Critical Writing Index

Dispersions Indentity. Recent videos from Quebec

by Michele Theriault

Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), 1994

ISBN/ISSN 1-895235-17-0

Catalogue accompanying "Identity Dispersions: Recent Videos from Quebec" an exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada from January 25 to March 26, 1995. Identity Dispersions "is neither a representative exhibition of Quebec video nor an assessment. Its objective is, rather, to present recent videos lesser known outside Quebec. This body of works, created between 1989 and 1994, is structured in such a way that it forms a certain trajectory, ultimately taking on the features of the following problematic: the dispersion of identity through video (the dispersion of specificity, in other words, of what defines "me" or "us" and sets "me" or "us" apart from others culturally, nationally and sexually). This problematic, which brings together two apparently incompatible notions (dispersion and identity), was chosen not only for its recurrence in Quebec video but also for the prominent role it has played in the construction of our post-modernity." [Source: page 10 in the catalogue]

ITEM 1994.120 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Charles Guibert

Serge Murphy

Diane Obomsawin

Nicole Benoit

Naomi London

Yves Labelle

Nelson Henricks

Silvana Afram