004 Exhibition Visit
During this week’s class we will visit an exhibition included in this year’s Le Mois de la Photo a Montreal.
The exhibition we will see includes work by the Danish artist Jesper Just, held at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery of Concordia University.
The Gallery is located in downtown Montreal at 1400 blvd. de Maisonneuve West on the ground floor of the McConnell Library Building.
Métro Guy-Concordia
24 Bus
Parking on street
The morning group will meet at 9:2o a.m. outside the doors of the gallery. The afternoon group will meet at 3:00 p.m., in the gallery.
One of the objectives of the visit is to prepare for the ‘Exhibition Review’ assignment which you requires you to describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate the exhibition. The Exhibition Review assignment is worth 20% of your mark.
The review should include: 1) an introductory statement about the exhibition’s themes and concerns, followed by 2) a longer descriptive analysis of the works in the exhibition, 3) and a context for understanding the artist’s objectives (based on research into the artist’s work); 4) an evaluation of the work based on your analysis of thematic, formal and contextual aspects. This is to say that the evaluation is not an evaluation of worth in terms of personal taste, but of the cultural value of the work as it addresses or responds to relevant social, cultural and historical concerns.
1) Begin by looking at the entire exhibition. Consider the forms, subjects and specific contents of any and all elements. What sense do you make of each component of the work?
2) Read any literature that is available. Does this information provide a new and different point of access to the work? Return to see the work having read supplementary information. Does anything stand out?
3) At home, do some basic research about the situation addressed by the work.
4) When writing your review, begin with a basic description. Take note of the words you use to describe the work and any thematic, formal or conceptual motifs that appear. You should see a pattern emerge in the description of the work that corresponds to the words and ideas present in the research you’ve done. Your analysis is built of these observations and your interpretation indebted to them.
5) Your evaluation should follow from the analysis. Although your opinions are important to the review, they should be grounded by evidence gathered from your visit and your research activities.
