Date/Time
Date - Saturday, October 1, 2016
2:00 pm-4:00 pm
Work Shop
Build a Rube Goldberg Machine with Blood, Sweat and Tears curators, Isabelle and Sophie Lynch
Saturday, October 1 from 2 – 4 pm
Kids aged 8 and up
Free
A marble rolls down a ramp and nudges a small toy car. The car races down a tube, crashing into a winding chain of dominoes. As the final domino falls it turns on a fan that extinguishes a candle. This is an example of a Rube Goldberg machine, a complex contraption that executes simple tasks in an overly complicated manner. These machines are inspired by the intricate inventions featured in cartoonist Reuben Lucius (Rube) Goldberg’s classic comic strips. Join Blood, Sweat and Tears curators, Sophie and Isabelle Lynch, at the Art Gallery of Guelph and work together to design and build a Rube Goldberg machine using found objects, toys, and recyclable materials.
Working is small groups, kids will design and build a Rube Goldberg machine. The activity will be an exercise in working together and will engage with themes raised by the Blood, Sweat and Tears exhibition, including questions around notions of productivity and non-productivity, the useless expenditure of time and energy, and alternative ways of doing and making. All materials will be provided. The activity is suitable for kids ages 8 and up. Space is limited. Please register in advance by contacting info@artgalleryofguelph.ca. Parents are encouraged to participate but need not register.
In Blood, Sweat and Tears, Sophie and Isabelle Lynch question how value is created and extracted from labouring bodies. They ask: how can we re-think notions of work and productivity, and how bodies move and interact with space and materials? Through the work of contemporary artists working in video, performance, and installation, this exhibition focuses on the human body’s relationship to work and the subjective dimensions of productive and unproductive labour.
Isabelle Lynch studied at McGill University (MA in Art History) and at the University of Ottawa (BA in Philosophy and History and Theory of Art). She has worked at McGill University, the National Gallery of Canada, the Icelandic Art Center, and the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at the University of Toronto. She was the winner of the 2014 esse arts + opinions Young Critics Competition.
Sophie Lynch studied at McGill University (MA in Art History) and at the University of Ottawa (BA in Philosophy and History and Theory of Art). She has worked at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada, the Icelandic Art Center, and Canadian Art magazine. She will spend this summer working as a MuSe graduate intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.