Of Time and Buildings

Of Time and Buildings, curated by Alison Nordström and co-produced by Art Gallery of Guelph and George Eastman House (Rochester), considers space, place, and time as expressed in 45 photographs created before and after the digital turn. The historical works depict buildings of all types, from shacks to skyscrapers. The contemporary works explore buildings that no longer exist, buildings that never were, and buildings for which an imaginary future has been created. Together, the photographs in this exhibition present buildings as fact, memory, and metaphor.

The exhibition catalogue, published by Art Gallery of Guelph, includes a foreword by Alison Nordström and an essay by Sarah Bassnett of the John Labatt Visual Arts Centre at Western University.

Of Time and Buildings is presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Office of Research and the Office of the CIO at the University of Guelph.

Time and Temporality: A Symposium will broaden the conversation beyond the photographic discipline to embrace an intertextual and interdisciplinary discourse in a range of contemporary practices.

Thursday, October 15

7:00 pm: Keynote by Alison Nordström (Independent Scholar/Curator of Photographs), followed by a public reception and catalogue launch

Friday, October 16

10:30 – 11:30 am: Panel discussion with Alison Nordström, Sarah Bassnett (Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, Western University), Susan Dobson (Artist and Associate Professor, School of Fine Art and Music, University of Guelph), and Adrian Blackwell (Assistant Professor, Waterloo Architecture, University of Waterloo). Moderated by Robert Enright (Research Professor in Art Criticism, University of Guelph)

1:00 – 2:30 pm: Graduate student presentations in studio art, philosophy, and architecture:

1:00 – 1:30 pm: Kurt Kraler (Candidate for Master of Architecture Degree, University of Waterloo, School of Architecture) presents Image Superseding Function: The Life of Buildings and the Las Vegas Strip.

1:30 – 2:00 pm: Steven Beckly (MFA Candidate, University of Guelph) presents Time After Time: Love, Desire, and Temporality.

2:00 – 2:30 pm: Niels Feuerhahn (PhD candidate in Philosophy, University of Guelph) presents In/visible cities: Architectural models & nostalgia for the un-built.

3:00 – 4:30 pm: A series of 20-minute scholarly walkabouts within the exhibition with University of Guelph professors Karen Houle (Philosophy), Daniel O’Quinn (English and Theatre Studies), and Martin Williams (Physics).