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Contemporary Art Gallery

555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, Canada
Open from Tuesday to
Sunday 12 pm → 6 pm

Admission always free
ArchiveExhibition
3 Jul 98until8 Aug 98

Francis Alÿs

le temps du sommeil

555 Hamilton St

This is a close-up view of an artwork placed on the wooden desk. On a small pile of white paper napkins, a water-filled glass is placed upside down. A small white human figure stands inside the glass.

...I spend a lot of time walking around the city...An initial concept for a project often emerges during a walk. As an artist, my position is akin to that of a passer-by constantly trying to situate myself in a moving environment. My work is a succession of notes and guides. The invention of a language goes together with the invention of a city. Each of my interventions is another fragment of the story that I am inventing… –Francis Alÿs

Francis Alÿs is one of the most important young artists working in Mexico today. While Alÿs is known internationally for his collaborative works with sign painters or rotulistas and for his performance walking projects, he has been quietly making modest paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations and videos. He recently completed a major project for INSITE97, San Diego and has exhibited at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Humlebaek, Denmark and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Alÿs will be representing Mexico in the forthcoming São Paulo Biennial.

His upcoming exhibition entitled le temps du sommeil at the Contemporary Art Gallery will feature recent diaristic paintings, sculptures, drawings and a video projection completed in the last two years. Much in these works draws on the artist's previous projects.

Le temps du sommeil (1996-98) is an important work consisting of approximately 100 small-scale oil paintings (each 4.33 inches by 5.90 inches [11 by 15 centimetres]) composed of figures (and sometimes dogs) engaged in various actions, some of which the artist has previously performed, such as walking with leaking tin of paint and walking with a rod balanced upright in the palm of the hand, and others that record scenes from performances or actions he has imagined. The figures are often depicted within a landscape circumscribed by a brown undercoat. This other surface holds residues of notes and drawings from the artists' sketchbook together with the date the panel was completed.

Alÿs's two tiny sculptures The Modernist (1998) and La barbe de Courbet (1998) appear to have stepped out of the panels into the three-dimensional world. While the video animates one of le temps du sommeil’s pregnant moments.

Guest curated by Kitty Scott

This image shows two artworks installed in the gallery. On the floor, a desk with a clear glass cup is placed. A collection of small tiles are mounted on the back wall.
A wooden desk and small wall tiles are installed in the front space of the gallery. in the back, white and yellow strings are hanging from the ceiling in front of a painted wooden chair on the floor.
This is a close-up view of small tiles mounted on the gallery wall. On their brick red surfaces, line drawings of white human figures and coloured paintings of exercising humans are depicted.
This is a close-up view of small drawings that are taped to the gallery wall. On the sheets of torn trace papers, black line drawings of various human figures and activities are depicted.
A small projector is placed on the light blue painted wooden chair in the gallery. The projector, connected to white and yellow codes, projects a blank white rectangle on the white gallery wall.
A photograph is attached to the beige-painted door. The picture shows a building’s glass facade behind a passing car. A white line drawing of a finger over lips flotes above the car’s rooftop.
This is a close-up view of an artwork placed on the wooden desk. On a small pile of white paper napkins, a water-filled glass is placed upside down. A small white human figure stands inside the glass.
This image shows two artworks installed in the gallery. On the floor, a desk with a clear glass cup is placed. A collection of small tiles are mounted on the back wall.
A wooden desk and small wall tiles are installed in the front space of the gallery. in the back, white and yellow strings are hanging from the ceiling in front of a painted wooden chair on the floor.
This is a close-up view of small tiles mounted on the gallery wall. On their brick red surfaces, line drawings of white human figures and coloured paintings of exercising humans are depicted.
This is a close-up view of small drawings that are taped to the gallery wall. On the sheets of torn trace papers, black line drawings of various human figures and activities are depicted.
A small projector is placed on the light blue painted wooden chair in the gallery. The projector, connected to white and yellow codes, projects a blank white rectangle on the white gallery wall.
A photograph is attached to the beige-painted door. The picture shows a building’s glass facade behind a passing car. A white line drawing of a finger over lips flotes above the car’s rooftop.