DRESS-UN-DRESS

Lorna Bauer & Jon Knowles

Commercial awning canvas on painting stretchers
September 17–November 11, 2012
This is a two pronged exhibition was located at Convenience gallery (58 Lansdowne Avenue, Toronto), and La Vitrine (2126 rue Rachel, Montréal). Both galleries share similar characteristics that inspired a simultaneous exhibition pairing the two spaces. La Vitrine and Convenience are both modest shop-fronts with symmetrical window bays, autonomously "artist run", and architecturally blending into their surroundings. Curiously, both window front spaces include tattered awnings which point to their previous use as retail shops (Convenience gallery, a corner store, La Vitrine, a men's clothier).

The tenor of the exhibition is a site-sensitive endeavour in which we have removed the disheveled awnings from both shop fronts. These old striped awnings (or auvents in french) have been stretched onto painter stretcher bars, 'tailored' into two groups of flat two dimensional objects and 'put to work' in order to resemble paintings. Each group of awning works have been swapped with their counterparts and exhibited in opposite galleries: Convenience gallery awning presented in Montreal, La Vitrine awning displayed in Toronto. Each group consists of varying sizes of supports based on the standard analogue photographic paper printing format: 4"x5", 5"x7", 8"x10", 11"x14", 16"x20", 20"x24", 24"x30", 30"x40".
⤹ Information

This is a two pronged exhibition was located at Convenience gallery (58 Lansdowne Avenue, Toronto), and La Vitrine (2126 rue Rachel, Montréal). Both galleries share similar characteristics that inspired a simultaneous exhibition pairing the two spaces. La Vitrine and Convenience are both modest shop-fronts with symmetrical window bays, autonomously "artist run", and architecturally blending into their surroundings. Curiously, both window front spaces include tattered awnings which point to their previous use as retail shops (Convenience gallery, a corner store, La Vitrine, a men's clothier).

The tenor of the exhibition is a site-sensitive endeavour in which we have removed the disheveled awnings from both shop fronts. These old striped awnings (or auvents in french) have been stretched onto painter stretcher bars, 'tailored' into two groups of flat two dimensional objects and 'put to work' in order to resemble paintings. Each group of awning works have been swapped with their counterparts and exhibited in opposite galleries: Convenience gallery awning presented in Montreal, La Vitrine awning displayed in Toronto. Each group consists of varying sizes of supports based on the standard analogue photographic paper printing format: 4"x5", 5"x7", 8"x10", 11"x14", 16"x20", 20"x24", 24"x30", 30"x40".