A wall of cheap mass-produced posters advertising a distant moon greets visitors as they enter the Carlos/Ishikawa Gallery. Paving the way to their current show, World Music, the posters serve as a visual reminder for all that is at once distant and hauntingly familiar. Ostensibly accurate renderings of reality (namely, Shasha Litvintseva’s artful documentary film, Alluvion) rub shoulders with the quintessentially bizarre (Renaud Jerez’s two anthropomorphic sculptures, No Title), as the show operates on a wide spectrum.
Much like its title World Music, the exhibition embraces an all-compassing genre. Seemingly relinquishing their role as curators, artists Steve Bishop and Richard Sides juxtapose works to create an overarching theme that is both nebulous and subjectively experienced. Privileging an immediate response to each artwork’s material presence within the gallery, the beholder’s reaction is not mediated through various lenses namely, press releases, catalogues and audio guides. Instead, these modes of communication make way for the viewer’s physical encounter with the art, as well as the ribbons of dialogue it creates within the space.
Here, the work takes center stage.
Words by Ariane Belisle
www.carlosishikawa.com
