Preview: Oscillations of the Visible

Olivia Boudreau’s video installations are striking. On the surface, they appear stark and minimal. But there is more to them than the subtle, repetitive movements and actions they chronicle. Their seemingly incidental elements — the figures they depict, the textures they study ­— imbue them with layers of meaning for the viewer to discover.

And that, Boudreau explains, is exactly the point. “There is a lot to see in an image before you understand it deeply,” she says.

This month, audiences will have a chance to examine her art for themselves at Concordia’s Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery. Oscillations of the Visible is showcasing 14 videos and a performance by the artist, who in 2011 received the prestigious Prix Pierre-Ayot de la Ville de Montréal. The exhibition covers the past 10 years of Boudreau’s career, right up to the present.

Boudreau’s performance is a new work: “Lying Bodies, Standing Bodies, 2014” will run non-stop while the gallery is open, for a total of approximately 245 hours. It involves two artists — one who stands, and observes the other lying on the floor. They switch positions at unpredictable intervals.

In anticipation of Oscillations of the Visible’s opening on Wednesday, February 12, we spoke to Boudreau about how she turns simple actions into arresting art.
 

It’s been written that your work "depicts the body carrying out everyday actions with the goal of creating a sense of hyper-awareness among visitors." How does this hyper-awareness manifest itself? And why is it your goal?

Olivia Boudreau: It can be very liberating to have a little to watch but still have something to watch. I pay a lot of attention to simple actions and movements in hopes that the visitor may find interest in something else — maybe the texture of a fur coat or a subject’s skin changing colours.

There is a lot to see in an image before you understand it deeply. I feel that we don’t take this time and that it makes us less conscious of the world we live in. If it’s a goal — and it’s not my only one in making these videos — it’s because I feel I need to develop my own ability to pay attention to details, to the multiple meanings of a single situation or image. If I need this time, maybe the audience does, too.
 

Why did you choose performance and video?

OB: I was naturally drawn to both. Video affords me a certain distance from a charged performance that involves the body in different states — not only the pretty one. The combination of the two media makes it easier for me. I can go into a very intimate situation with an objective distance. 
 

What role do the four "Femme allongée" images pictured here play in the exhibition?

OB: Those images are stills from the new video that will be part of the show. It’s a work that’s a bit different from what I’ve done before. It employs narration and editing. This differs from my earlier works, which are mostly one long, static take.

I wanted to go somewhere I had never been and try something I didn’t know if I was able to do or not. In the older pieces, I was trying to convey multiple meanings in a single action. With the new piece, “Femme allongée,” I tied ideas together by filming a woman experiencing different situations.

The opening of Oscillations of the Visible takes place on Wednesday, February 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Ellen Art Gallery in the J.W. McConnell (LB) Building (1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.) The exhibition runs until Saturday, April 12.

Learn how the John Molson School of Business Building became an art gallery.