Nelson Henricks «Je vais vous raconter une histoire de fantômes» : films and videos by Nelson Henricks
OBORO
Opening and «Je vais vous raconter une histoire de fantômes» Publication launch on Wednesday, March 29, at 8 pm
This exhibition focuses on Nelson Henricks’ video and film production. The aim of this retrospective (which I wish to be open-ended rather than conclusive, process rather than arrest…) is to encourage an interaction between the works, in order to enable the picturing of an approach expressed in a body of work which never ceases to become more complex. One of the important aspects of this work is unquestionably the interweaving, at once reiterated and reformulated, of the themes of communication, of identity and of something that could be referred to as an “invisibility” (a notion that will certainly need to be redefined, even it it entails materializing it somewhat). This intertwining is particular in that it allows the image to raise the question of identity, most specifically of the constitution of the self in its relationship to the other, by calling upon a kind of “detour” which runs through the non-perceived, the imperceptible, the anonymous, the ghostly… or else, the known which suddenly reveals itself as strange, and above all, foreign. One of the key questions will therefore be: What is invisible according to Henricks.
OBORO
Nelson Henricks was born in southern Alberta. He studied at the Alberta College of Art, graduating in 1986 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Since then, he has actively pursued his artistic approach through installation, performance, film and, in particular, video. A recent graduate of Concordia University, Nelson Henricks lives and works in Montreal. His favorite food is shepherd’s pie topped with Heinz ketchup.
Christine Ross is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History at McGill University, where she teaches contemporary art and art theory. Her main fields of research are electronic art and feminism. In addition to her regular contributions to Parachute magazine, she is co-author of Céline Baril’s La fourmi et le volcan (Artexte, 1993) and Daniel Dion: Parcours/Paths (National Gallery of Canada, 1993), and a contributor to Sightlines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art (Artexte, 1994) and the Pocket Dictionary of Spatial Drives (New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1993). She is currently preparing an exhibition of video works for the Art Gallery of Ontario entitled Dispersions identitaires : vidéos récentes du Québec. Her ultimate gastronomic pleasure is a croissant and café au lait on Sunday mornings.