Irene F. Whittome. Room 901

2013

Information

184 p., ill. col and b/w, solo and group exhibitions, bibliogr.
24.5 x 24.5 cm
Les éditions du passage and VOX, centre de l'image contemporaine
ISBN 9782922892598
French, English
Price: 52,45$

Eve-Lyne Beaudry, Vincent Bonin, Marie J. Jean and Claudine Roger

Edited by Marie J. Jean

Design: Nicole Lafond

During the summer of 1980, Irene F. Whittome completed an important body of work. Her studio now stood empty; the brick walls and columns had been painted white and the floor and windows renovated. Primed like a fresh canvas, Whittome’s Saint-Alexandre studio was set to become the medium for a site-specific process that would evolve over a period of nearly two years, from October 1980 to July 1982. On the wall adjacent to the arched windows, the artist painted a minimal form that through many stages of modification would bear a resemblance to a cross: a black square on white background, a white band on grey background, a white square on grey background, a truncated cross on white background and, finally, a black cross on white background. At the end of this intense process, in October 1982, Whittome had produced over 1,500 photos, a video, numerous model boxes, and three exhibitions. Thirty years later, Room 901 is the subject of an in-depth re-examination and a comprehensive re-enactment.