
Fiona Annis
The After-Image (Swan Songs)
November 2nd to December 1st, 2012
Opening reception Nov. 2 @ 8 PM
The expression ‘swan song” is derived from the Greek myth that swans are mute, but burst into song before they die. This legend was embraced by poets and came to mean a person’s last eloquent words or performance: a final farewell appearance. In the context of her current cycle of work, Fiona Annis is exploring the swan songs of a sequence of historical, or otherwise, atypical artists and intellectuals, who produced remarkable final works which were intimitely connected with their deaths.
This body of work is realized as a cycle of photographic encounters with the landscapes and architectural sites connected to particular swan songs, selected for their poetic and personal resonance. The After – Image (Swan Songs) seeks to record echos etched in landscape, and acts to engage the physical locations of these swan songs as a point of departure for a sustained meditation on final acts and their sites of articulation.
Fiona Annis is a Montréal based visual artist and researcher whose interdisciplinary practice includes photography, installation, and various forms of mark-making. She has a master’s degree from the Glasgow School of Art and is currently pursuing a hD at Concordia University (QC). She has exhibited in national and international contexts in NY, Belfast, London, Glasgow and Edmonton. Fiona is currently exploring the alchemic potential of antiquated photographic processes, a trajectory that was recently put into motion in the context of an artist residency at The Center for Alternative Photography in NYC.
Read Jean-Phillipe Deneault’s essay on Fiona’s exhibition, which we have both in English and in French.