Waiting at an Ottawa bus stop or intersection can be awfully boring. I try to make the best of it and I'm always thankful for any visual distraction. Sure, most of the pictures that shape our cityscapes belong to advertisements. But keep your eyes open: Some are no commercial images at all, some might even belong to an art project!
If you recently saw an old encyclopedia image on a small placard with the caption “Take Notice” wired and nailed on an utility pole somewhere in Ottawa, you can consider yourself lucky: It belonged to an installation of the artist Paul Roorda that can now be seen at the City Hall Art Gallery. The small mixed media artworks by Roorda (Waterloo) involve the gaze of the beholder who automatically tries to create meaning of what he or she is looking at.
A detail of “Take Notice”, 2010, with images from vintage encyclopedias, paper, rust, nails, 14 x 11 cm each panel.
“What was once the post war optimism of a vintage encyclopedia is now re-contextualized as an anxiety over the consequences of the unsustainable progress we have a compulsion to pursue.” says Roorda about this installation “Take Notice”. The artworks which were hanging all around the city are now re-contextualised in an art gallery. That's why the underlying implications and topics become visible: history and progression, the human body and machinery, ritual and religion, faith in the future and destruction, nature and industrialisation.
The mixed media installation on the wall of the City Hall Art Gallery. The placards are posted to the walls with weathered, rusty nails like they were still on the poles. The empty spots refer to the notes that disappeared somehow from their posts. How exactly is not clear; some got damaged because of the weather, but some were taken from passers-by.
A closer look at “Take Notice” reveals that the installation deals with themes of construction of knowledge, the human impact on environment, and the faith on progressivism of earlier generations. The weathered images with rusty stripes and spots also reveal how time progresses and how ephemeral these images are.
“Sky Notice”, 2010, Polaroid photos, staples, nails, rust, and vintage paper, 24 x 17 cm each panel.
“The photos suffer colour distortion or overexposure and are scarred by rust and water damage reflecting the increasing anxiety with which we have come to view the sky: Global warming, intensifying storms, increasing UV warnings, and smog alerts have cast a shadow on our once bright and optimistic upward view.” so Roorda on his project “Sky Notice”.
Furthermore, Roorda's polaroids don't show an untouched sky; they show the sky cut up by con trails. Scarred by rust, water damage, and overexposure, these sky images reveal as well as the “Take Notice” series that an optimistic view in the future and even in the sky is problematic today. Roorda's installations visualize the uncertainty over the planet’s future. Thanks to Paul, we will take notice now!
Facts:
Paul Roorda - Take Notice
City Hall Art Gallery
City Hall Art Gallery
Ottawa City Hall
January 28 to April 3, 2011
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