Communicating Vessels is a newly commissioned work consisting of writing, video and photography produced in collaboration between Annie MacDonell and Maïder Fortuné. Following the premise that water will always find its level, the term Communicating Vessels describes the way liquid moves between conjoined containers: gravity and pressure conspire to keep the surfaces aligned, pulling the shared liquid back and forth until the separate vessels come into balance. Like the relationship between a mother and a child or fluid passed from mouth to mouth, meaning, intention and understanding constantly flow back and forth between us. It is the fundamental connectedness of all things, how ideas migrate and shapes shift, and the possibility of individuation without individualism. Bringing together fictional narrative, personal anecdote and private conversation, Communicating Vessels explores how we infect and influence each other in ways that are sometimes good, sometimes bad, yet always urgent and necessary.
Performers: Madelyne Beckles, Deragh Campbell, Fiona Reid
Camera: Iris Ng, Claire Harvey, Annie MacDonell, Maïder Fortuné
Sound: Julia Wittman, Polina Teif
This exhibition is presented in partnership with the 31st Images Festival, April 12 - 20, 2018. For more information visit imagesfestival.com
Presented with generous support from:
PIA
French Consulate
Production support from:
TSV
Annie MacDonell is a visual artist working across mediums. Her practice begins from the photographic impulse to frame and capture, but her output extends beyond photography. In recent years her work has included films, installations, sculpture, performance and writing. Her work questions the constitution, function, and circulation of images in the 21st century. She received a BFA from Ryerson University in 2000, followed by graduate studies at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in France. Recent performances have been presented at le Centre Pompidou, in Paris, and the Toronto International Film Festival. Recent solo shows have been held at Mulherin New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor and Mercer Union Gallery, Ryerson Image Centre and at the Art Museum for Nuit Blanche in Toronto. She has participated in recent group exhibitions at la Bibliothèque National in Paris, The Power Plant, Toronto, MOCA Cleveland, the Daegu Photo Biennale in South Korea and Le Grand Palais, Paris. In 2012 and 2015, she was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. In 2012 she was short-listed for the AGO AMIA prize for photography. She lives with her family in Toronto and teaches in the photography program at Ryerson
Maïder Fortuné, born in 1973, studied literature and theatre (École Jacques Lecoq, in Paris) before entering Le Fresnoy National Studio for Contemporary Arts, where she developed a performance-related practice of the technological image. This somewhat atypical itinerary relative to classical fine arts training programmes has contributed to the singularity of her work. With its great formal rigor, Fortuné’s work commands all the viewer’s attention for a genuine experience of the image and its processes. Often playing on fantasy and wonder, she draws on the styles of Samuel Beckett, Maurice Blanchot or Virginia Woolf for the suggestive power of words. Each time, the screens or video set-ups are chosen for their appropriateness in relation to the subject and the mise-en-scène. Whether shown with video projections, small monitors or plasma screens, the size of the images and materials used vary in proportion to the precise scale of the bodies. Within the frame, the bodies move about in sets simply defined by the quality of the light or darkness.
