The Image CentreGarden District / TMU campus
Tanya Marcuse: Portent
A multichannel video of ominous natural scenes, from swaying trees to volcanic vapour, on the New Media Wall, drawn from Marcuse's Book of Miracles series.
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The camera never moves. Trees sway in the wind, vapour rises from volcanic fumaroles and icy branches catch a flickering light, while the frame around them stays fixed. You stand in front of a multichannel video of small disturbances that hint at something larger.
Portent is the moving-image side of Part II of Marcuse's Book of Miracles (2020 to 2026), a series modelled on the Augsburg Book of Miracles, a 16th-century illuminated manuscript of natural disasters, celestial spectacles and unexplained oddities. Marcuse, who teaches photography at Bard College, stages the Portent scenes in the Hudson Valley, often within a few miles of her home. Here it plays on the Salah J. Bachir New Media Wall.
It's one work rather than a full exhibition, and no critic has reviewed it yet, so pair it with Richard Avedon Immortal in the same building. Admission is free, Wednesdays run until 8pm, and free drop-in tours start at 1:30pm (plus 6pm on Wednesdays).
Look for
Vapour from volcanic fumaroles
Look for steam rising out of vents in the ground, shifting restlessly while the camera holds perfectly still around it.
Icy branches in flickering light
Ice-coated branches lit by an unsteady, flickering light, one of the quiet scenes the museum singles out from the video.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Cheap Culture
- Evening Visits
Skip if
You want prints on the walls: this is a single video work on one media wall.
Also at The Image Centre
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Image credits
7
- Always In FashionPhoto by Darren Rigo.
- Made By Many: 50 Years of the Textile Museum of CanadaPhoto by Darren Rigo
- Retracing Tatreez: Palestinian Thobes through the 20th CenturyCourtesy of Textile Museum of Canada
- The Image CentreCanmenwalker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Mackenzie HouseCan Pac Swire, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Textile Museum of CanadaRaysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Campbell House MuseumJK Liu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0