THE LANGUAGE OF OUR TIME AND SPACE
Centre PHI
June 8 2023 - September 14 2023
Project proposal for IED Master in Curatorial Practice
2023
Language has a surprising impact on the way we think about our world and how we move through it: in how we read and write, how we organise our thoughts and in our perception of time and space. Is our understanding of time and space something universal and independent of language, or are our thoughts instead determined by it? Furthermore, have we taken these considerations into account when shaping our understanding of our world? “I've long wondered whether our physics of time might be shaped by the fact that English, German and French speakers were instrumental in creating it.” – Daniel Casasanto.
​
Through the works of Yael Kanarek, Darren Almond, Dariia Kuzmych, and Edward Burtynsky,
The Language of Our Time and Space addresses our shared uncertainty concerning climate change. The creation of a new lexicon in describing these transformations is essential. Being aware of how our experience through language differs will help us navigate most effectively during this state of flux.
Venue
Centre PHI, Montreal
Artists
Yael Kanarek
b. 1967, Israel
Yael Kanarek’s multimedia works explore the relationship between language and emotion, between movement and identity. Her installations often feature words in delicate, lace-like strings of moulded rubber letters in multiple languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Through storytelling and translation, Kanarek reshapes cultural associations of language. Her creative practice centres on the dynamics and form of multilingualism and the synchronisation of narrative with standard time.
Darren Almond
b.1971, UK
Fascinated by the question of time and its representation, Darren Almond has developed a body of works combining photographs, film, sketches, installations, paintings and sculptures. He experiments with the sensation of time passing, individual and collective memory, movement and space. Focusing on the idea of time and how it is articulated through the language of numbers, he draws attention to the way time can frame, structure and inform our understanding of the world.
Dariia Kuzmych
b. 1991, Ukraine
Dariia works in various techniques, such as installation, drawing, video, and text, capturing the times of transition in a society and its impact on the individual. She engages with various aspects of trauma experience and time perception: ruptures, transitional states, time gaps, and reassembly of fragments into something coherent.
​
Edward Burtynsky
b. 1955, Canada
