Standing anywhere in the space in a relaxed
position
July 25 to September
27, 2009
Walter Phillips Gallery • The Banff Centre
Opening reception and book launch: Saturday, July 25, 3 to 5 p.m.
Presented as part of the 2009 Banff Summer Arts Festival
During a 2008 residency at The Banff Centre, London-based painter Silke Otto-Knapp was inspired by the Centre’s extensive archives of almost 70 years of dance photography. Using the archives, she created work for Standing anywhere in the space in a relaxed position, a new exhibition at the Walter Phillips Gallery from July 25 to September 27.
The exhibition features Otto-Knapp’s signature watercolour paintings, which explore the body in motion and the figure in relation to pictorial space. During the course of the exhibition she will also work for the first time with American dancer and choreographer Flora Wiegmann, who will be performing in the gallery from July 25 to August 9.
Otto-Knapp is known for her delicate views of California skylines, botanical gardens, and portraits of musicians like PJ Harvey and Patti Smith. For the past five years, she has been investigating the possibilities inherent in watercolour: repeatedly washing down her images and reworking them layer by layer to create images of great translucency and delicacy.
For this exhibition, Otto-Knapp was inspired by the choreography of Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine, and American avant-garde dancer Yvonne Rainer. Otto-Knapp’s unusual technique creates translucent ethereal surfaces, capturing the transient nature of dance. The effect, which art critic Jan Verwoert refers to as “threshold moments of motions” perfectly complements the beauty of choreographed movement.
Otto-Knapp will take part in a panel discussion following the final performance of Festival Dance on July 26, 4:30 p.m., at the Walter Phillips Gallery. Moderated by art critic Jan Verwoert, Otto-Knapp, joined by artist Frances Stark, Flora Wiegmann, and ballet master Lindsay Fischer, will discuss the relationship between dance and visual art, and contemporary engagements with each field’s avant-garde history.
— 30 —
