VITAL SIGNS
March 30 - May 20, 2000

The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery of Concordia University was pleased to present the exhibition Vital Signs from March 30 to May 20, 2000. The exhibition explored how the non-visual senses are being both interrogated and reconceived in contemporary artistic practice. Held in conjunction with the international conference, "Uncommon Senses: The Senses in Art and Culture," held at Concordia University, this exhibition which featured fifteen works by Canadian and U.S. artists, addressed the subtle but powerful links between the senses, lived experience and aesthetic meaning. Included were works by Bosses (an architectural collaborative), Kevin Ei-ichi deForest, Jean Dubois, Wendy Jacob, Natalie Jeremijenko, Naomi London, Sandra Rechico, Claire Savoie and Chrysanne Stathacos. Vital Signs takes the pulse of a certain type of contemporary art which exemplifies a shift in sensibility toward the experiential. The artists featured in the exhibition are engaged in a phenomenological aesthetics that favours direct sensory experience, yet also provides challenges to social and cultural assumptions about perception. The show juxtaposed site-specific installations, interactive sculptures and technology, performance, photography of the invisible, and painting with atypical substances.

Not only were each of the five senses explored,
but also senses not widely recognized and bordering
on the paranormal. Vital Signs engaged its audience
directly via gustation, olfaction, tactility and sound.The
exhibition wasguest curated
by Display Cult: Jim Drobnick and Jennifer
Fisher, Colette Tougas, and was
organized with the assistance of the
Canada Council for the Arts, Assistance to
Art Museums and Public Galleries.