October 7 - November 1, 1986 Wyn Geleynse
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![]() Wyn Geleynse, film installation "Untitled (Voyeur piece)", 1986. Photo Peter MacCallum. 18K | ![]() Wyn Geleynse, film installation "Home", 1986. Photo Peter MacCallum. 18K |
PRESS RELEASE A solo exhibition of film installations by London, Ontario artist Wyn Geleynse will open at Mercer Union on Tuesday, October 7 at 8:00 p.m. Wyn Geleynse will be exhibiting six projection installations, three of which were produced in 1986. These installations consist of viewer-activated 16mm film loops projected either onto or into tableaux (which consist of props with sheets of ground glass) or onto photographs in which the film image blends with the still images. The varied sources of inspiration in Geleynse's work trace back to the traditions of nineteenth century photography, the mechanical processes behind early discoveries in photography and his own childhood recollections of growing up. Remembering, 1984, first begun in Holland and later finished in Canada, is a direct response to a childhood memory and the reality thirty years later. Family Portrait, 1986, the most recently completed work, is the artist's response to a family snapshot and his perception of that moment. Born in The Netherlands in 1947, Wyn Geleynse was raised in London, Ontario where he currently lives and works at the University of Western Ontario's Yisual Art Department. Since 1968, Geleynse has participated in group exhibitions in Winnipeg, Toronto, Kingston, Windsor and London. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Toronto (1968), London, Ontario (1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1983), Buffalo, New York (1984), and most recently at Artists Space in New York City (1986).
WYN GELEYNSE
Earl Miller Photography as a self-referential medium is currently the focus of many artists. The critical frame of reference of these artists largely involves the media and the theoretics of mechanical reproduction. Wyn Geleynse utilizes the history of late nineteenth century photography as a source for the construction of popular photographic convention. The fetishization of photographs of nostalgic and sentimental value is explored with a critical, questioning sensibility. Paradoxically Geleynse's film installation pays homage to the rosy appeal of vintage nostalgia. Geleynse's exhibition consisted of still photographs as well as animated film loops which were projected onto blocks, into empty picture frames, onto curtains and into a transparent house. These images, icons of the Victorian age, are symbols of retro-utopia. Their romantic charm and undying optimism are from an age which deceptively appears more simple and innocent than ours. It is through this Victorian iconography that Geleynse parodies the prevailing morals of an age which strikingly parallels the socio-political climate of our own. It is through a piece entitled Sometimes The Calvin In Him Would Not Allow It, depicts a man, partially covered with a cloth, making mysterious suggestive gestures at a nude woman screened by a transparent curtain. This man's invasion of a woman's private space is exemplary of the motif of voyeurism in Geleynse's installation. In one piece, the referent to voyeurism is a see-through house. Inside the house a film of a woman repeatedly paddling a seated man is projected. The scene is portrayed innocently and absurdly enough (the woman is clearly hitting a block of wood in the man's sweater) to be interpreted as a humourous repetition of pointless activity. In context with being placed in a house, this vignette may read as signifying domestic tension or dispute. Ironically enough the piece is referred to by the artist as a family portrait. The interpretation of the event does remain open-ended, to some extent, due to lack of specificity of the activity occurring. The mysterious atmosphere surrounding the interaction between characters is also present in Sometimes The Calvin In Him Would Not Allow It. One is left unsure of the explicit meaning of the man's hidden motions. The shrouding of the characters by curtain, in this piece, contributes to the some what ambiguous nature of these pieces. Voyeurism is depicted by Geleynse as being directly tied to the codes of photography. An animated male figure points a phallic camera towards a passive woman. The feeling of dominance over the woman by the camera is accentuated by the artist's strategy of using viewer activated projectors. One becomes involved, unknowingly, in the phallocentricity of the camera. The film projections and photographs in Geleynse's exhibit are all small in scale. This places these images in formal context with the popular snapshot. The sense of preciousness which this scale exudes, hints at the over sentimentalization of the family photograph. The mythology surrounding the snapshot is largely based on its ability to eliminate unhappy memories by depicting carefully poised moments of pleasure. In a piece entitled Remembering, an image of a moving train is placed within a picture frame, of the sort which graces office desks, and living room decor. The picture is a personal memory of the artist's childhood. This private remembrance, however, becomes part of a collective memory. The old-fashioned train depicted by Geleynse evokes nostalgia in all viewers be cause it is a paradigmaic signifier of a pleasant memory. This photograph itself becomes the paradigm of reminiscence; the sub-conscious memory of the past is the image rather than the event. The artist lays a foundation for the critique of the photographic media's over powering domination of collective realities by conventional codes of behaviour. We are left caught between dreaming and living. Formally, Geleynse's work explores the co-relation between film, photography and three-dimensional space. By dual projections on blocks from front and rear, as well as onto objects in real space (i.e. the curtain and the sculpture of the house) traditionally two di-mensional media becomes unsuccessfully integrated with the sculptural elements of the artist's installation. The use of highly refined holographic image adds to the illusion of film and photography occupying real space. Geleynse's exhibition deconstructs the phallocentric nature of photography. His installation also questions the validity of popular photography's reliance on conventional codes of emotional response. He criticizes photography's inability to communicate truths because of the cult of sentimentality surrounding the family snapshot. Geleynse simultaneously presents one with a film installation in which one may walk around, push buttons and dually enjoy its technical wizardry and depiction of a utopian world of innocence and pleasure. The paradox of one readily accepting an image for the very reason it is being criticized becomes the crux of the exhibition. Geleynse clearly illustrates that in the commercial world of empty icons we cannot totally evade identifying with their artificiality in this exhibition of instruction and delight.
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