PHOTO ESSAY
That '60s Show
The National Gallery embraces the flower power decade
By Liz Hodgson
 Window by Michael Snow. Courtesy National Gallery of Canada. |
Michael Snow (1929-)
Window
1960
Wood, acrylic, polyethylene, glass, paper, cotton, wire, sheet metal, chrome-plated sheet metal
Michael Snow’s Window is an example of collage, or assemblage, an art form that combines otherwise disparate elements. “Now we’ve seen it all,” says Leclerc, “but back then, this was something else. ” Snow – who was married to Joyce Wieland – was also known for his experimental filmmaking, including an avant-garde short called Wavelength, a single-shot film in which the camera takes 45 minutes to zoom in on a single picture on a wall. So what’s the idea behind Window? “Looking at art is like looking through a window,” says the curator. “Your gaze is channeled through an opening. In art history, ever since the Renaissance, painting has been thought of as a window on the world. As these artists were rebelling against the conventions of the Renaissance, they wanted to deconstruct the window.”
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