3 X 1
Photo: Pierre Boogaerts.
This exhibition examines a significant body of work produced over a 35-year period by this Québécois conceptual artist whose practice resonates deeply with contemporary art and attitudes. Sound, image and text form the three central axes around which the exhibition addresses problematics that Gervais has explored since the beginning of his career.
Curator’s Statement
Working in the field of contemporary art since the beginning of the 1970s, Raymond Gervais has created a unique and heterogeneous body of work. His oeuvre includes photographs, texts, sculptures, installations, and performances revolving around a question that he has made his own: the aural imagination—essentially, a way of conceptualizing and thinking about sound, the act of listening, and the image of sound. An artist-musician or sound artist turning toward silence. A performance artist as well as essay and fiction writer. A composer developing the narrative of a work, text, installation, or performance like a score, which he offers visitors. A conceptual artist questioning our understanding of an image, narrative, performance, text, sound, or film. An artist fascinated by sound yet haunted by the larger question of existence and its intrinsic silence.
Raymond Gervais’ world is constructed around text, sound, and the visual. These three elements—words, sound, images—are dealt with transversally as only a labyrinthine mind can. They share a poetic link as confirmed by the artist’s attachment to different forms of disappearance, offering him a multiplicity of possible fictions.
The exhibition at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery highlights the role that musical instruments and various sound transmission devices play in Raymond Gervais’ practice. It allows us to explore several of the artist’s key themes: the question of the cycle, the spiral, the loop—manifested here by various conceptual and mechanical devices. These various circular movements evoke the image of the whirling dervish, a key figure for the artist, symbolizing infinite movement.
– Nicole Gingras
EXPLORE
- Absence and presence, that which is visible and that which is invisible, sound and silence, and the ways in which these notions either complement each other or act in opposition to each other in this exhibition;
- How personal history overlaps and intertwines with the histories of music, literature, and the avant-garde and the numerous and various narratives that result;
- The ways in which the notions of performance or performativity, theatricality, and staging are present in this work;
- The visual: what are the visual components of this work and what is being made visible here;
- Language: its importance and the various ways in which it is made use of.
A FEW QUESTIONS
- How does this artist make use of the physical space of the Gallery? Does his use of the space strike you as being different from what you are accustomed to seeing, and if so, how?
- Consider placement and arrangement and the ways in which objects are combined in this exhibition. What is this artist developing or evoking in these works?
- In looking at this exhibition, can you start to define central elements or themes in this artist’s work? What are they?
- This exhibition contains numerous archival documents relating to the artistist’s research and practice as well as to the historical context in which the works presented here were produced. How do these documents function? What do they illustrate about the works and what do they add to your understanding of this artist and his place in our recent history?
- Consider the notion of reproduction and the role that it plays in the works presented here. Can you identify specific instances in which it is employed?
Produced with the support of the Frederick and Mary Kay Lowy Art Education Fund.
Curator: Nicole Gingras
Coproduced by the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, and VOX, Contemporary Image Centre, Montréal.
The Artist
Raymond Gervais was born in 1946 in Montréal. Since the mid 1970s he has produced installations and performances that intersect with music, literature, and the visual arts. Records, turntables and CD cases are the subject of an ongoing exploration. In 1973, he formed the Atelier de musique experimentale (AME), a non-profit association devoted to promoting new approaches to musical improvisation, with Yves Bouliane, Vincent Dionne, Michel Di Torre, and Robert Marcel Lepage. AME organized the first Montréal appearances of Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble of Chicago), Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), and Karl Berger (Creative Music Studio, Woodstock). Gervais is the author of critical commentaries, essays and statements on musicians, visual artists, and his own practice that have been published in catalogues, anthologies, and periodicals. For a number of years he was the musique actuelle columnist at the contemporary art magazine Parachute. Raymond Gervais has participated in numerous exhibitions in Québec, Canada and abroad. They include Tendances actuelles, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris (1977); Yesterday and After, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1980); OKanada, Akademie der Künste, Berlin (1983); Aurora Borealis, Centre international d’art contemporain (1985); Broken Music, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1990); Roto-Univers, Power Plant, Toronto (1992); Are You Talking to Me?, Galerie de l’UQAM, Montréal (2003); Soundtracks: Re-Play, Edmonton Art Gallery and Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto (2003); Frottements et surfaces sonores, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2004);and Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, Alberta Art Gallery, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Halifax INK, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto, Vancouver Art Gallery (2010/2011). His works are part of both public and private collections in Québec and Canada. Raymond Gervais lives in Montréal.
