Slipping By

Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, October 2005

Slipping by

Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, October 2005

Slipping by was an installation with audio, electronics and performance on the closing night of the exhibition. The installation was a response to the specific location of Stride gallery in downtown Calgary on a very busy street where several lanes of commuter traffic are just a few feet outside the door.

Twenty oversized clocks hung on each of the two facing walls that ran the length of the gallery. The clocks each had a speaker and a different recorded sound chip inside with various voices expressing tension and anxieties about time slipping by too quickly. Sensors triggered the speed of the moving clock hands and the sound coming from each clock as the viewer moved through the gallery. The layering of voices increased until all of the twenty clocks were activated.

On the floor of the gallery, there were four small lanes of traffic running across the width of the gallery with small sensor-controlled RC cars mounted with car horns. The cars raced back and forth in their lanes honking madly when triggered by the viewer.

On the closing night, there was a performance in the installation. Rita was suspended from the ceiling of the gallery above the four cars and she tried to stay as still as possible while 60 minute sound pieces marked the passing hour. The audience was given the 60 available tickets each marked with a time from 8:01 to 8:59. They waited outside until their minute arrived when they entered the installation. The gallery slowly filled until all 60 minutes were present in the gallery.

Technical assistance: Robyn Moody, Graeme Patterson.
Vocalists: Paul Hammond, Kathy Kennedy. Alyssa Robichaud,