originally published only in French. No translation is available. Summary In this essay, the author looks into photographic practices of recent years that use the fluid space of the World Wide Web as their production and exhibition medium, forgoing the static quality of printed images. The text presents a selection of works […]
Lynne Cohen and Denis Farley, Access Points – James D. Campbell
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Exhibition reviews
Authors: James D. Campbell | Artists: Denis Farley, Lynne Cohen
[Summer 2007] Parisian Laundry, Montréal January 12 – February 24, 2007 This welcome, timely, and provocative exhibition of photographic works by Lynne Cohen and Denis Farley shed considerable light on their respective oeuvres in a truly dialogical fashion. Lynne Cohen’s photographs have never looked more seductive and unsettling than they do in the present exhibition. […]
Michel Lamothe – Sylvain Campeau
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Sylvain Campeau | Artists: Michel Lamothe
[Summer 2007] This article was originally published only in French. You can read it by switching over to the French version of this page. Galerie Occurrence, Montréal du 20 janvier au 3 mars 2007
Jeff Wall – Stephanie Gibson
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Stephanie Gibson | Artists: Jeff Wall
[Summer 2007] Museum of Modern Art, New York February 25 – May 14, 2007 It is fitting that the Jeff Wall retrospective should be displayed on the sixth and top floor of the MoMA. For decades, photography collections had been relegated to the basement of museums. Photography, it was supposed, did not fit within the seamless narrative […]
Recent Publications – Jean-François Bélisle
Ciel variable 76 - MAPPING | Book Reviews
Authors: Jean-François Bélisle
[Summer 2007] Image and Inscription: An Anthology of Contemporary Canadian Photography [Robert Bean, ed.] (essays by Marie-Josée Jean, Blake Fitzparick, Robin Metcalfe, Carol Williams, Robert Enright, Vid Ingelevics, Lynne Bell, Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher, Stephen Horne, and Robert Bean). Toronto: Gallery 44 and yyz Books, 2005. English texts. 232 pp., 121 colour and 37 […]
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM
[Winter 2007] Today’s global tourism industry has developed a cultural structure that orients how we see. The works presented here address various aspects of that structure and offer new perspectives on a global phenomenon. The subjects approached range from the political nature of the Venice Biennale to the recently acquired monumental status of certain sites. […]
A redesign of the magazine for its twenty years
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM | Editorial
Authors: Jacques Doyon
[Fall 2007] by Jacques Doyon Ciel variable is twenty years old! Over the years, the magazine has undergone several metamorphoses in order to better reflect the evolution in photographic practice, the broadening of its field of application, its recognition by the art world, and changes in its institutional environment. As the only bilingual photography magazine […]
Antoni Muntadas, On Translation: I Giardini – Reesa Greenberg, The Currency of Time : Muntadas and I Giardini
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM | Portfolios
Authors: Reesa Greenberg | Artists: Antoni Muntadas, I Giardini
[Fall 2007] On Translation is an all-encompassing site-specific series of projects that Spanish artist Antoni Muntadas has been exhibiting since 1995. The 2005 instalment of the project – On Translation: I Giardini – was composed of a central interactive installation work, as well as photographic, video, and Web-based components. Produced on the occasion of Muntadas’s selection […]
Jana Sterbak, Waiting for High Water – Alain Laframboise, Jana Sterbak, Trompe-l’œil in Venice
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM | Portfolios
Authors: Alain Laframboise | Artists: Jana Sterbak
[Fall 2007] Produced in 2005–06, Waiting For High Water is the latest instalment of Jana Sterbak’s video projects with Stanley as camera-dog. Through a canine view of Venice, this work suggests a completely new perspective on this pre-eminent tourist destination. Exhibited as a triptych video projection, the edited video that resulted from the dog’s view […]
Jessica Auer, Re-creational Spaces – Michelle Kasprzak, Ways Out of the Labyrinth: The Works of Jessica Auer
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM | Portfolios
Authors: Michelle Kasprzak | Artists: Jessica Auer
[Fall 2007] Popular sites and tourism fascinate Jessica Auer. She has produced a series of photographic works that were shot in North and South America in which landscapes and architecture have been preserved, renovated, altered, or built from scratch for the benefit of tourism. Through novel perspectives and intriguing details, she invites viewers to appreciate […]
Photographic Projects for the Web: Site Recognition – Sylvie Parent
Ciel variable 77 – CULTURAL TOURISM | Essays
Authors: Sylvie Parent | Artists: Charles Pratt, Dan Phiffer, Don Sinclair, Kati London, Marketa Bankova, Mushon Zer-Aviv, Ran Tao, Thomas Duc
[Fall 2007] by Sylvie Parent An awareness of geography has never been totally absent from the Web. At first, however, it tended to be obscured behind utopian discourses on planetary connectivity. As the early enthusiasm about the Internet developed, regional places and specificities tended to become blurred. In recent years, though, free, user-friendly cartography tools […]