Under the Surface: Jordan Bennett & Anne Troake

Collateral Event of the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia

Terra Nova Art Foundation announces the selection of two Newfoundland & Labrador artists for their project as part of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art event - the 56th Venice Biennale. The exhibition, titled Under the Surface, will present recent work by Jordan Bennett (Stephenville Crossing, NL) and Anne Troake (Twillingate, NL). Under the Surface is curated by Chris Clarke (born in St. John’s, NL; Senior Curator at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Ireland). The exhibition will be housed within Galleria Ca’ Rezzonico, a Gothic palazzo on Venice's historic Grand Canal, and will run from May 9 - November 22, 2015.

This year’s artists were selected by Clarke from submitted proposals, in consultation with the Selections Advisory Committee: Sarah Fillmore (Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia); Mary MacDonald (Director, Eastern Edge Gallery); and Jonathan Shaughnessy (Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada).

Under the Surface will present two distinct, but complementary, bodies of work:

Jordan Bennett’s Ice Fishing encompasses the installation of a fishing shack and multiple video/audio projections. The audio tracks are recordings between the artist and his father concerning the historical significance of ice fishing. Ice Fishing was co-created by Bennett and the NFB Digital Studio and produced by the National Film Board of Canada as part of the NFB/ImagiNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Digital Media Partnership.

Anne Troake’s OutSideIn is an immersive 3D video installation that shifts from the familiar to the wild, the natural to the supernatural. Filmed at the artist’s farm in Logy Bay, NL, two unclothed bodies (renowned dancers Carole Prieur and Bill Coleman) perform a choreography based upon cellular-sourced movements.

“Jordan Bennett and Anne Troake exemplify the centrality of the land to the inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador,” states Chris Clarke. “This notion of a specific geographical terrain as an integral part of the region's traditions, culture and economy is explored in their respective practices, as a site of performance and interaction as well as an expression of one's community and heritage. In this way, the exhibition posits the landscape as a space that continually informs and influences our relationship to the province, what it means to live in such an environment and how it determines our sense of individual and collective identity."

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