TIME WILL HAVE PASSED. LE TEMPS AURA PASSÉ.
Avec l’aimable concours de l’artiste.
NELSON HENRICKS. TIME WILL HAVE PASSED. LE TEMPS AURA PASSÉ. is Henricks’ first mid-career retrospective in Canada. Curator Steve Reinke has selected works produced between 1994 and 2010.
In a practice that spans more than 20 years, Nelson Henricks has produced both single channel video works and video installations, some of which exist in both modes of presentation. When Henricks moved to Montréal from Alberta in 1994 he was already well known for his single channel works. While studying film at Concordia he developed a series of works that were hybrids of film and video and in which French and English were combined. Henricks has explored several problematics through works that can be densely edited, with images, text, sound and voice each having a separate, if precisely and densely interwoven, existence while others deploy editing sparingly, and harken back to the earliest days of video art. They are the quandaries of self-portraiture, the impossible heaviness of writing and speech and literature, the passing of time and physical embodiment, and the self-consciousness of art-making within the discourses of contemporary post-conceptual practices.
Beginning with Satellite (2004), Henricks developed new strategies for video installation, particularly in relation to montage. He began to assemble, or compose, images and poetically condensed texts and phrases with an eye/ear to rhythm and counterpoint. Again and again in Henricks’ work, the impossibility of linguistic communication — of reading and writing — is resolved by a turn away from language. But this turn away from linguistic representation does not resolve itself in the image. Instead, it finds solace in audio, whether as a simple hum or drone, or a percussive banging. Rhythm is primary in Henricks’ work, and it is the rhythm of becoming animal, of turning away from both linguistic and pictorial signification, turning away from consciousness itself to pure, unmediated experience.
EXPLORE
- Identity and how it is addressed and constructed in Henricks’ work;
- Voice and its narrative function in this work;
- Memory, personal history, and the passage of time. How do they reveal themselves and in what ways are they important in this work?
- Language and writing: their importance and the various ways in which they are made use of;
- Representation and meaning and the ways in which they relate to each other in this work.
A FEW QUESTIONS
- Consider visual composition in this body of work. More specifically, consider the use of the close-up in a number of the works presented. How does it function in this work? What is its effect?
- Can you identify different types of editing techniques that exist in the works presented here? How is editing important to each work and what does it reveal?
- Sound, at times seemingly simple and at others remarkably complex, is an important element in Henricks’ work. What is it composed of? How is it constructed? What role does it play?
- How does Henricks explore the potential of narrative in his work and what does his exploration advance, resolve, and reflect? What does he discover?
- Consider the presentation of Henricks’ work in the Gallery and the type of sequencing or flow of work that curator, Steve Reinke, has established in collaboration with Nelson Henricks. How do you think it functions and what does it tell you about individual works and this body of work as a whole?
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Reinke, Steve, ed. Nelson Henricks. Time Will Have Passed. Le Temps Aura Passé. Montréal : Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 2010.
Moumblow, Monique. Nelson Henricks. Montréal: VOX image contemporaine/contemporary image, 2009.
Davis, John. Nelson Henricks: Undertones. Toronto: Gallery 44 and Images Festival, 2008.
Henricks, Nelson. Colleen Gray: Gray Matter. In Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women. Toronto: YYZBOOKS, 2004.
Henricks, Nelson. Dogs. In Shari Hatt Dogs: 1999-2004. Lethbridge: Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 2004.
Henricks, Nelson. American Psycho (Drama): Sigmund Freud vs. Henry Ford. In Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video. Toronto: YYZBOOKS and Pleasure Dome, 2000.
Henricks, Nelson. Mentana Sexy. In So, to Speak. Montréal: Artexte Editions, 1999.
Hoolboom, Michael. Nelson Henricks: Ironic Nostalgia. In Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Movie Artists. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2008.
Prioul, Didier, and Louise Déry. Espaces intérieurs : le corps, la langue, les mots, la peau. Québec: Musée du Québec, 1999.
Ross, Christine. Je vais vous raconter une histoire de fantômes : vidéos de Nelson Henricks. Montréal: Oboro, 1995.
Produced with the support of the Frederick and Mary Kay Lowy Art Education Fund.
Curator: Steve Reinke
Exhibition produced by the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
THE CURATOR
Steve Reinke is an artist, writer and curator. He is well known for his monologue-based videos which have been featured in numerous international festivals including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sundance Film Festival, the New York Video Festival and the London Film Festival. His works are in the collection of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). He has co-edited of By the Skin of Their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts (YYZBOOKS, 1997), Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video (YYZBOOKS, 2000), The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema (YYZBOOKS, 2005), and is the author of Everybody Loves Nothing, a book of his scripts published by Coach House Books in 2007. He has curated exhibitions in Canada, the United States and in Europe. Reinke received a BFA from York University in 1986 and his MFA from NSCAD University in 1994. In 2006, he received the Bell Award in Video Art. He is currently Associate Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He lives in Chicago and Toronto.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Steve Reinke, official Web site: www.myrectumisnotagrave.com
Hoolboom, Michael. Steve Reinke: My Rectum Is Not a Grave. In Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Movie Artists. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2008.
Metcalfe, Robin. Black Box: The Videos of Steve Reinke. Parachute 100 (2000): 87-98.
Reinke, Steve. Everybody Loves Nothing: Video 1996 – 2004. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004.
Reinke, Steve, ed. Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video. Toronto: YYZBOOKS and Pleasure Dome, 2000.
Reinke, Steve, and Nelson Henricks, eds. By the Skin of their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts. Toronto: YYZBOOKS, 1997.
Reinke, Steve, and Philip Monk. Steve Reinke: The Hundred Videos. Toronto: Power Plant, 1997.
