Liz Magor, detail, Military Through the Ages, 1993/1996. Purchase, J. Stuart Fleming Fund, 2007 (50-010)
Exhibitions
Liz Magor:
Military Through the Ages
Frances K. Smith Gallery
4 July - 13 September
In this exhibition of a photographic suite recently acquired by the Art Centre, Vancouver artist Liz Magor reveals, once again, her fascination with fakery. She reflectively documents the phenomenon of military re-enactment pageants held in period costume at numerous sites across North America each year. The images were captured by Magor at the 10th annual "Military Through the Ages" event at Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg, Virginia in March 1993: the conflicts represented range from the Viking Battle of Clontarf of 1014 to the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. Adding a layer of artifice, the artist has digitally introduced faux age-damage to the prints, echoing her unconvincing subjects, whose robust health, for example, betrays their status as civilian role-players.
Best known for her sculptural works, Liz Magor has produced several series of fine black and white photographs focusing on social subcultures. A thematic link between her photographic projects and sculpture is her fascination with what she calls "faux culture," that is: the ways in which the widespread desire for authenticity is paradoxically fulfilled through patently false, romantic appropriation of the past.
Jan Allen