Erratic, 2011

Germaine Koh - Vancouver, Canada

Performance Art

Erratic is a low-key performance using human energy to re-create in a small-scale way not only the geological processes that have shaped the region's landforms, but also the machine-assisted ones that continue to do so in an accelerated way. The artist, with assistance, will take a glacial boulder from northern Ontario and, over the days culminating at the event, roll it southward in order to add it to Toronto's already-engineered waterfront land. Using unassisted human power to do a job that could easily be performed on a larger scale with machinery – and continues to be done on an even larger but slower scale by natural processes – is a deliberate reminder of the monumental yet unremarked movements by which a place is formed, and the extent to which these have been technologically accelerated. The undertaking also recalls traditions of journeymen and migrant workers moving with their work. Geological time, human time, and machine time are brought together in a quiet tribute to manual labour and other under-recognized processes. The artist's journey will pass Yonge and Bloor at 7 pm.

Germaine Koh is based in Vancouver. Her conceptually-generated work is concerned with the significance of everyday actions, familiar objects and common places. Her exhibition history includes: the BALTIC Centre (Newcastle), De Appel (Amsterdam), Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Para/Site Art Space (Hong Kong), Frankfurter Kunstverein, Bloomberg SPACE (London), The Power Plant (Toronto), Seoul Museum of Art, Artspace (Sydney), and The British Museum (London). Koh was a recipient of the 2010 VIVA Award.

Suitable for all ages