Germaine Koh
25 August 2006 - 22 October 2006
Curated by Emily Falvey

Germaine Koh
Call, 2006, intervention using vintage telephone modified with programmable microcontroller and custom circuitry, edition
of 2, electronic circuit design and technical assistance by Gordon Hicks, courtesy of the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery

Germaine Koh
..., 2000, installation, ball-bearings, electrical mechanisms,
vinyl track, installation shot at Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 2001,
commissioned by Gendai Gallery, courtesy of the artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery

The Ottawa Art Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new and recent work by internationally successful Canadian artist, Germaine Koh. Known for her prolific and multifaceted conceptual art, Koh’s interdisciplinary practice is concerned with the significance of everyday actions, familiar objects, and common places.

In her installation, … (2000), the Gallery is filled with a continuous, rain-like shower of tiny ball bearings, creating a constant, yet almost invisible movement that the artist describes as a “zone of uncertainty, elusiveness, and slight hazard.” Inspired by a collection of pachinko balls from the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (Toronto), this work embodies the ideas of chance, play, and everyday uncertainty that are integral to Koh’s practice. Playing further upon concepts of artificiality and natural forces, her installation, Fair-weather Forces (sun:light) (2005), effectively negates the purpose of electric lighting by tapping into the Gallery’s interior light system, changing its levels in direct relation to external daylight. A recent addition to OAG’s Contemporary Collection, this work challenges the integrity of the modernist exhibition space through a simple, yet elegant gesture.

As part of this exhibition, OAG is proud to present one of Koh’s most recent works. Described as an “open-ended experiment in public ehaviour between unseen strangers,” Call (2006) features a blank phone installed in OAG’s space from which visitors may converse with an anonymous community of volunteers. Bringing to the fore questions of personal responsibility and behaviour towards others, Call creates an “experimental situation in which the fundamental unknown is how people will behave towards unseen fellow citizens, given only the tenuous link of the human voice.”

Germaine Koh is currently working in Berlin, where she recently concluded a one-year residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Her exhibition schedule for 2005-2006 includes shows at the BALTIC Centre (Newcastle), De Appel (Amsterdam), Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), and Angel Row Gallery (Nottingham). She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery,Vancouver.

- Emily Falvey, Curator of Contemporary Art

Conversation with curator Emily Falvey and CKCU-FM's Arts Editor, Susan Johnston in MP3 format

Events

Vernissage
Thursday 24 August at 5:30 pm

Talk with artist Germaine Koh
Friday 25 August at 12:30 pm

Volunteers Wanted

Are you interested in talking to strangers? As part of this exhibition, we are conducting an open-ended experiment in public behaviour between unseen strangers.You must be willing to receive calls and have conversations with strangers at all hours of the day. No specific skills or background is required. Cell phones will be provided. For more information, please contact:

Véronique Couillard, Public Programs Coordinator
(613) 233-8699 x 228, public@ottawaartgallery.ca