In his book, Breathing Aesthetics, Jean-Thomas Tremblay proposes respiration as a type of spectatorial endeavour — “seen, heard, and in turn performed.” Breathing as performance or artistic expression is the central theme in a thought-provoking exhibition, Respiration & Resistance, on view at Contemporary Calgary until April 14.
Curated by Amanda Cachia, the exhibition brings together an international cohort of 15 contemporary disabled artists who explore the physiological, political, and metaphorical implications of breathing – either broadly or in how it relates to the artist’s own disability and aesthetic. It also highlights the shift in modern and postmodern art where engagements with wounded, diseased, and affected bodies have challenged societal norms about beauty.
Detail of “Respiration and Resistance” installation, including Bob Flanagan, “Death Monologue,” video still (photo by Victoria Cimolini, courtesy of Contemporary Calgary)
Central to Tremblay’s scholarship is the late Bob Flanagan, a poet, performance artist, comedian, and self-proclaimed “supermasochist” who suffered with cystic fibrosis. His video performance, Death Monologue, offers a glimpse into Flanagan’s dark humour and self-deprecating narration about battling a respiratory illness. In other works, his signature humour is fused with painful bondage rituals and therapeutic breathing through his collaboration with lover, dominatrix and fellow artist, Sheree Rose.
Tremblay’s scholarship on Flanagan was the “jumping-off point” for Cachia to include other artists who can bring new forms and function to this complex topic. And Flanagan’s own journey of reclaiming agency through a transformative artistic practice is a thread that weaves seamlessly through the exhibition.
Approximately 35 artworks are included in the exhibition. They are multifaceted and diverse, often merging or shifting between sculpture, video, performance, installation, drawing, and poetic text. All the works have some performative element, many are autobiographical.
Andrew Gannon, “Untitled,” 2023, plaster cast and bungee cord (courtesy of Contemporary Calgary)
Highlights include Anna Barry’s video documenting her immersive installation, Breathing Room. A curvaceous tunnel is lined with white cones that gently inhale and exhale, evoking both comfort and the sublime.
Hannah Bullock’s delicate drawings use felt markers attached to wires that wrap around her belly and respond to her breathing rhythms as she lays in bed. Her delicately embroidered organza hospital gowns evoke feelings about healing, grieving or death.
Other works also disrupt purpose and functionality, drawing attention to an object’s meaning or aesthetic such as Andrew Gannon’s hauntingly beautiful plaster casted prosthesis tethered to bungee and electrical cords; or Atanas Bozdarov whose hallway of deflated party balloons embellished with colourful seed beads evokes feelings of abandonment and impotency.
AARON WISE
Liz Nurnberg, “Airspace,” 2023, still from video (courtesy of Contemporary Calgary)
Liz Nurenberg’s performative sculpture, Air Space (Air), explores reciprocity and intimacy as two people come together in a symbiotic breathing dance. On the other extreme is Darrin Martin’s digital video, Take Breath is Breath (Breath). A synesthetic mash-up of pop-love songs, jarring echoes, and psychedelic lights, the artist plays a starring role in a pandemic love story as he stands alone on a make-shift stage and inside a protective bubble.
The 20th century has seen breathing emerge as a bio- and necropolitical force that optimizes certain lives while trivializing others. In Vest Sessions, Dominic Quagliozzi performs his daily regime of airway clearance and nebulizer treatments on public sidewalks in LA, using spectacle and discomfort to raise questions about public versus private health care. In Editorial from Orion Magazine, activist Alice Wong choreographed a provocative video performance using AI voice, captioning, lip syncing and facial gestures to narrate new laws in New York that allows hospitals to reallocate people's personal ventilators.
Georgia Webber, “Portrait of Alice Wong,” 2021 (courtesy of Contemporary Calgary)
In both videos, breathing becomes a powerful tool for activism and advocating for change. As this exhibition shows, breathing is not only a prerequisite for life, it’s also a powerful medium for making art. Its aesthetic possibilities are limitless, profoundly personal, and truly transformational. ■
Respiration & Resistance is on view at Contemporary Calgary until April 14.
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Contemporary Calgary
701 11 Street SW, Calgary, Alberta
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Tues-Sun 11 am - 6 pm, Thurs 11 am- 9 pm