Moon Room

Narwhal Gallery

Group Exhibition

Closing Reception:
Date: Sunday November 16
Time: 3-6pm
Performances by FIN and Petra Glynt
Sensitive moon pancake bar with Club Sandwich
Location: Narwhal 2014 Dundas St W

October 18 – November 15

With works by Adrienne Kammerer, Alexandra Mackenzie, Alicia Nauta, Carly Waito, Eli Langer, Eunice Luk, Hanna Hur, Heather Goodchild, Jennifer Murphy, Karen Azoulay, Kendra Yee, Lisa DiQunzio, Maggie Groat, Margaux Williamson, Maryanne Casasanta, Naomi Yasui, Nikki Woolsey, Patrick Krzyzanowski, Rebecca Fin Simonetti, Sab Meynert and Vanessa Brown.

Exploring multiple planes of perspective, Moon Room invites contemplation on synchronous narratives through the creation of parallel installations – this is a room to view a moon and this is a moon that reflects on a room.

The exhibition begins inside a bedtime ritual, an ode to ‘Goodnight Moon’ (Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd 1947). Depicting far and near sides of the natural satellite, and the transition from light to dark, the room acts as a place of preparation for the transition into darkness. Through a series of objects, images, patterns and planes created by eight artists and abstracted from the book’s illustrations, the room leads us through a procession of moments ending with an open window revealing a night sky. Stepping through the window, the room is left behind and the Moon is introduced. Combining elemental energies, personalities and practices, thirteen artists unite in creating a shared vision of the Moon. Presented as both a collective galaxy of moons that can be viewed on a large scale from different sides, and as individual celestial bodies floating in space, the Moon offers intimate moments of reflection from far and near, exploring its existence from visual reference, spirituality and scientific phenomena.

Originally imagined in response to the conspiracies considered in the film Room 237, Moon Room acts as an alternative reality to the messages perceived to be hidden inside more obvious narratives. Expanding on this process of analysis, an implied connection has been made between two fabricated interiors, unifying staged installations from which to launch a larger metaphorical message. Just as The Shining is said to hold the secrets to various confessions, “Goodnight Moon” has been the subject of several analysis’ linking it to mortality, politics, capitalism and a the evolution of time. Within the Moon, there is the revealed face and the unknown, a set of intangible simultaneous experiences. Within scientific research, multiple versions of the Moon’s truth are presented and from the mythos of our ancestors yet another series of truths are presented. At any given moment there are dozens of conflicting truths being presented on every level. As there are countless perspectives experienced by each individual at every moment, and countless faces put forth and hidden, it leads to the conclusion that there are an infinite number of truths happening at the same, an infinite possibility of parallels that can be drawn between two seemingly unrelated narratives. Deciding what to believe is left to the discretion of the viewer. Moon Room acts as a holder of possibilities and hidden meanings, a physical example of the myriad faces that can exist amongst those presented and masked.

– Kristin Weckworth, Curator

From Oct 18 – Nov 15, 2014