Raymond Gervais’ richly varied oeuvre encompasses photographs, texts, sculptures, installations, and performances revolving around the theme of the aural imagination—a way of conceptualizing sound and listening. This ongoing fascination is manifest in the exhibited works in Raymond Gervais 3 x 1. They build on the artist’s profound knowledge of a wide range of musi¬cal traditions—from classical to jazz to the avant-garde, as well as the many iconic aspects of its material culture: musical instruments, album covers, record players, tape recorders, cassettes, CDs…. Notably, in these explorations, Gervais increasingly works less with sound per se and more with silence, weaving text, image, and object together in installation pieces where sound is often evoked rather than present.
The Works
Commencer par, puisqu’à toute fin correspond
1975
Black and white video, sound
40 min.
Distribution: Vidéographe
12 + 1 =
1976
Photograph
Photograph of the installation presented at Galerie Média, Montreal, in 1976.
Photo: Roland Poulin
Initially conceived as a sound installation where the artist played 13 records simultaneously on 13 record players. The work has been exhibited subsequently without sound as a photograph.
Collection of the artist
Roche
1976
Performance
10 min. 51 sec.
Digital transfer of sound recording of this performance for piano and rock, recorded in the artist’s home in 1976
Collection of the artist
Les Accords intuitifs
1976
Performance; composition by Raymond Gervais
10 min.
Digital transfer of sound recording
Performers: Pierre Cartier, Jean Derome, Charles de Mestral, Serge Foisy
Collection of the artist
Déjà là
1976 – 1977
Installation
2 tables, 13 metronomes, radio, batteries, alarm clock, saxophone and case, toy trumpet, vase, carnations, photograph album
National Gallery of Canada Collection, Ottawa; purchased 1978
3 + 1 =
1977 – 2011
Installation
4 posters
Silent version of a sound-based work
Photos: Pierre Boogaerts
Collection of the artist
Carignan : circuit-les-ponts
1977
Elements of the performance presented during the event 03 23 03 Premières rencontres internationales art contemporain Montréal, Montreal, 1977
Series of 45 slides projected during the performance, digitized and transferred to DVD
Walk recorded on audio tape in 1977, digitized and transferred to compact disc. 46 min. 35 sec.
Narration recorded on audio tape in 1977, digitized and transferred to compact disc.Voice: Raymond Gervais. 8 min.
Collection of the artist
The Passage 2
1978 – 2011
Photographs, metronome, batteries
Photo: Jean-Jacques Jabbour
Collection of the artist
Re : Henri Rousseau, le tourne-disque et la recréation du monde
1987
Photograph (installation excerpt)
National Gallery of Canada Collection, Ottawa; purchased 1989
L’enclos de verre – Maurice Ravel joue pour Bud Powell
1988
Installation documents: album cover, installation photographs
Photos: Don Corman
Collection of the artist
Le 1er disque
1990
Installation
13 record players, 13 turntable mats, 13 white paper record sleeves, 1 record player with colour photograph, 2 record players with 1 percussion mallet each, 13 transparent plastic record player covers
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Collection
Piano pour Samuel Beckett
1990
Found object, silk screen print, drawing
Musée d’art de Joliette Collection; gift of the artist
Via Copland
1990
Installation
Music stand, album cover, photograph, compact disc and compact disc case
Collection of the artist
Le vent tourne
1993
Mirror, 12 electric fans, black surface on floor
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal Collection; gift of the artist
Dans le cylindre
1994
Installation
Photograph, cylinder phonograph, table
Purchased for the Prêt d’œuvres d’art collection, 1998; transferred to the permanent collection, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Roto Univers
1994
Installation excerpt
Metronome, record player
Collection of the artist
En attendant Beckett (autour de Samuel Beckett)
1995
Installation
Record player, table, album cover, music stand, liner notes
Collection Musée regional de Rimouski; gift of the artist
Blaast
1996-2011
Les vents de la Terre, special issue
2 compact disc cases, text
Collection of the artist
Tous les vivants étaient morts
1997
Installation
27 compact disc cases, texts
Collection of the artist
Les couleurs de la musique
2001
Installation
Album covers, music stand, record player, record
Purchased for the Prêt d’œuvres d’art collection, 2004; transferred to the permanent collection, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Block, Ursula, Michael Glasmeier eds. Broken Music: Artists’ Recordworks. Berlin: Daadgalerie; Den Haag: Gemeentemuseum, 1989.
