Items Similar to It’s So Quiet You Can Hear Them Breathing
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
Jessica HoustonIt’s So Quiet You Can Hear Them Breathing2017
2017
About the Item
Jessica Houston’s most recent works look north. What is north? Where is it? Is it a fixed place, or something else?
Her second solo show at Art Mûr brings together paintings, a sound sculpture, and chine collé prints, all of which reveal a fragile, fluid, and often fractured, north.
An iron ore stone becomes a speaker, playing recordings of interviews and singing, and expanding the physical presence of the stone. The exaggerated textures of the paintings give them, too, a sculptural and documentary feel. They record how actions—breaking and piercing, pushing and pulling—disrupt and transform the paintings’ surfaces. By resembling patterns one finds in the wild—scratches across the surface of a rock, uneven waves that form on melting snow—they unhinge any clear distinction between what is natural and what is made.
Made with a printmaking technique that binds together distinct papers, the chine collé prints begin with photographs Houston took of Baffin Island. She then combines the images with coloured paper, creating traces of the process of extracting and replacing parts of a scene, and an equal awareness of both what is present and absent.
Some are composed of double circles, like looking through binoculars. In Business As Usual, a decaying interior—peeling wallpaper, a rusted stove—is juxtaposed with the soft glow of a yellow circle. This continues Houston’s ongoing use of colour to question the particulars of perception.
Heritage of All, White with Greed and Iron, and The Spaces we Breath, Houston’s titles read like lines of a haiku. Composed as prose, they are also confrontational, mapping out the cultural and environmental impacts of the extraction of resources in the Arctic. We witness scenes of violent decay, and yet simply carry on, like Business As Usual. In What Nations Come and Go a pale purple oval nearly fills the frame, revealing only in the very far right a simple cabin in front of a rocky incline. A similar imposing cloud of colour, this time blue, dominates the landscape in Mapped, Claimed, and Evaluated.
The north is just as much an idea as it is a place, and is one that looms large in the Canadian imagination. There are few better examples than Glenn Gould’s The Idea of North: “But like all but a very few Canadians . . . I’ve had no direct confrontation with the northern third of our country . . . the north has remained for me a convenient place to dream about, spin tall tales about sometimes, and, in the end, avoid.”1 But Houston has gone north. The north she depicts is not faraway. It is no longer convenient to just dream about. The north Houston shows us is one that wears the signs of climate change and pollution, of the extraction of natural resources and the colonization of peoples. Houston’s north is uncertain and fragile, and warrants as close of a look as we can get.
1. Gould, Glenn. ‚The Idea of North.’ Glenn Gould’s Solitude Trilogy: Three Sound Documentaries. Toronto: CBC, 1992.
- Creator:Jessica Houston (1970, American)
- Creation Year:2017
- Dimensions:Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Montreal, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4761824023
Jessica Houston
Jessica Houston (MA, Columbia University) has traveled from pole to pole, using color and light to entangle and provoke questions related to our changing natural world, and our nature within it. She has created site-specific works for the NJ MOCA (NJ); the Castello di Corigliano (Puglia, Italy); and The Albany Airport (Albany, NY). Select exhibitions include Art Mûr Gallery, Montréal, Canada; The Hyde Collection Museum, Glens Falls, NY; and The Latimer House Museum, New York, NY. She has been invited to residencies at The Albers Foundation and CAMAC Center for Art, Science and Technology in France. Her works are funded by The Canada Council for the Arts and are in the collections of La collection Prêt d’œuvres d’art, Musée National Des Beaux-Arts du Quebec; Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Montréal, Québec; Bank of Montréal, Toronto; and the Consulate General of Monaco, Montréal. She has lectured at The Art Institute of Florence; Columbia University; Concordia University; and OCAD University.
