Performing the Landscape

Landscape is one of the most evocative tropes in Canadian visual culture, a popular genre and a cliché that often insist on conventional and stereotypical representations of the country.

JANINE ANTONI, MIRUNA DRAGAN AND JASON DE HAAN, ZACKARY DRUCKER, CYPRIEN GAILLARD, MIKHAIL KARIKIS, RAGNAR KJARTANSSON, HANS OP DE BEECK, TAUS MAKHACHEVA, SARA RAMO, JULIAN ROSEFELDT, BILL VIOLA, MING WONG

Landscape is one of the most evocative tropes in Canadian visual culture, a popular genre and a cliché that often insist on conventional and stereotypical representations of the country. It is nevertheless a most powerful subject matter still very much appreciated by practitioners and audiences alike. Generations of artists have attempted to capture and depict the sensation of being overpowered by the majesty or beauty of the natural environment time and time again. In Performing the Landscape, each artwork introduces elements of performativity into the ‘natural environment.’ The landscape becomes a temporarily occupied and humanized space, and yet it resists the pressure of simply shifting to the background and becoming static scenery. This exhibition challenges these traditions and the conventional understanding of this genre by presenting the work of 13 international artists who have recently reinterpreted this theme, often with humour or in a deadpan manner.