Gallery 7, Yorkville Toronto, Ontario 11/08/01

Gallery 7, Yorkville Toronto, Ontario 11/08/01.
Performance: 40-minutes. Installation: 2-weeks.

The Business of Art Performance and Multimedia Installation engages visitor participation during the 40-minute performance, and throughout the exhibition of the installation.

Tensions between personal and commercial aesthetic preferences are explored with the use of Trademarked Ralph Lauren home decorator paint chips. The Panton copyright paint chips, each with its evocative printed name, are displayed and exchanged between visitors during the performance, and available for taking throughout the exhibition period.

During the Performance, the artist’s rhythmic movements, while speaking extemporaneously about the business of art and aesthetics, engage with the different elements of the installation.

From between the veil-like curtains suspended at different heights she shows an open book of her written notes. Pouring water from a jug into an overflowing glass sitting in a dish, she muses “it is that which does not fit” and shows this overflowing water to visitors who spontaneously dip fingers and sprinkle the water on themselves.

Aesthetic tensions between formal and intimate space are explored with the positioning of a monitor beside her during her extemporaneous musings which shows the artist teaching in a formal setting. This recording is replaced with a video loop documentation of her Performance for the duration of the Business of Art exhibition.