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 1996
1stDibs seller since 2014
96 sales on 1stDibs
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Montreal, Canada
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Beneath the NightBy Jessica HoustonLocated in Montreal, QuebecJessica Houston’s most recent works look north. What is north? Where is it? Is it a fixed place, or something else? Her second solo show at Art Mûr brings together paintings, a sound sculpture, and chine collé prints, all of which reveal a fragile, fluid, and often fractured, north. An iron ore stone becomes a speaker, playing recordings of interviews and singing, and expanding the physical presence of the stone. The exaggerated textures of the paintings give them, too, a sculptural and documentary feel. They record how actions—breaking and piercing, pushing and pulling—disrupt and transform the paintings’ surfaces. By resembling patterns one finds in the wild—scratches across the surface of a rock, uneven waves that form on melting snow—they unhinge any clear distinction between what is natural and what is made. Made with a printmaking technique that binds together distinct papers, the chine collé prints begin with photographs Houston took of Baffin Island. She then combines the images with coloured paper, creating traces of the process of extracting and replacing parts of a scene, and an equal awareness of both what is present and absent. Some are composed of double circles, like looking through binoculars. In Business As Usual, a decaying interior—peeling wallpaper, a rusted stove—is juxtaposed with the soft glow of a yellow circle. This continues Houston’s ongoing use of colour to question the particulars of perception. Heritage of All, White with Greed and Iron, and The Spaces we Breath, Houston’s titles read like lines of a haiku. Composed as prose, they are also confrontational, mapping out the cultural and environmental impacts of the extraction of resources in the Arctic. We witness scenes of violent decay, and yet simply carry on, like Business As Usual. In What Nations Come and Go a pale purple oval nearly fills the frame, revealing only in the very far right a simple cabin in front of a rocky incline. A similar imposing cloud of colour, this time blue, dominates the landscape in Mapped, Claimed, and Evaluated. The north is just as much an idea as it is a place, and is one that looms large in the Canadian imagination. There are few better examples than Glenn Gould...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- Colour Intersected Series - No 5By Shayne DarkLocated in Montreal, QuebecShayne Dark is an Ontario-based contemporary visual artist who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since he began his artistic career in the mid 1980’s. Taking a...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- Trace IIIBy Christine NobelLocated in Montreal, QuebecIn Christine’s work, precise grid systems give both order and fluidity. Evoking a vast plane of vision and possibility, the field of horizontal and vertical lines are a foundation fo...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- Colour Intersected Series - No 4By Shayne DarkLocated in Montreal, QuebecShayne Dark is an Ontario-based contemporary visual artist who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since he began his artistic career in the mid 1980’s. Taking a...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- Colour Intersected Series - No 6By Shayne DarkLocated in Montreal, QuebecShayne Dark is an Ontario-based contemporary visual artist who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since he began his artistic career in the mid 1980’s. Taking a...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- Colour Intersected Series - No 2By Shayne DarkLocated in Montreal, QuebecShayne Dark is an Ontario-based contemporary visual artist who has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since he began his artistic career in the mid 1980’s. Taking a...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
You May Also Like
- Colorful Abstract Aerial Landscape PaintingLocated in East Quogue, NYStunning textural abstract aerial landscape painting by Hungarian artist Levente Baranyai. Oil on panel, 37.5 x 50 inches. With a focus on aerial urb...Category
1990s Abstract Landscape Paintings
MaterialsOil, Wood Panel
- "Birds And Bees" oil saw dust and foam on wood by Steven RehfeldBy Steven H. RehfeldLocated in Carmel, CASize: 4ft x 8ft Mixed Media: oil, saw dust and foam on wooden panel. Steven is now one of the top emerging artists in the U.S. His works are ground breaking, bold and imbued with u...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsOil, Foam, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
- "Point of Departure 2", abstract, blues, greens, pink, mixed media paintingBy Leslie ZelamskyLocated in Natick, MALeslie Zelamsky's "Point of Departure 2" is a 42 x 42 x 2.75 inch mixed-media painting on wood panel. This abstract painting contains an assortment of ...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsWood Panel, Oil, Mixed Media, Tar, Graphite
- The Forgotten AmericaBy Randi GranthamLocated in Lake Worth Beach, FLThe Forgotten America. Mixed Media oil paint, tar, gravel. metal, resin on wood panel artist unique style and technic, the frame is part of the artwork. Randi Grantham...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsTar, Oil, Mixed Media, Wood Panel
- Randi Joe In The SnowBy Randi GranthamLocated in Lake Worth Beach, FLRandi Joe in the snow. Mixed Media oil paint, paint, pigment, crystal rock, wood panel artist unique style and technic, the frame is part of the artwork. Randi Grantham...Category
2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings
MaterialsMixed Media, Oil, Wood Panel
- Original-Magic Bell in the Night-UK Awarded Artist-Botanical Abstract ExpressionLocated in London, GBIn her latest series, "The Weaver," Shizico explores forms, layers, and time onto canvases. Applying the format of diptychs and triptychs, she creates lyrical narratives, capturing t...Category
2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings
MaterialsGesso, Canvas, Oil, Acrylic, Wood Panel
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
So You
As You Like It
Come As You Are
Large Quiet Abstract
Melting With You
Large Pale Abstract Art
Oval Wood Panel
Rust Color Abstract
Oval Painting Abstract
Tall Abstract Painting Blue
Art Mur
Wood Stove
Used Wood Stoves
Trilogy Painting
Spinning Oil
Sculpture Tall White Abstract
Oval Art Painting Landscape
Record Speakers