The Power Plant

The Power Plant announces Michael Landy’s site-specific project DEMONSTRATION as the third edition of the Fleck Clerestory Commission Program.

A key member of a generation of groundbreaking artists that emerged in London in the 1990s, Landy has garnered recognition for his versatile and idiosynchratic practice, which explores notions of capitalism, commerce, value, creation and destruction. Landy is best known for his monumental commissions including Semi-detached (2004), an exact 1:1 replica of his parents home, and Break Down (2001) in which he and an assembly line of workers systematically catalogued and destroyed every one of his 7,227 personal possessions over the course of two weeks in a former department store in central London.

For his exhibition at The Power Plant, Landy invites the public to collaborate in building a ‘wall of protest’ by submitting images, words, texts and slogans that represent their thoughts and feelings—of hope or of despair, on matters small or large, from high to low and across the cultural spectrum—to be transformed by the artist into drawings. With the help of assistants, Landy will create from these submissions red and white drawings of protesters, which will be pinned directly on to the wall of the Fleck Clerestory as they are produced in a continually evolving display. Through accumulation the demonstration will grow, capturing Canada’s social and political landscape through the eyes of its inhabitants.

DEMONSTRATION follows other major works by the artist made with the direct participation of the public. In Breaking News - Athens (2017), submissions from the Greek public were transformed by Landy into drawings, creating a growing forum of exchange and evolving collective portrait of the city of Athens. In Art Bin (2010; 2014), Landy created a giant receptacle for discarded works as a "monument to creative failure."

Michael Landy (born 1963 in London, UK) lives and works in London, UK. His work has been exhibited at venues including Tinguely Museum, Basel (2016); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2015); Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City (2014); National Gallery, London (2013); Tate Britain, London (2013); Smithsonian Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2013); Mudam Luxembourg (2013); Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2013); Swiss Institute, New York (2011); The Drawing Room, London (2011); Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney (2011); National Portrait Gallery, Londo (2011); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2010); Tate Liverpool (2009); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009); de Appel, Amsterdam (2007); Tate Britain, London (2004); and Artangel Commission, London (2001). Most recently in 2017 Landy in collaboration with NEON created the large-scale participative installation Breaking News – Athens. His works are part of the collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Royal Academy, London; Tate Collection, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

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Watch Michael Landy's Interview with The Power Plant

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