THE POLAROID PROJECT
AT THE INTERSECTION OF ART
AND TECHNOLOGY
A CANADIAN EXCLUSIVE AT THE McCord Museum is hosting the Canadian exclusive premiere of The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology. This international exhibition is organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, New York / Lausanne, in collaboration with the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the WestLicht Museum for Photography in Vienna. It is presented by La Presse +.
The exhibition features original works of some 100 of the celebrated international artists of the 20th century, including Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney, Chuck Close and Charles Eames, along with acclaimed
Polaroid had strongly impacted the Montreal’s photographic scene. This slice of the city’s history is illustrated by works of Montreal's three acclaimed artists known for their experimenting with Polaroid: Louise Abbott, Benoît Aquin and Charles Gagnon.
The exhibition also presents the development of various Polaroid cameras and accessories. It highlights the vision of their inventor, Edwin Land (1909–1991), and the Polaroid camera development process that inspired creators around the world. Land's main focus was to bring the photo camera to every person. It was his purpose that people collectively exercise their creativity and artistry in capturing their reality, the images of their friends, family, and surroundings. The idea of being able to capture and freeze a moment of existence and hold onto it, to embody it with a sense of purpose, permanency and even eternity, is strongly present at this exhibition.
In keeping with its role as Montreal’s museum of social history, the McCord Museum has been encouraging Montrealers since April 2019 to contribute to the “Polaroid Project” by donating their photos to an ongoing and constantly evolving photographic installation piece that you will discover in the last exhibition room.
Click on images to enlarge them.
All photos by Marilyn Aitken, courtesy @ McCord Museum
1 comment:
Most interesting, I enjoyed this very much. I'm a keen hobby photographer and had a Polaroid camera back in the 1980s when it was pretty exciting technology. Wish I could visit the exhibition but it's a bit far to come!
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