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Exhibition
Detail
École d'aviation (Flying School)
990 North Hill Street #180
Los Angeles, CA 90012
January 12th, 2008 - February 23rd, 2008
Opening:
January 12th, 2008 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
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 Diane Landry
© Courtesy of SolwayJones
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> QUICK FACTS
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EMAIL:
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solwayjones@sbcglobal.net
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OPEN HOURS:
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Wed-Sat 11-6; Sunday 12-5
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> DESCRIPTION
Flying School (École d’aviation) is a multimedia sound work by Québec City based artist Diane Landry. In Flying School,
a variety of different umbrellas seem to come to life as living,
breathing entities in a garden of color and sound. Using ordinary
objects, she creates event-pictures that she calls “mouvel works” (from mouvement, movement and nouvelle, new).
The installation fills the gallery space like an impenetrable island.
From it, sprout 24 multicolored umbrellas attached to different rods
at different heights, but always within the range of a person's
stature. The umbrellas unfold and fold intermittently, slowly, like a
person inhaling and exhaling. The plaintive melody comes from little
motor-driven accordions that lie at the base of each umbrella. They
further accentuate the “lung” effect and, often, the spectators adjust
their own breathing accordingly. After a while, one also notices the
silhouettes that the halogen lamps cast on the ceiling. These moving
silhouettes, projected upwards, resemble a flower opening and then
closing. The field of umbrellas moves unpredictably, its vagaries much
like those of our climate. To animate Flying School, each
umbrella-accordion is hooked up to a midi-controller that in turn
connects to a computer.
The umbrellas of Flying School stand among a tangle of
cords and cables that power them, and the mechanisms that animate the
umbrellas and squeeze the bellows are clearly visible. Landry does not
want to trick or deceive, but rather to expose the simplicity of her
work. “It’s magic,” she says, “but you can see it.”
Diane Landry received a BA in Visual Arts from Laval University,
Québec, in 1987, and an MFA from Stanford University, California, in
2006. She has exhibited and performed extensively in Canada, Argentina
Australia, and Europe. Landry was trained as technician in natural
science, working for several years in as a civil servant in agriculture
before turning to the arts. In subsequent years she has done
performances and made gallery works, but has also completed public
works for hospitals, schools, and other public sites.
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