Sara Cwynar

×

Expand

Sara Cwynar, “Red Film,” 2018

film still, 16 mm film transferred to video, 13:00 min. (courtesy of the artist, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, and Foxy Production, New York)

On March 23, a 200,000-tonne cargo ship carrying 18,300 containers of consumer goods, swept off course by winds, wedged across the Suez Canal. For nearly a week, ships containing live sheep, exercise equipment, liquified natural gas and instant coffee waited patiently in the Red Sea. As the deluge of #SuezCanal memes and GIFs suggest, this strange disaster illuminated the fragility of the global supply chain and the irony of a single boat’s capacity to dismantle late-stage capitalism.

Sara Cwynar’s exhibition Source, on view at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon until May 24, aims to confront our obsession with commodities and ownership. Cwynar, born in Vancouver and now based in Brooklyn, N.Y., is known for beautifully edited short films that combine a rotation of commercial products with trance-inducing narration. The films showcase Cwynar’s perfectly curated collection of objects: vintage perfume bottles, print ephemera and utilitarian housewares in chic pastels. Cwynar presents these items with curiosity and adoration. Exquisitely groomed hands delicately engage with each item. 

Cwynar’s exhibition is parceled out in three parts: Source (2021), Guide (2021), and Red Film (2018). It strives to add depth to her film practice by presenting the viewer with a three-step epistemological guide to the items, images and ideas showcased in Red Film. 

×

1 of 2

Expand

Sara Cwynar, “Source,” 2021

digital prints, Plexiglas and custom frame structure, installation view at Remai Modern, Saskatoon (photo by Blaine Campbell; courtesy of the artist, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, and Foxy Production, New York)

×

2 of 2

Expand

Sara Cwynar, “Source” (detail), 2021

digital prints, Plexiglas, custom frame structure, installation view, Remai Modern, Saskatoon (photo by Blaine Campbell; courtesy of the artist, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, and Foxy Production, New York)

Prev

Next

The exhibition opens with Source, a 25-foot-long plexiglass partition collaged with printed matter. This wall of pop culture imagery, both archival and contemporary, consists of magazine clippings, photographs of celebrities and emojis layered on top of large-scale editorial layouts and photocopied pages from philosophy texts. 

×

Expand

Sara Cwynar, “Guide” (detail), 2021

vinyl print and videos on monitors, installation view, Remai Modern, Saskatoon (photo by Blaine Campbell; courtesy of the artist, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, and Foxy Production, New York)

Guide encapsulates the metamorphosis from idea to reality, product to consumer. The gallery walls are wallpapered with vibrant, glossy photographic prints. Images of the human form are embedded with small video screens. A torso donning a Bernie Sanders’ Rage Against the Machine T-shirt features a POV walkthrough of an upscale department store. The videographer momentarily hovers over a lipstick display and quickly moves down aisles of clothing racks. The seemingly disparate images and videos are connected by their capacity to be consumed. 

×

Expand

Sara Cwynar, “Red Film,” 2018

16 mm film transferred to video, 13:00 min., installation view, Remai Modern, Saskatoon (photo by Blaine Campbell; courtesy of the artist; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto, and Foxy Production, New York)

Ultimately, the audience is led into a plush red gallery. Red Film is presented on a large theatre screen installed at the back of the room, encouraging viewing at a distance. Similar to Source and Guide, Red Film is a montage of imagery offering the cultural lineage and aesthetic merit of the colour red. Little glass bottles of red nail polish swirl on a conveyor belt; a red vintage convertible is petted by a hand with perfectly painted red fingernails; and a cast of impeccably dressed young people in stunning red outfits lip-sync, wag their fingers and wax across the screen. The film’s narration is philosophical in tone and features an impressive roster of historical figures and contemporary critical thinkers, as well as Cwynar herself. Although there’s a sense of urgency within the film’s narration, the voices overlap and become difficult to follow – preventing any possibility of absorbing or responding to their urgent concerns. 

The exhibition is an aesthetically pleasing journey that, like the freighters that ply global waters, takes us from production to consumption. Although Cwynar’s desire to explore the torment of late-stage capitalism is evident, Source favours pleasure over discomfort.  ■ 

Sara Cwynar: Source at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon from Jan. 30 to May 24, 2021.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.