"MAKEBELIEVE" -- Group Exhibition, Sept 9 – Nov 26, 2006, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton

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"Blow Back"

Louise Noguchi, "Blow Back," 2004, 30" x 40", document series.

MAKEBELIEVE -- Group Exhibition

Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton

Sept 9 – Nov 26, 2006

By Dina O'Meara

People have enjoyed being enveloped by illusion since masked dancers cast shadows on cave walls. In MakeBelieve, a group of contemporary Canadian artists explores the relationship between modern storytelling and the imagination, artwork inspired by cinema and fiction. “We were interested in how film presents cinematic illusions," says Art Gallery of Alberta curator Catherine Crowston. “It used to be novels that wove illusions. Is our imagination now constructed by the movies?” Recent works by David Carter, Geoffrey Farmer, Milutin Gubash, Adad Hannah, Tim Lee, Myfanwy McLeod, Louise Noguchi, Judy Radul, and Althea Thauberger play with the creation and destruction of illusions. One photo exhibit deconstructs horror movies to uncover the techniques used to create the gruesome illusions, another welcomes viewers to death scenes staged by an actor hired for the video piece. Yet another artist portrays theme parks and reconstructions of western-theme movie sets in the southern United States, photographs of fantasies built on fantasies. “A lot of the exhibit is about the way we believe in illusion, though we know there are tricks underneath them,” Crowston says.