New York-based artist Sharon Hayes works in the areas of performance, video, and installation. The majority of her work utilizes and analyzes public modes of activism, from protest movements to letter-writing. Not an agitator, per se, Hayes is interested in the strategies used by activists and protesters, the ways people come together in unified fronts at a specific time and place, and in the sociology of protest signs. As part of her own strategies, she has organized demonstrations that invite collaborators to analyze and define their roles, behaviour and actions.

In her first solo Canadian exhibit, the CAG presents a multi-dimensional installation entitled In the Near Future (2005-ongoing). Incorporating 13 slide projectors and 354 images, In the Near Future features photos collected from audience members over the past four years of Hayes’s work in different cities in the U.S. and Europe, including New York, London, Warsaw, and Vienna.

Her work has been shown throughout Europe and the United States, in Australia, Turkey, Japan and Colombia. Prestigious exhibits have included the Tate Modern in London, Museum Moderner Kunst and Generali Foundation in Vienna, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Istanbul Biennial (2009), Yokohama Triennale (2008), Guangzhou Triennial (2008), PERFORMA05, and Documenta XII in Kassel, Germany.

www.contemporaryartgallery.ca

Mia Johnson