R.M. Vaughan reviews Mary Ann Barkhouse’s The Reins of Chaos at the Latcham Gallery in Stouffville, Ont. He closes with this paragraph:
"A side note: The Reins of Chaos is related to a series of Barkhouse installations that situate animal sculptures in disjointed, otherworldly domestic settings. Her last touring exhibition, Boreal Baroque, tucked rabbits, owls and other woodland creatures into tidy, chintz-draped parlours. One can’t help wondering why or how these powerful and charming works were overlooked by Adaptation: Between Species, the Power Plant’s new, and very large, humans-meet-animals show. Surely one Barkhouse work is worth any two European videos?"

That of course, begs the question, how did the Power Plant's out-going curator, Helena Reckitt, manage to exclude so many First Nation's artists from Adaptation: Between Species currently on at the Power Plant?

barkhouse2.jpg
Mary Ann Barkhouse harvest 2009 Bronze, wood, porcelain, taffeta


barkhouse1.jpg
Mary Ann Barkhouse Boreal Baroque 2009

- L.M. 7-09-2010 5:50 am

it also hid one of the best works--the alys peice, the fox in the national gallery of london, on the 2nd floor


- anthony (guest) 7-09-2010 10:11 am


Maybe showing video is cheaper than shipping sculptures around? it's a pretty ambitious show for the Power Plant

But I agree with what you're saying.
- anonymous (guest) 7-12-2010 4:39 pm


Absolutely, shipping costs must have come into it. It also brings up another problem I had with the appearance of the P.P. show as a whole, tons of video, but the placement of all of those screens looked really haphazard.
- L.M. 7-12-2010 4:51 pm





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