GYRE

J U L Y   2 7   -  O C T O B E R   0 7   2 0 1 8



Gyre is an archaic word that means to whirl something in circles; gyroscope comes from this root. Imagine a swirling vortex, of spiral motion and form; an ocean current, or a spinning body or particle. In geometry, a gyre starts at its origins and then moves progressively wider, creating the shape of a spiral vortex or tunnel. Time is implicated in this process.

Three installations make up this exhibition. The central room contains the sculptural Tunnel #7 by Chul Hyun Ahn. Through the corridor to the left, is Frequencies (Light Quanta) by Nicolas Bernier, a sculptural object with sound + light. Through a corridor to the right is the two-screen Forward by Daniel Iregui. In this exhibition the word gyre refers to a commonality of movement and form; a series of geometric or visual progressions; for example the way light is used to suggest a telescoping path in time, or a descent to unknown depths. Forward and Frequencies incorporate sound as a defining element. The exhibition space is designed to emphasize enigmatic sound circumnavigating a mute central point. These works upend you. In each there is an uncertain or ambiguous positioning of time, space, size and direction. The physical and performative body of the viewer therefore becomes a critical part of how we visualize and create meaning and position our own bodies in space. The way we interpret the human body suspended between two tunnelling screens, or silhouetted against a spiralling series of infinite calculations or against a limitless well becomes an intentional component of each work.

Nicolas Bernier (Canada)

Frequencies (Light Quanta)
Frequencies (Light Quanta), is a work by interdisciplinary artist Nicolas Bernier. Developed during his residency at the Sound LAB at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, the work was short-listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize (international). Drawn into the unfamiliar world of quantum physics and particles, Bernier began to explore the quantum — the smallest measurable value of energy. Using sound and light this work is intended as a poetic reading of the strange, infinitesimal world of particles, probabilities, wave/particle duality and discontinuity. Bernier's sound composition relies on the use of micro sounds and “clicks”; the shortest audible sound that a human ear is capable of perceiving. The installation contains 100 sound and light fragments that develop in an aleatoric way, generating ever expanding and disruptive forms that affect the viewer's perception of time and space.
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Biography
Nicolas Bernier was born in Ottawa and currently lives in Montréal. He creates audio visual installations, performances, musique concrète, live electronic improvisations and video art while also working with dance, theatre, moving images and within interdisciplinary contexts. For more than a decade, sound has been core to Nicolas Bernier’s practice. His experimentation with the Frequencies cycle of works lasted for about 8 years and earned him the prestigious Golden Nica for Digital Music & Sound Art at Prix Arts Electronica (2013). His work has been exhibited and performed throughout Canada and around the world at such places as SONAR (Spain), Mutek (Canada + Tokyo + Barcelona), Elektra (Canada), Transmediale (Germany), LABoral (Spain), BIMESP (Brazil). His sound compositions are widely published on electronic music labels: Crónica (Portugal), LINE (US), leerraum (Switzerland), Entr’acte (UK) and empreintes DIGITALes(Québec). He holds a PhD in sonic arts from the University of Huddersfield (UK). He is a member of Perte de signal, CIRMMTand Hexagram media arts research and development centres, Montreal. He teaches in the Digital Music program of the Université de Montréal.
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Chul Hyun Ahn (Korea)

Tunnel #7
Tunnel #7 systematically defines the geometry, possibilities and limitations of space and optics related to Buddhist notions of the infinite and the void . His work has been described by art-writer Hilarie M. Sheets as suggesting ...a rabbit hole to another world—underwater, outer space, afterlife—or journey to the unknown, the kind of leap of faith involved in the artist’s own passage to an unfamiliar country and language. His practice originated in drawing + painting but due to the limitations he experienced in describing three dimensional space, he began to explore light... although people acknowledge me as a light artist, at the root, my art is about space.
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Biography
Chul Hyun Ahn was born in Busan, South Korea. He currently lives and works in the United States. He received a BFA from Chugye University for the Arts, Seoul and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. He works primarily in light. Ahn creates meditations on zen notions of the infinite and the void which distinguishes Ahn's oeuvre from other artists working with light. Ahn’s multiple on-going sculpture series the "Tunnel Series" which systematically explores the limitations of space and optics. Since 2003 Chul Hyun Ahn has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally: Kunstraum (Germany), Delaware Art Museum, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem), Decker Gallery, Samuel P Ham Museum of Art (Florida), National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul). His work is found in collections worldwide.
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Daniel Iregui (Colombia/Canada)

Forward
Forward, his installation in the Gyre exhibition, can be perceived as a constantly changing choice of perceptual tunnels that generate infinite ways to get to a distant point on the horizon. Using projection mapping, the content is fully generative, random and infinite. Every decision the software makes has a certain probability and is never the same.
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Biography
Described as an electronic interaction artist Daniel Iregui creates work that infinitely transforms using technology and code as a visual language. His work often deals with perceptions of infinite choice and the ineffable. Born in Bogota; a citizen of Canada, Iregui is also the founder of IREGULAR, a multi-award winning studio that produces interactive installations at the intersection of art & technology. His work has been presented around the world including the BIAN (Montréal), the Mapping Festival (Switzerland), the MAB (Denmark), MUTEK (Montreal + Mexico), the Biennial of Digital Arts (Enghien-Les-Bains), (France), Glow Festival (The Netherlands), L.E.V. Festival (Spain), Shuó Taikoo Li (Beijing) and FACT(UK).
Credits
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