The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is putting a new twist on an old image with its collection entitled Subjecting Figures.
The collection is part of the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art and explores the representation of nudity in art.
The exhibition looks at how women are represented in a variety of artistic mediums. Sinclair said she wanted to raise questions about the body’s physical presence in art.
“I realized how many nude sketches there were in the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art. . . . However, I wanted to find the right context in which to do this,” said Catherine Sinclair, the curator.
From a historical perspective, there was the idea of biology as an excuse to create social gender divisions, she said. In contemporary means, it was about the artificiality of perfection to which women can be subjected.
For Sinclair, it was all about the art raising the right questions.
When she compiles contemporary artists with the Firestone collection, she said she likes to collect different perspectives.
The two contemporary artists chosen for the collection, Chantal Gervais and Melanie Garcia, were perfect for this, she said.
Gervais’ work consists of large photographic prints of her own body as subjected to examination through MRI and similar scans.
Gervais’ aim is to question the fragility of the human body and its containment in corporeality, Sinclair wrote in the exhibit’s description.
Garcia’s prints are a compilation of unclothed store mannequins in images taken from architectural magazines.
She attempts to question the perfection that is sought in a contemporary culture, Sinclair wrote.
Sinclair said Gervais, an Ottawa artist, was exactly what she was looking for in terms of her exhibit.
“I was blown away by her photographic compositions,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair said she tries not to think of the collection in terms of having a main message.
“I prefer to look at it as opening up dialogue in raising questions about the body's physical representation and presence in artistic history and how this has evolved within contemporary artistic practices like [Gervais’] and [Garcia’s],” Sinclair said.
The collection spans the modern art period. Ottawa residents O.J. and Isobel Firestone originally compiled it. For years, the OAG has displayed this collection in relation to exhibitions that feature specific artists, art historical themes or art movements.
The difference with Subjecting Figures is that the artwork was incorporated into the exhibit. Sinclair incorporated a variety of fresh ideas into the compilation.
The idea for the collection, which runs from Feb. 13 to May 2, had been in place for four years prior to its opening, but Sinclair said that she really only began compiling the works a year ago.