Ian Carr-Harris
Encyclopedia
Ian Carr-Harris is a Canadian artist living in Toronto
. In addition to exhibiting internationally, Carr-Harris is a professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design
.
Carr-Harris has been on the faculty of the Ontario College of Art & Design since 1964. He has received several grants from the Ontario Arts Council
and the Canada Council
, and is currently represented by the Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto. He has represented Canada at the Sydney Biennale (1990), Documenta
8 (1987) and the Venice Biennale
(1984).
Ian Carr-Harris currently lives and works in Toronto, and is on the Board of Directors of the CCCA. In 2007 he was awarded the Governor General's Award
in Visual and Media Arts.
Primarily a sculptor and installation artist, Ian Carr-Harris' work investigates knowledge and ordering systems, often working with books and libraries, reflecting his early training and career as a librarian. In particular, his work reflects an interest in the intersections between memory and technology, often outmoded technology, which was a recurrent motif of Canadian art in the 1970s. Art historian Mark Cheetham describe's Carr-Harris' 1972 installation Nancy Higginson, 1949- as a key example of work at that time which posits viewers "as forgetful machines who must have [their] memories [their] sense of [themselves] as existing over time constantly restored." In Nancy Higginson, 1949- Carr-Harris
In his work Carr-Harris often uses common materials and objects, such as tables and cabinets, which are "domestic in scale, almost banal in appearance, [that] initially present their information through texts." Typical of his work in the 1970s and 1980s is a matter-of-fact revealing of the basic elements of the work to the viewer. Where the earlier works show the elements of the entire piece as banal, with text as the only key to the overall work, by the 1990s his work begins to use light projections and the 1994 installation 137 Tecumseth is one of several which artificially "re-enact the passage of sunlight through time across a particular space."
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. In addition to exhibiting internationally, Carr-Harris is a professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design
Ontario College of Art & Design
OCAD University is Canada's largest and oldest educational institution for art and design. It is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on McCaul Street beside the Art Gallery of Ontario...
.
Life
Ian Carr-Harris was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1941. He is an artist, writer and educator. Major solo exhibitions of his work have taken place across Canada and abroad. His writings on art have been published in Canadian Art, Parachute, C Magazine and Vanguard, among others.Carr-Harris has been on the faculty of the Ontario College of Art & Design since 1964. He has received several grants from the Ontario Arts Council
Ontario Arts Council
The Ontario Arts Council is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to promote and assist the development of the arts for the enjoyment and benefit of all Ontarians...
and the Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
, and is currently represented by the Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto. He has represented Canada at the Sydney Biennale (1990), Documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
8 (1987) and the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
(1984).
Ian Carr-Harris currently lives and works in Toronto, and is on the Board of Directors of the CCCA. In 2007 he was awarded the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
in Visual and Media Arts.
Work
"defines" this woman through a primitive memory system, the card catalogue, a textual archive in which the photo of Higginson seems out of place, dominated as it (and so much of our lives) is by language.
In his work Carr-Harris often uses common materials and objects, such as tables and cabinets, which are "domestic in scale, almost banal in appearance, [that] initially present their information through texts." Typical of his work in the 1970s and 1980s is a matter-of-fact revealing of the basic elements of the work to the viewer. Where the earlier works show the elements of the entire piece as banal, with text as the only key to the overall work, by the 1990s his work begins to use light projections and the 1994 installation 137 Tecumseth is one of several which artificially "re-enact the passage of sunlight through time across a particular space."
Further reading
- Ammann, Jean-Christophe. Kanadische Kunstler. Basel, Switzerland: Kunsthalle Basel, 1978.
- Bradley, Jessica. Ian Carr-Harris/Liz Magor: Canada, XLI Biennale di Venezia. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1984.
- Cheetham, Mark. Remembering Post-Modernism: Trends in Recent Canadian Art. Toronto: OUP, 1992. ISBN 0-19-540817-9 (Full text).
- Monk, Philip. Ian Carr-Harris 1971-1977. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1988.
- Monk, Philip and Antonio Guzman. Ian Carr-Harris: Works 1992-2002. Toronto: The Power Plant, 2002.
- Murray, Joan. Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century. Toronto: Dundern Press, 1999.
- Newlands, Anne. Canadian Art from its Beginnings to 2000. Toronto: Firefly Books, 2000.
- Youngs, Christopher. Ian Carr-Harris. Kassel: Documenta 8, vol. 2, 1987.