By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
“Where am I?” you may ask yourself as you step into the Incite Gallery room, just to your left after coming through the front entrance of the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB). Am I in someone’s unfurnished house? A construction site in its earliest stage? A garage sale at a rustic cottage? What are all these random objects scattered about, and what is their coherence? What role do I play as the observer, standing here in this open, chaotic space, among the strategically placed mirrors, shelves of plank wood, and a collection of nearly everything one may purchase to make their home a home? The exhibit is called “Living Lab.” What’s the overall experiment here?
Argentina-born and Quebec-based artist José Luis Torres came to exhibit in Burlington for the very first time in the year 2024, as part of his campaign to showcase his work throughout the province of Ontario. Having previously exhibited at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Guelph, and the Cambridge Art Galleries, it is now the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) that has been graced with the opportunity to explore the thoughtful concept of “the place as an object and the object as a place.” The exhibit has been occupying space and provoking reflection in the AGB’s Incite Gallery since February 2024, and plans to stay there until January 12, 2025, when the time will come to pack up and move elsewhere.
The exhibit is described on the AGB’s website as a “kaleidoscope,” intended to create an attention-grabbing illusion. The exhibit wants you to believe that you are simultaneously in a familiar and unfamiliar place. You’re in a stranger’s house, essentially. These objects are the product of years of commonplace life experiences. Mugs and beauty products and CDs and board games and photographs; everything that’s held onto for sentimental or entertainment reasons. It’s the objects themselves that make the space seem so homely. Without them, the space would come across as startlingly bare and without personality. You’ll find yourself browsing through the CDs to determine the “homeowner’s” taste in music. You’ll spot objects you may recognize from your own bathroom or kitchen. You’ll find yourself wondering, how many people are being represented here? There can’t be just one person living here, there is too much stuff. These are the belongings of a family, at least.
The exhibit also makes blunt commentary on the dissatisfactory state of accessibility in local communities. Torres includes stark images of inadequate outdoor steps and ledges that block wheelchairs from accessing vital places and services. The message here is that a place, beyond its many objects, has to work for the individual on a functioning level, not just for the sake of comfort but for the sake of fairness and equity. Torres was kind enough to speak out about the intricacies of his work and its socio-political scope. When asked about how “Living Lab” represents the current housing needs and desires of the people of Burlington, this was his response:
“The question of housing needs and more broadly of habitat manifests itself in a thousand ways in my work. My installations bear witness to feelings of belonging to a place, while it is increasingly difficult to anchor oneself somewhere. My constructions evoke the prolonged ambiguity and estrangement inherent in experiences of immigration and exile. When reusing the many materials I encounter, I transform spaces with large-scale installations that offer the possibility of seeing and relating to familiar objects in new ways. To collect and recontextualize the objects of everyday life, put architectural installations in the light of informal settlements, where sedentary spaces are associated with the loss of space and vulnerability.”
Torres also went on to comment on the role that moment plays in space and how sometimes movement can be hindered by circumstances outside of our control. “Aware that movement is self-constructed, I am attentive to the forks in our paths and direction changes that shape our contemporary way of life. The dialogue between the elements making up my installations, as well as references borrowed from the definition of movement, creates a space of questioning about a reality in which displacement invokes both the fragility and the adaptability of the human being,” Torres says of his interpretation of “the object as a place and the place as an object.”
Torres explains, “The interventions will be based on found objects, salvaged materials, and vernacular techniques. Every project thus involves appropriating the exhibition space through an exploratory practice in which the use of the site reflects our way of inhabiting our world. The various stagings will be articulated in the apparent precariousness of their assemblages, enabling new configurations of reality to be formed.”
Torres utilizes mainly locally sources materials to create his work, making sure that they are always connected to the habits and routines of everyday life. He strives to increase viewers’ gratitude towards their material objects and wealth through his artwork while “inviting us to consider the problematic status of consumer culture: our knack for accumulating objects and the increasing complexities surrounding the storage, recycling, and disposal of the excess goods we accumulate.”
Torres has grand plans for his art after he exits Burlington, as he is scheduled to exhibit next at the Kelowna Art Gallery, located in the Okanagan region. Art enthusiasts in the Halton region still have until January to see his work at the AGB. Just be advised, while the assortment of displayed objects may be intriguing, no object in the exhibit is yours to take, purchase, or move somewhere else. It’s not an interactive exhibit. It’s not your space to alter, commodify, or displace. You’re a guest in someone else’s space, and that is the point of the artistic experience: respecting another person’s vision and boundaries. If you desire a new object of your own to take home, and contribute to your own quality of life, the gift shop is right next door!
