Coming to a Toronto Near You! In February 2009!

Some time ago, Hye-Sung and I spent part of an afternoon with Supervisor John looking at and discussing a group of objects at the NGC solely to be examined before moving on to the next venue of the touring exhibition.  It was really fun.

The inside of a light box backed photograph transparency.  The excitement with this particular piece is that is uses LEDs instead of fluorescent tubes.  Fluorescent light does everything bad and nothing good for art, and the tube need to be taken out and shipped separately when ever traveling an artwork that uses them.  Pain in the butt.

Supervisor John.  He's doing condition reports on each object.  Considering that these photographs are all brand-new, he didn't see much damage.  On that double-layered cart is a big binder with the condition documentation on each object with a page for each venue and areas for specific people to sign off on things.  It's like the file a doctor will pull when you go for a check up.  Except for an artwork.  Clearly.

And no, those are not large chunks of petrified wood.  They are photographs adhered to large chunks of aluminum, the edges cut to mimic slabs of marble.  They are really heavy.  It's like three or four inch thick aluminum, and large portions are even hollowed out to make them lighter.

This work was recently purchased by the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP), an associate museum of the NGC.  Also photographs, not mirrors.  Often, for large works, installation pieces, and similar, the acquisitions committee will have the piece installed someplace, frequently in the regular galleries.  This was installed in a temporarily closed gallery (regular rotation).  It was really great.

Hye-Sung demonstrates the hanging mechanism.  Magnets!  By the same artist whose steel sheeting I helped yank of a photograph in October.  A more advanced permutation, however, as the metal is attached to the wall and the photograph backed with the same sort of flexible vinyl magnet used to make refrigerator magnets.

What may be in a 'temporarily closed for artwork rotation' gallery.  These crates are from the objects loaned to the NGC for the current, large and awesome exhibition on the sculpture of Bernini.

Hye-Sung is magnetic too.  It really sucks when your skeleton has adamantium plating.  She really has a tricky time of it whenever Magneto drops by for consultations.

Hiding from my responsibilities.  Like figuring out how I'll get health insurance post-22 December.