Antonia Hirsch Show Opens in Vancouver

Antonia Hirsch

Photographie Métrique

November 8 to December 10, 2006
Opening Tuesday, November 7 at 7:30pm

The Charles H. Scott Gallery is pleased to present Photographie Métrique an
exhibition of work by Vancouver-based artist Antonia Hirsch. The exhibition
consists of a series of photographic portraits in which the subjects were
asked to estimate the length of a metre. The series was produced in France
during an artist¹s residency and is informed by Hirsch¹s interest systems of
quantification.

 Methods of measurement form an integral part of trade transactions, which
in turn represent an elemental form of human interaction and social
behaviour. The French Revolution is widely considered as the inauguration of
the modern era and the modern nation state. This is partly due to the French
National Assembly¹s efforts to implement standardization across that nation.
This endeavour included the development of the metre - a measurement free of
any imperial connotations, based on purely Œscientific¹ premises. Once
established, these standards allowed trade to flourish within the state¹s
borders and thus increased its economic authority. This type of
standardization prefigures the strategies that are now summarized under the
term Œglobalization¹.

The portrait subjects were chosen randomly and photographed in front of a
neutral background. Through the gesture of estimation, the hand is revealed
as the site where individual imagination and an assumed shared value ­ such
as the metre ­ are negotiated. The differences between each person¹s
estimate of the metre questions the validity of any standard as a truly
shared notion.

Concurrent with this exhibition, Anthropometrics, a related project by
Antonia Hirsch, will be on view at the Vancouver Public Library and
throughout the streets of Vancouver as part of the Group Search project.

For further information please telephone the Gallery at 604.844.3809.

Gallery Hours: Weekdays 12pm ­ 5pm and weekends 10am ­ 5pm
Admission is free of charge


Charles H. Scott Gallery
Emily Carr Institute, 1399 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3R9
Tel: 604.844.3809 Fax: 604.844.3801 E-mail: scottgal@eciad.ca