1. Geoffrey James at the National Gallery, Ottawa, May 30 – 19 October, 2008.

VoCA was at the National Gallery in Ottawa this weekend, where we took in the photographs of Canadian photographer Geoffrey James.

Geoffrey James, St. Cloud, 1989. Image: trepanierbaer.com

The best works were in the first room, miniature snapshots of Italianate gardens, presented as panoramas against wide black mats. These are precious objects – views dictated by the artist, of course, but when an artist has such a fine eye, you feel that you have been given a gift.

Geoffrey James, St. Cloud, 1981. Image: trepanierbaer.com

Other images, mostly large-scale, were less impressive – or rather, more like other photographers’ work.

Nonetheless, some noteworthy images were taken on the Mexico/US border.

Geoffrey James, The End of the Fence, Looking West (from the series Running Fence), 1997. Image: moma.org

One image, in particular was titled Settlement Along the Fence, Tijuana (1997) and showed a shantytown butted up against a primitive metal fence, on the other side of which was a vast expanse of barren land, save for a patrol car parked in the distance. The god’s eye view that James managed to attained empowered the subject matter. Another work, The End of the Fence, Looking West (Olay Mesa) shows where the fence just…stopped.

Geoffrey James is represented by Equinox Gallery, Vancouver – click HERE – and Trepanier Baer Gallery in Calgary – click HERE.

2. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: Sculpture by the Way

The catalogue cover. Image: amazon.com

This exhibition from 2006 at the Castello di Rivoli by one of VoCA’s favorite artistic teams would have been phenomenal, but if you missed it – as we did – the catalogue, thankfully is wonderful.

Oldenburg, once so relevant to the 1960s, continues (to our mind) to be one of the most relevant artists working today. Like Christo and Jeanne Claude and Cai Guo Qiang, his humorous large-scale installations send the viewer into an uncanny and essential relationship to the planet earth – much like the camera obscura did in earlier days.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Free Stamp, 1991. Image: oldenburgvanbruggen.com

Written by Ida Gianelli, Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, and Marcella Beccaria, Curator of the Castello di Rivoli Museum.

We bought it at Nicholas Hoare Books in Ottawa (one of our favorite bookshops and worth seeking out), but you can also buy it HERE and HERE.

For info on the Castello di Rivoli, please click HERE.