Movie Day: Hart of London by Jack Chambers

I wrote the following paper for something or other awhile ago, which is why it's a bit more academic than what I normally write here. Anyway, after the recent piece about the Chambers show at Museum London, it seemed appropriate. It's not a great essay by any means, and it's scope in dealing with the notoriously complex and esoteric film is decidedly limited, but it may offer some interest. The full film can be found below, but if you ever have the good fortune to see it on the big screen, for the love of God, do it.

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The complex and often paradoxical artistic vision of Jack Chambers (1931–1978) was something that the artist attempted to give context and intellectual clarity to in his essay "Perceptual Realism." This difficult, rather esoteric, text documents his relationship to contemporary art praxis in North America. Although it is often cited in discussions of Chambers' work to explicate his intentions, what has received scant examination has been the penultimate section of the essay and the specific implications which it has for his work.

Marcel Dzama – Of Many Turns at MACM

Winnipeger Marcel Dzama has emerged as one of Canada's major artists in recent years. In spite of his fashionability in New York hipster circles, there's something almost embarrassingly Canadian (ie. repressed, geeky, passively spiteful) about his work. Much of the exhibit was culled from shows he did at David Zwirner in New York in recent years. It is spread out over three large rooms. One was dark, delicately lit dioramas and the other two were typically white rooms whose exhibits were largely comprised of drawings, paintings and a few sculptures and combines.