To the Dogs, Presentation House Gallery (now The Polygon Gallery), Vancouver, 30 June — 5 August 2007
Artists: Shelby Lee Adams, Francis Alys, Miguel Rio Branco, Jon Divola, Elliot Erwitt, Shari Hatt, Dave Heath, Lewis Hine, Marc Joseph, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Herbert List, Jo Longhurst, Eadweard Muybridge, Martin Parr, Lise Sarfati, David Seymour, Giorgio Sommer, Chris Steele-Perkins, Nina Raginsky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Larry Towell, William Wegman.
Catalogue: To the Dogs
The exhibition considers how society has shaped, and is shaped by, the “companion species” known as dog. As Gertrude Stein wrote in 1935 “I am I because my little dog knows me.” Included in the show are classic images, contemporary art works, and vernacular portraits which are augmented by historic photographs culled from several local archives. Together these pictures reveal how dogs have remained an enduring metaphor and potent symbol in human history, an integral part of everyday life, and a favourite subject of the camera. To the Dogs looks at the diverse ways that dogs as domestic pets and wilder animals are part of society as friends, helpers, labourers, and even performers. The exhibition includes photography of dog locomotion such as Edweard Muybridge’s stop action motion studies from the late nineteenth century to John Divola’s recent series Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert. There are many versions of “man and his best friend” as expressed in famous photographs of Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Herbert List, through to William Wegman’s collaborative exercises with his Weimeraners performing in a variety of guises. The stray dog and wolf are vividly portrayed in the conceptual work of Hiroshi Sugimoto and Francis Alÿs, and the documentary approaches of Magnum photographers Elliott Erwitt, Chris Steele-Perkins, and Miquel Rio Branco.
Work exhibited Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium
Photos: Presentation House Gallery