Blouin, René, Claude Gosselin, and Normand Thériault, eds. Aurora borealis. Montréal: Centre international d’art contemporian de Montréal, 1985.
Boulanger, Chantal. Raymond Gervais: Le regard musicien. Joliette: Musée d’art de Joliette, 1999.
Daigneault, Gilles, and Serge Fisette. Artefact 2004: Sculptures urbaines. Montréal: Centre d’art public, 2004.
Déry, Louise. Are You Talking to Me? Montréal: Galerie de L’UQAM, 2003.
Déry, Louise. Un archipel de désirs: Les artistes du Québec et la scène internationale. Québec: Musée du Québec, 1991.
Dompierre, Louise. Raymond Gervais, Roto-Univers: Cantor, Les Disques, Le Derviche. Toronto: Power Plant, 1992.
Drobnick, Jim, ed. Aural Cultures. Toronto: YYZ books; Banff: Walter Phillips Gallery Editions, 2004.
Gervais, Raymond. Phono photo: Carte grise à Raymond Gervais. Montréal: Dazibao, 2001.
Gervais, Raymond and Nicole Gingras. Puisqu’à toute fin correspond: Entretiens. Montréal: Éditions Nicole Gingras, 2007.
Gingras, Nicole. Le son dans l’art contemporain canadien / Sound in Contemporary Canadian Art. Montréal: Éditions Artextes, 2003.
Gingras, Nicole. Traces. Montréal: Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 2006.
Gingras, Nicole, ed. Raymond Gervais 3 X 1. Montréal : Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen; VOX, Centre de l’image contemporaine, 2011.
Lamoureux, Johanne. Seeing in Tongues: A Narrative of Language and Visual Arts in Quebec / Le bout de la langue: Les arts visuels et la langue au Québec. Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 1995.
Morin, France, Chantal Pontbriand, Normand Thériault eds. 03 23 03 : premières rencontres internationales d’art contemporain, Montréal 1977. Montréal: Parachute, 1977.
Paré, André-Louis. Sculpter l’imaginaire / Sculpting the Imagination. Espace 58 Winter (2001-2002): 7-15.
Pontbriand, Chantal, ed. Parachute: Essais choisis 1975-2000. Bruxelles: Éditions La Lettre volée, 2004.
Racine, Rober. Artiste, musicien du regard. Rober Racine rencontre Raymond Gervais. Topo 40 (1996): 24-29.
Thériault, Michèle. The Acoustic Gaze: Raymond Gervais and Rober Racine / Le regard acoustique: Raymond Gervais et Rober Racine. Oakville: Oakville Galleries, 1998.
Thériault, Michèle. Cut: Raymond Gervais, Christof Migone, Jocelyn Robert. Montréal: Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, 2006.
Thériault, Normand and Diana Nemiroff, eds. Hier et après / Yesterday & After. Montréal: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1980.
Tougas, Colette. Écouter le futur? / Listening to the future? Parachute 85 (1997): 26-37.