CLARE TWOMEY | GARDINER MUSEUM
On the third floor of the Gardiner Museum, British ceramic artist Clare Twomey’s installation Piece by Piece features an army of white, ceramic figures. As part of the national ceramic museum’s Artist Intervention series, the performative exhibition is a Canadian premiere for Twomey. In her installation, the Gardiner’s three rare Commedia dell’Arte harlequins are placed at the highest point on plinths, ideals of perfection. Meanwhile, a human performer called the Maker sits at the worktable casting figures out of molds based on the original harlequins. When a copy is finished, the Maker places the figure on the floor amongst the thousands of white figurines. Through the installation, Twoney explores the practice of curating, connoisseurship and collecting as she intervenes in the gallery space to imbue these practices with notions of workmanship. In doing so, the artist alludes to the subjective facets of selection and display, revealing the difficult truths behind ideas of value, piece by piece.
On the closing day of the exhibition (Sunday, January 4th), the public is invited to join the Gardiner museum to liberate and to take home the ghostly white statuettes.
"Piece by Piece" is on at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto from October 4, 2014 to January 4, 2015.
For more details, visit http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca
