Nina Levitt: Little Breeze
Saturday, March 06, 2010 7:00 PM - Sunday, April 11, 2010 7:00 PM
Saint Mary's University Art Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, 5 March, 8:00 pm
Artist’s Talk: Saturday, 6 March, 3:00 pm
Heroism, mystery and danger – the elements of a World War II adventure movie appear this March and April in a beautiful and evocative art installation. Just in time for International Women’s Day, Saint Mary's University Art Gallery presents the interactive media installation, Little Breeze. Toronto-based artist Nina Levitt places conventional narrative elements in a critical context, as they relate to the lives of women and the way they are, or are not, represented in mainstream media.
Originally produced in co-production with Alberta’s Banff Centre, Little Breeze employs visual motifs familiar from adventure and spy films. Where we are used to seeing men in the heroic roles, Levitt has focussed on women, incorporating material from the lives of women who worked in intelligence during World War II, as undercover agents behind enemy lines. Levitt raises questions about how we construct history and remember the past.
Entering the Main Gallery, a visitor sees a projection of numeric ASCII code that resolves itself into a series of images of women. The use of digital data recalls the pivotal role of code-breaking during World War II in the development of the modern computer. A collection of suitcases are strewn about the gallery floor: when visitors pick one up, it triggers a sound clip from Carve Her Name with Pride, a film about British secret agent Violette Szabo. The Side Gallery features a second installation and a text-based work, Service Records, appears in the Library and Atrium elsewhere on campus.
Nina Levitt has worked with photography and video for twenty years. Her work is primarily concerned with the absence of women from visual culture and often relies on the recovery and manipulation of existing images. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at York University, Levitt has exhibited internationally and been widely published and reviewed. More information about her work can be found at www.ninalevitt.com.
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Centre for Art Tapes and accompanied by a full-colour catalogue featuring an essay by Robert Bean, professor of photography at NSCAD University. An opening reception will take place at the gallery on Friday evening, 5 March at 8:00 pm. The artist will present a public talk about her work on Saturday, 6 March at 3:00 pm. Students at Saint Mary's University will also experience the exhibition in conjunction with a course presented in the winter term through the History Department on “Women in the Two World Wars.”
All events are free of charge and open to the public at Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery in the Loyola Building, 5865 Gorsebrook Avenue. Refreshments will be served. Call 420-5445 or check www.smuartgallery.ca or our website or Facebook page for updates. All exhibitions and programmes at the Gallery receive significant support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
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