The Welcome Wagon

Sometimes the red carpet isn't rolled out for you.  Sometimes, what comes first is more a matter of what is available.  We haven't posted anything in quite a while since our lives have taken new directions.  These new directions have landed us in Winnipeg, which coming from Toronto is quite a change.  The differences are neither subtle nor understated.  Everything is different right down to the way you feel walking down the street.  This city has a reputation for culture and we plan to experience as much as possible.

Being fresh off an expensive move, we went looking for something free.  Having found a few options, we decided to go to a curator talk at the Plug In ICA where Aoife MacNamara was scheduled to speak.  On the website it didn't really say what she would be speaking about but it did go on at great length touting her credentials and current projects. One I was very interested in hearing about was titled Botany and promised to raise interesting questions.

I've been to countless scientific talks and I had no idea what to expect from a curator talk.  A good scientific talk is a lot like being told a marvelous story with an interesting plot and always comes to a dramatic climax.  Then, when your adrenaline is pumping it raises poignant questions that the presenter promises to answer in the future.  Dr. MacNamara's talk was not even remotely close to a scientific talk (not necessarily in a bad way).  She simply described several similar, topic linked exhibitions that she curated and left all conclusions to the audience.  The audience we were part of consisted entirely of people who knew each other and we felt immediately out of place.  As for the content of the talk, I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing at the humor of the situation since everyone around us were quite serious.  Dr. MacNamara talked about pictures of audio installations of people talking.  I couldn't make it up if I tried.  We all sat there and listened to her talk so we could imagined what her pictures of talking must have sounded like. The entire presentation was made while standing right beside the speaker of her well equipped lecture podium's audiovisual unit but no audio was ever presented.

Although I did find it tedious at times and the question period dragged of questions asked in ways to make the question poser sound as intelligent and sophisticated as possible, there was one sentence which made the entire experience worth while.  Dr. MacNamara said that it is easy to make a statement and portray a feeling with art but it is difficult to create and curate art which asks open ended questions and opens discussion.  This really hit home with me.  Looking back on the art that I love, it does exactly this, it forces open debate and discussion while making as few pointed statements as possible without losing a sense of intention.

Overall, we're going to give Winnipeg the benefit of the doubt and let it take its time to grow on us.  We may not jump at the opportunity to see just any curator talk moving forward, but I hope it wasn't our last.