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JEAN-PAUL GAUTHIER / RUT / September 8, 2005 – October 8, 2005 /
JEAN-PIERRE GAUTHIER
Rut
September 8 – October 8, 2005
Opening reception: Thursday, September 8, 2005, 6-8pm
The Jack Shainman Gallery is proud to present RUT, an exhibition of new work by Jean-Pierre Gauthier. RUT, is a large installation/soundscape, designed to evoke the sounds of a summer pond filled with frogs, birds, and flying insects but constructed entirely from simple mechanical and electronic devices. Filling the entirety of the gallery’s main exhibition space, RUT consists of a complex tubular metal structure that serves as the infrastructure for an assemblage of simple mechanical devices whose sounds are sequenced randomly. Combined and composed the devices and sounds interact in a relational structure of sound that is at once artificial and natural in its unfolding. In scale and complexity, RUT marks a new milestone for the Montreal based Gauthier’s work.
The winding tubes that define RUT’s skeleton and it visual line supports a network of sound devices including motors, microphones, mixers, speakers, wires, carrying these elements in the various spaces and corner of the gallery. From these varied points in the space of the room the viewer is surrounded by the Amplified and broadcast sound of an array of small mechanized devices with contact microphones attached. These sounds are then mixed into a randomly patterned, spatially sequenced string of noises that register throughout the space.
Gauthier’s exploration of sound and sculpture emphasizes the ways and means in which random events combine to form patterns of seeming coherence and beauty. Gauthier transforms a sound mixer so that the volumes of the microphones are constantly shifting and being mixed in different ways. The sound also moves in space through a sequential distribution. Sound is amplified and broadcast through eight speakers covered with objects that affect the color and tone of the sound by filtering it in a low-tech approach. Various control systems work independently, producing new combinations of sound each time the installation “restarts.”
Gauthier will also be exhibiting four drawing machines “Marqueurs d’incertitude (uncertainty markers),” (2005). These four machines are made of a metal ring, approximately 12 inches in diameter with pencil lead attached to a flexible metal wire. A combination of random traction made by small motors in each work generates 4 distinct drawings directly onto the wall. Each drawing will slowly changing over the duration of the exhibition. Two of these machines are also sound machines that invite the viewer to listen through headphones to the rhythmical sound of pencil lead on the wall.
Jean-Pierre Gauthier is the 2004 recipient of the Sobey Art Award. His work was recently acquired by the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal, Canada, 2005. Recent exhibitions include “Flow” a solo exhibition at the Knoxville Museum of Art, TN (October 24, 2003–February 1, 2004) and “Demons Stole My Soul – Rock n Roll Drums in Contemporary Art”, a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada, 2005.
Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm. For additional information and photographic material please contact the gallery at info@jackshainman.com.