On October 6th, 2016, Renée Green presented her new exhibition Facing in Prefix, Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto.
“For the first time in its history, Prefix ICA has dedicated all three of our exhibition spaces – the main gallery, audio art gallery and surround gallery to a single artist. Anchored by the extraordinary digital film projection Begin Again, Begin Again (2015), Facing also features sound works, space poems and a print, as well as an extensive selection of digital films from the artist’s ongoing body of work.”
Given that this exhibition is the first full-scale presentation of Green’s practice in Toronto, works exhibited cover more than a decade of artistic production: from the recent film Walking in NYL (2016) to Endless Dreams and Water Between (2009), from an excerpt of Green’s Space Poem #3 (Media Bicho), 2012 to the sonic epic of Imaginary Places (A to Z), 2002; as Prefix states, “with a total of four hours of time-based work, the exhibition warrants repeat visits.”
In Green’s words: “Facing serves as a multiplicity and is defined in contrast to what a definition usually assigned to the term might suggest.
It refers, in my usage, to continual moments of encountering and of not running away from what may be perceived as difficult, unpleasant, or possible. It is not celebratory, but present. To be present. To regard. To address. To see, without flinching. A stripping away. Beyond surfaces. One among many reckonings. Into “not-knowing,’ yet with intent intensity and laser-like concentration. To use attention. Actively. Aware. Awake. And to reflect. On what exists/nothing is. This paradox.”
The exhibition was curated by Betty Julian and will be open to the public until November 26th, 2016.
For more information, please visit Prefix’s website.
