- Énoncé de l'artiste : PETER DYKHUIS

(It was a busy day. I had left Halifax at 1:00 and drove straight through to Moncton and, after asking for some directions, arrived at the old "Creaghans" building by 4:30. I was looking for Terry, who had been my main contact during the preparatory stages of this show, but, apparently, he had just left the site and wouldn't be back for a few more hours. So, I introduced myself to the people that were there who, as it turns out, were both exhibitors and the organizers of the installation. The show was scheduled to open the following evening and was mostly installed. I toured the exhibition and looked for a location to install my piece. I decided that the space by the staircase on the main floor was the most suitable.)

This ladders' original function has been changed now it is wrapped in gold foil. Its simple, human scaled "technological" purpose as a climbing tool is still legible, but now, as a temporary "cultural" object crowned with two televisions, it is functioning in another capacity and laden with new, evocative associations. The metaphors of "ascension" and "golden ideals" can be prioritized in this new format yet these are thwarted by a television mass media voice which is restricted and shaped by an imposed text.

(I had brought two televisions with me from my inventory of objects and materials. Terry had said that a ladder could be supplied for me. I asked around to see if one had been reserved but every ladder there was actively engaged as equipement in the installation process. Yvon Gallant told me that he could get a ladder for me. So we walked to Georges-Émile Melanson's house and picked up a 6' aluminum step ladder. It was the perfect scale for the location where I was going to install the piece. The wrapping of the ladder with the gold foil took about 3 hours. The televisions were then unpacked from their cartons and the text masks installed on the screens.)

It is easy to recognize the concept of TV as a false reality, particularly when 75% of the televised image is blocked and "shaped" by the text, but, upon further analysis, a deeper ambiguity is built into the piece. Whose voice does the accusatory term "LIAR" represent? Is it the audience labelling the medium of television in general or is it the framing of the specific programming that happens to be aired at the time? Or is the French and English medias taunting each other? Or is it a projection out onto the audience, where the TV is, in effect, naming the viewer as a liar? What is significant, though, is the atmosphere of mistrust progagated by and through the medium of television. It is reflected as a form of "existential crisis" that prevades society when the multitude of belief systems presented through the mass media are perpetually denouncing each other and working on campaigns of negative disinformation. Negative contexts abound.

(I placed the two TVs beside each other on the top platform. "Ah, I see a statement about the Constitutional debate and Referendum", was one the first comments that I heard from the few people standing around. "That's definitely part of it", was my reply. I tuned in the same local TV station on both sets. I cleaned by and looked around the exhibition again. It was 11:00 and I still had to drive back to Halifax that night. I was tired but satisfied with this piece and its relationship to the rest of the show. There was work here from all over Atlantic Canada, French and English, all of it engaged in a variety of discourses, collectively forming an engaging exhibition. Here was a positive context.)

- DYKHUIS, Peter


  retour à la liste