Drinkers of Quintessences

The Darling Foundry is pleased to present, as part of the group exhibition Drinkers of Quintessences, the performance Everything and Nothing (2013) by Canadian conceptual artist Kelly Mark, performed in duo with the artist Dean Baldwin. 

The work features a dialogue on every subject under the sun between a man and a woman, in an exercise of style between two contradictory expressions that end up intermingled. Freely mixing about a hundred aphorisms and advertising slogans, organized roughly in alphabetical order, Everything and Nothing reveals the irony of our difficulty with grasping the nuances of the “rules” that govern our daily behaviours, as well as the subversive admixtures of philosophical thought and marketing claims.

This performance is related to another of Mark’s works in the exhibition: The Kiss (2007), a video sculpture composed of two CRT television sets placed screen to screen on a human-height platform. A pink-tinted monochromatic image, borrowed from the glow emanating from pornographic movies, runs on both screens, which are touching—a contact resembling a kiss.

About Kelly Mark
Mark lives and works in Toronto. Her work has been exhibited widely across Canada and internationally. She is represented in public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal. Montréalers have had an opportunity to see her works on a number of occasions: a solo show at VOX (2008), a performance at DHC/ART (2009), and a solo show presented jointly by the Darling Foundry and Silver Flag Projects (2011). Mark is represented by Olga Korper Gallery in Toronto.

Drinkers of Quintessences
In resonance with Ultra-Vide, the Darling Foundry’s inaugural exhibition in 2002, which breathed new life into the former industrial site, Drinkers of Quintessences explores the concept of the void in the visual arts by bringing together the work of twelve artists from Canada and abroad. Minimal, apparently empty of content, ephemeral, and furtive, implying that the artist has not “worked” enough or is not personal enough, these works question their own status by challenging notions of authorship, art object, and exhibition space. Simultaneously, they embody a quest for the infinite and call for a perception that transcends the material and the visible, by asking the viewers to reflect beyond their gaze, into the realm of the spiritual. The exhibition thus takes a stand against the dominant contemporary trend that equates art with spectacular visual effects and feeds the “Society of the Spectacle.”

Artists 
Fortner Anderson (QC), Steve Bates (QC), Marie-Claire Blais (QC), Olivia Boudreau (QC), Claude Closky (FR), Marie Cool Fabio Balducci (FR / IT), Alexandre David (QC), Adriana Disman (QC), Kitty Kraus (DE), Stéphane La Rue (QC), Kelly Mark (ON), János Sugár (HU)

Curator
Caroline Andrieux

Darling Foundry
The Darling Foundry is a visual-arts complex that was founded in 2002 and is operated by the not-for-profit art organization Quartier Éphémère; its mandate is to support the creation, production, and dissemination of contemporary art. In its spaces totalling 3,500 m2 in two former industrial buildings in Old Montreal, the Darling Foundry presents exhibitions, makes studios available to local emerging artists, and hosts international artists and curators in residency. It thus offers artists and viewers fulfilling experiences in an inspiring context, with a sense of coherence that facilitates the comprehension of contemporary art. Conceived as a social economy enterprise, it supports the agency of citizens and local communities. A unique institution in Montreal, the Darling Foundry aims to bring together the local and international art scenes through its activities.