MONTREAL, Nov. 17, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ -The exhibition by Montreal artist Nelson Henricks opens to the public on November 17, 2022 at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) and will continue until April 10, 2023. In this self-titled exhibition, Nelson Henricks offers up two new works, produced especially for the occasion, and presented for the first time at the MAC. The installation work Don't You Like the Green of A? is a pictorial interpretation of Joan Mitchell's synesthetic correspondence between letters and colors. While Heads Will Roll, a four-channel video installation, features a series of actions performed by performers, musicians, and dancers, exploring the revolutionary potential of popular and experimental music.
"Nelson Henricks' works challenge us to question how an artwork shapes an idea, and how that shaping is perceived by the viewer who experiences it. How does a work express the content that is its source?" - Mark Lanctôt, Curator at the MAC and of the exhibition
Don't You Like the Green of A? Don't You Like the Green of A? is based on the correspondences between letters and colours specific to the synaesthesia (a neurological condition in which perception by one sense automatically triggers a perception in one of the other senses) of American painter Joan Mitchell (1925–1992). In this work, Henricks—who also suffers from synaesthesia—addresses the condition not only as subject but also as methodology: he explores how an atypical perception mechanism can affect our understanding of language and, therefore, of the world around us.
Heads Will Roll In Heads Will Roll, Henricks probes the potential of noise and music as expressions of public protest. This work draws inspiration from popular protests in Québec in the spring of 2012: every evening, thousands of people surged into the street banging pots and pans to express their discontent with the government of the time. In addition to providing the sights (and sounds) of scenes in which a percussionist performs on pots and pans, Henricks alludes to politics and ideology by orchestrating flags, books, and demonstrators in a tight, fast-paced montage that transitions from more harmonious sequences to highly chaotic or noisy scenes. The actions performed are edited to form an immersive experience in which the images are subordinated to the imperative of rhythm.
ANDY WARHOL, Screen Tests - Presented in the MAC projection room
For his exhibition, at the request of the Museum, Nelson Henricks has carefully compiled a program of 15 Screen Tests produced by Andy Warhol (1928-1987). This selection brings together the practices of both artists.
The Screen Tests (1964-1966) – totalizing 362 – which average length is 4 minutes, are in fact portraits of 189 people around him, many of whom were filmed multiple times. The basic formula for a test piece was simple: people had to sit in front of the camera and remain still until the film ran out.
"Screen Tests presents an erased version of the artist: Warhol takes a step back and the subject on the screen overwhelms us. Thus, Screen Tests leans towards intersubjective recognition. What does it mean to look and to be looked at? What can we learn by looking at someone's face? What do we become when we compose ourselves for the gaze of another?", asks Nelson Henricks.
This presentation is made possible by a loan from the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a Carnegie Institute museum.
Activities open to everyone
- Exhibition tour with Nelson Henricks and Mark Lanctôt: During the exhibition Nelson Henricks, the MAC invites you to take part in a tour of the exhibition with the artist and the curator, Mark Lanctôt, . The conversation, which will cover the works presented and Henricks' practice more broadly, will be followed by an exchange with the public. Please reserve your ticket
for the following sessions: Wednesday, November 23, at 5:30 pm (French) and Wednesday, January 18, at 5:30 pm (English). Included in the price of admission. - Stuart Jackson: a concert of solo percussion works: Percussionist Stuart Jackson, featured in Nelson Henricks' four-channel video installation Heads Will Roll, will perform pieces that were chosen to complement the percussive content of Henricks' video, in which drum sounds are performed with books, pots, pans and other household objects.
November 30, 2022, at 6pm at the Heads Will Roll video installation by Nelson Henricks at the MAC at Place Ville Marie. Included in the price of admission.
- ANDY WARHOL as seen by NELSON HENRICKS, a MAC "pop-up" activity presented at the Cinémathèque québécoise: six films by Andy Warhol, selected by Nelson Henricks. Each session is preceded by a short presentation by Ara Osterweil and Nelson Henricks and will be followed by a Q & A with the public.
PROGRAM 1, Thursday, January 26 at 6:30 pm
Outer & Inner Space, 1966, 33 min
Velvet Underground in Boston, 1967, 33 min
PROGRAMME 2, Friday January 27 at 8:30 pm
Haircut, 1963, 24 min
Kiss, 1963, 54 min
PROGRAM 3, Saturday, January 28 at 6:30 PM
Mario Banana #2, 1964, 4 min
The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1966, 67 min
About Nelson Henricks
Born in Bow Island, Alberta, 1963, Nelson Henricks has lived and worked in Montréal since 1991. Known mainly for his video works, he has developed a multidisciplinary approach (painting, sculpture, writing) to better explore how audiovisual data from different sources overlap with and influence each other. He has taught art history and video production at Concordia University. His work has been presented constantly in Canada and abroad since the early 1990s. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts of Montreal, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the National Gallery of Canada, and many corporate and private collections.
The MAC accessible to all
The MAC continues to make progress in its stated desire to make contemporary art accessible to as many people as possible. For example, the MAC at Place Ville Marie offers a single admission fee of $10 and free admission for children under 18 and school and community groups. The MAC participates in the "Borrow a Museum" program, which allows visitors to borrow a pass to visit the MAC in the same way as any other library book. The Museum has also developed a partnership with Canoo, which provides free access to certain cultural institutions, including the MAC, to newcomers to the province.
In addition, video works from the Nelson Henricks exhibition are available with descriptive captions and video descriptions at https://macm.org/en/exhibitions/nelson-henricks/ .
Acknowledgements
The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives financial support from the Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
For more than fifty years, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal has been bringing together local and international artists, their works and diverse audiences, celebrating art as an essential component of life in Montréal and Québec. The museum's headquarters, located in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles, is about to undergo a major architectural overhaul. In the meantime, the MAC has temporarily relocated its activities to Place Ville Marie, an iconic location in Montreal's business district. Beginning December 1, 2021, and throughout the expansion and renovation, the Museum will continue to engage the public with temporary exhibitions highlighting exceptional artists and presenting a variety of practices. In addition to two major exhibitions per year, the MAC at PVM will continue to offer public programs as well as a range of educational services and community outreach activities. www.macm.org
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