Reinke, Steve, et al. The George Kuchar Experience. Toronto: Pleasure Dome, Video Data Bank, and YYZBOOKS, 1996.
THE ARTIST
Nelson Henricks is a video artist, a writer, a musician and a curator. Born in Alberta, he received a Diploma in Visual Arts at the Alberta College of Art before settling in Montréal in 1991 and completing his BFA in Cinema at Concordia University. His video-based practice is closely linked to writing. Henricks’ works have been exhibited in Canada and abroad and were featured in the Museum of Modern Art Video Viewpoints series in New York in 2002. He co-edited By the Skin of Their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts (YYZBOOKS, 1997). His writings have been published in periodicals such as Esse, Parachute, Fuse and Public, as well as in So, to Speak (Artextes Editions, 1999), Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video (YYZBOOKS, 2000) and Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance by Canadian Women (YYZBOOKS, 2004). He has curated video programs, frequently featuring work from Québec, for screenings in Montréal and Toronto. Since 1995 Henricks has taught at Concordia University and also, periodically, at McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal. In 2002 he received the Bell Award in Video Art and in 2005 he received the Board of Governors’ Alumni Award of Excellence from the Alberta College of Art and Design. Henricks lives in Montréal.
THE WORKS
Unwriting, 2010
Synchronized four-channel video installation, 12 min.
Unwriting (Pencil Line), 2010
Inkjet print on paper
Combining text, performative gestures and still photography, Unwriting is a four-channel video installation that uses writing and writer’s block as a point of departure. The gap between thought and speech is explored through typewriters, microphones and radios. Communications technologies embody a fundamental paradox: while they link us, they also divide and separate. Henricks examines intervals of lost communication and failure as productive spaces for creation and invention. Ultimately optimistic, Unwriting celebrates the simple beauty of putting an idea into words, and the expressive potential of non-verbal phenomena.
Map of the City, 2006
Synchronized two-channel video installation, 21 min.
Inkjet prints on paper
Map of the City is a double-screen video installation that explores the notion of building-as-book. Initiated during a six-month residency in Rome, this work sees the city as a text environment that requires both readers and writers. Urban space is compared to a library. This work is inspired by chapels and cathedrals, which act as three-dimensional, immersive representations of the Bible. Quotes from The Gospel of Thomas and the Bible are interwoven with original text, still photos and electronic soundscapes. The city is seen as an accumulation of gestures and desires that outstrip the life of the individual.
Nelson Henricks, Map of the City, 2006.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Happy Hour, 2002
Synchronized three-channel video installation, 20 min.
Inkjet prints on paper
Happy Hour takes as its starting point two photographs: the first is an image of me at age twelve on Christmas morning. I am sitting under the Christmas tree beside a pile of gifts. I have just opened a present: a digital alarm clock. I pose for the camera, holding the alarm clock that would wake me for school, jobs and university for the next twenty years. The second image is a reconstruction of the first, taken when I was 38. Aging, the loss of innocence, the inversion of pleasure (spontaneous joy) and work (reconstructed happiness), revisionist memory, and so on. I choose not to articulate these significations verbally, and have instead created a video component that amplifies these fugitive meanings.
Nelson Henricks, Happy Hour, 2002.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
My Heart the Optometrist, 2001
Video, 1 min.
I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.
Nelson Henricks, My Heart the Optometrist, 2001.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Fuzzy Face, 2001
Video installation, 30 min.
In this video loop, Henricks, in close-up, his skin covered in a glossy, sticky substance, applies cotton balls methodically to his face. Over a period of some fifteen minutes, his appearance is gradually transformed into that of an animal of indeterminate species, occupying a curious threshold between stuffed animal and mythic beast. The gestures of applying hand to face continue throughout the tape, but at a midway point, the action begins in reverse – the cotton balls removed, the face returned to view in a second metamorphosis. (Renée Baert)
Nelson Henricks, Fuzzy Face, 2001.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Handy Man, 1999
(excerpt)
Video, 3 min.
Handy Man examines the window as a site of voyeurism and surveillance. With his Hi8 camera, Henricks documented two workers in his interior courtyard. The camerawork has a secretive and furtive feel, treating the male body as an erotic object. This footage forms the basis of a video which attempts to implicate the viewer in processes of exhibitionism and image fetishization. Handy Man is part a trilogy of works which explores one of the principal metaphors of video: the window.
Nelson Henricks, Handy Man, 1999.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Time Passes, 1998
Video projection, 6 min. 30 sec.
Using a Super8 camera, Henricks employed time-lapse photography to document the interior and exterior of his apartment. Inspired by the work of Virginia Woolf, this video uses writing as a metaphor to speak on notions of temporality and impermanence.
Nelson Henricks, Time Passes, 1998.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Crush, 1997
Video projection, 12 min.
Crush is the story of a man who wants to turn into an animal as told by the man himself, and one or two observers. He employs a variety techniques to transform himself into a beast. He cuts off parts of his body. He exercises. He swims. He wants to return to the water; to speed up evolution a little. Has he gone mad, or is he just tired of being human?
As the narrator descends into his private obsessions, we begin to perceive the distorted outlines of reason which guide his descent. The trajectory he defines allows us to reflect upon the correlations between the body and identity, our culture’s obsession with the body beautiful, and what it means to be human.
Nelson Henricks, Crush, 1997.
Video still courtesy of the artist.
Shimmer, 1995
Video projection, 7 min.
Look at a landscape and imagine a different one there. Touch the body, and let it slip from memory. Imagine a desert, when what you see is winter. The filmmaker evokes a territory where fragile shifts — the links between things, emotions and places — materialize and dematerialize. (Nicole Gingras)
Nelson Henricks, Shimmer, 1995.
Video still courtesy of the artist.