Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal ::: Rodney Graham

Graham, Rodney

How I Became a Ramblin' Man, 1999

35-mm colour film transferred to DVD, 9 min, continuous loop
Collection of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Photo: Courtesy Donald Young Gallery, Chicago

Get ready for a good ride! In a body of work that runs the range from pop culture to contemporary art, this artist uses installation, photography, music and film to explore—philosophically and sometimes ironically—psychoanalysis, literature, music and the history of art. The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal presents Rodney Graham from October 7, 2006 to January 7, 2007.

Since the mid-1970s, Rodney Graham has re-examined some of the foundations of Western culture. As curator Josée Bélisle notes, his work is brilliantly paradoxical, based on a unique synthesis of rigour and melancholy, humour and erudition, coherence and eclecticism. Repetition, quotation, and cascading, nested images are among the formal, psychological and philosophical strategies that he uses. These strategies of appropriation and transformation contribute to the development of an art that is thoroughly original and highly personal, all the more so as the artist is often the featured player in his photographs and films. It is a powerful work imbued with multiple meanings.

The exhibition features 10 major works by the artist, nearly all of them produced in the last three years and presented here for the first time in Canada. Remarkably, Graham created four superb new installations just this year for the presentation at the museum. Three Musicians (Members of the Early Music Group “Renaissance Fare” Performing Matteo of Perugia’s “Le Greygnour Bien” at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, Late September 1977) reconstructs, in a photographic triptych, the fictional performance of the late fourteenth-century piece of music. Lobbing Potatoes at a Gong plunges us into the 1960s with a Fluxus-type performance. Awakening references a Chris Walter photograph of the group Black Sabbath, with Graham here taking the place of the tramp lying on a park bench. Paradoxical Western Scene, for its part, revolves around this major movie genre.

Graham also inserts himself in some famous scenes in art history, which he recreates in his own way. The Glass of Beer, 2005, quotes Andy Warhol’s famous silk-screened self-portraits and Manet’s Le Bon Bock (in turn inspired by Franz Hals). In Allegory of Folly: Study for an Equestrian Monument in the Form of a Wind Vane, 2005, the artist depicts himself as the philosopher Erasmus as painted by Hans Holbein the Younger. Here, however, the rider is mounted backward on a mechanical horse of the kind used for training, and totally engrossed in reading… the Vancouver phonebook. Torqued Chandelier Release, 2005, virtually a still life in motion, refers to an experiment with motion and gravity conducted by Isaac Newton. And in Loudhailer, Graham portrays an RCMP officer struggling with a megaphone.

In addition, the exhibition includes two works recently acquired by the museum—How I Became a Ramblin’ Man, 1999, and Screen Door, 2005—in which Graham revisits some mythic emblems of the twentieth century: that of the western movie and its lone hero in Ramblin’ Man, and Graceland, Elvis Presley’s famous mansion, in Screen Door.

Rodney Graham lives and works in Vancouver. He is from the same generation as Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace and Ken Lum. One of Canada’s leading artists, Graham has represented the country at such major events as the 1992 Kassel Documenta, the 1997 Venice Biennale and the 2002 Biennale of Sydney. In 2002-2003, the WhitechapelArtGallery in London, K21 in Düsseldorf and [mac] galeries contemporaines des Musées de Marseille mounted a retrospective of his work. The current presentation Rodney Graham takes up where that major survey left off. Previously, the Musée showed Vexation Island, 1997, in the exhibition Head Over Heels into the Millennium in 1999-2000.

Catalogue

A 100-page catalogue accompanies the exhibition. It includes an essay by the curator, Josée Bélisle, texts by the artist on his four new pieces, a biobibliography and reproductions of the works. It may be purchased for $29.95 at the museum’s Olivieri Bookstore or Librairie ABC Livres d’art, or from your local bookseller.

Point[s] of View Series

Wednesday, October 18, 2006, at 6 p.m.
Presentation of the exhibition by curator Josée Bélisle

"L'oeuvre de Graham revisite constamment les procédés créatifs, à partir de l'inspiration, souvent d'origine littéraire, historique ou philosophique, jusqu'au résultat plastique plus vrai que nature. (...) Cette volonté tout à fait rock des années 70 de remettre en question, regarder d'un autre oeil ou brasser la cage parcourt la dizaine d'oeuvres présentées. (...) L'attitude rock de Rodney Graham c'est aussi son refus de rentrer dans le rang, sa volonté de multiplier les formes d'expression et les supports." (Mario Cloutier, La Presse, 6 octobre 2006)

"Voici une exposition qui aurait pu avoir le sous-titre suivant: Comment devenir un homme. En effet, plusieurs des oeuvres récentes de Rodney Graham tournent autour de la notion de masculinité et des mythes véhiculés par cette identité virile autant dans le cinéma ou la publicité que dans l'univers de la musique ou même dans le milieu de l'art contemporain. Tout cela est bien sûr énoncé avec un humour caustique, comme Graham sait le faire depuis maintenant 30 ans. Caricaturiste corrosif de notre monde contemporain, parfois simplement pince-sans-rire, Graham sait interroger des images identitaires, dont celle de la masculinité, jusqu'à les faire éclater." (Nicolas Mavrikakis, Voir Montréal, 12 octobre 2006)

"Voici un artiste multidisciplinaire (qui sait utiliser la photo, le film, la musique...) dont les pièces pouvaient parfois sembler inégales lorsqu'elles étaient vues séparément. Réunies, elles annoncent une cohérence et une diversité, un jeu sur le thème et la variation qui est d'une grande intégrité." (Voir Montréal, 7 septembre 2006)

"Graham's art does put life, fact and fiction in perspective, even if we're never meant to know exactly what that perspective really is - guiding principle or mortal threat. In any case, Graham's deadpan images and tin-pan audios add up to something that is far more than merely far-far out." (Henry Lehmann, The Gazette, October 14, 2006)

"The star of the show, though, is Screen Door (2005), Graham's copy, in silver, of a screen door from Elvi's Graceland (...) You can feel all of Graham's love of fantasy, here, as well as his michievous gift for mimicry. The Musée d'art contemporain has acquired this piece for its collection, and it's a good thing too. This sculpture, like its maker, is a national treasure." (Sarah Milroy, The Globe & Mail, November 27, 2006)