Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Katie Lyle, and Ella Dawn McGeough: Dancing with Tantalus
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School of Art Gallery 180 Dafoe Road, 255 ARTlab, University of Manitoba, Fort Garry Campus,, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
Dancing with Tantalus
Katie Lyle (background) and Ella Dawn McGeough (foreground), "Greener than Grass," 2020
exhibition view, Susan Hobbs Gallery, curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis. Photo: Laura Findlay, courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery.
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Katie Lyle, and Ella Dawn McGeough
Curated by Lillian O’Brien Davis
Contact is a many layered metaphor; both touch and its absence have consequences that can extend indefinitely. I look at my hands. They feel huge, like mitts that will cover, crush, or make a mess. I am frightened that the marks they make will last too long, be too big, cause unpredictable outcomes. When I do make contact, the effects are not immediate—this delay temporarily alleviates my fears. However, all marks, all instances of contact, eventually appear. While contact may signal a crisis, its lack also torments, like the aching feeling when something lies just out of grasp.
Consider the Greek myth of Tantalus, who stole ambrosia, nectar, and the gods’ secrets of immortality for his people. As punishment for his crime, Tantalus was made to stand in a clear pool where water receded before he could drink, underneath trees laden with fruit that forever escaped his grasp. Touching leaves traces, often more lasting than originally imagined, but the absence of touch builds both anticipation and desire.
Featuring work by Ella Dawn McGeough, Katie Lyle and Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Dancing with Tantalus engages qualities of contact—between people, surfaces, and objects—to examine haptic intimacy and explore the causal relationship between artworks and the many structures that make contact with them—physically, intellectually, emotionally, institutionally, and historically.
Associated Programming:
Dancing with Tantalus Panel Discussion
Thursday, February 18, 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. CT
Facilitated on Zoom and livestreamed on the School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba YouTube channel
Please visit umanitoba.ca/schools/art/gallery to learn more and register.
Panel will be ASL interpreted and recorded and uploaded to YouTube.
Please note that the School of Art Gallery is currently closed due to COVID-19. Consult our COVID-19 protocols before planning your visit.