Looking Glass
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April Hickox' visual narratives weave together fact and fancy, dream and memory. The images she selects and orders into sequences, diptychs and polyptychs-some photographed in a direct way, some staged, others "found" ortakenfrom historical sources-evoke a sense of moments lived, memory, passage and transformation.
Over the years, Hickox has worked with images which resonate, in particular, with a generation of women who grew up in the sixties and seventies-those of us who grew up playing with Barbie dolls (and G.I. Joes), those of us who were thrilled and terrorized by Dorothy's adventures in the The Wizard of Oz. As adults we have had to sort out the difference between imposed (gender-related) expectations and truly personal choices. Hickox has explored many of the myths encountered in this process-one which takes place in a cultural context, with all its attendent norms and codes.
In When the Mind Hears (presented in the exhibition Embodied Spaces, under the auspices of the Mois de la Photo à Montréal, September 8 to October 3, 1993) a work in two parts, Hickox focuses on language and communication issues vis à vis her role as a parent. When the Mind Hears, Part II, composed of two films and a collection of tiny objects, calIs attention to bodily senses: touch, sight, and hearing, and the various ways in which communication occurs. Within the exhibition space, these films, one in colour and one in black-and-white, counter one another, articulating different «languages.» Much like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Through the Looking Glass, we experience shifts as we move through a labyrinthine world trying to decipher what is being said. In When the Mind Hears, Partll, (onlya portion of which is presented here) a series of photographic diptychs and singular images reflect the artist's attentive observation of her daughter's development. These photographs juxtapose Hickox' own sensations and memories with those of her young child, suggesting a parallel between the heightened sensitivity to vision possessed by both herself and her daughter. Hickox also demonstrates a keen attention to nature, its rhythms and cycles: They are rhythms akin to those in our own lives, filled with music and silence, anticipation and bloom. Her images reflect moments when the mind hears, when the eyes caress, when the hands speak...
This text is reproduced with the author's permission. © Katy McCormick
Sans titres de la série When the Mind Hears, Part II, 1993.
© April Hickox
April Hickox explore des thèmes qui ont une signification particulière pour les femmes de la génération des années 1960 et 1970. Adultes, celles-ci ont eu à faire des choix souvent douloureux entre les modèles proposés par la société de l'époque et de nouvelles hypothèses de vie, basées sur elles-mêmes et leurs aspirations. Le travail de Hickox explore quelques-uns des mythes inhérents à ce processus, processus issu d'un contexte culturel assorti de codes et de normes différents des modèles précédents. Dans When the Mind Hears (Quand la mémoire écoute), une œuvre en deux parties,
Hickox explore le langage et les différents modes de communication en les intégrant à l'expérience, la sensibilité et la perception parentales. La première partie de cette œuvre réunit deux courts films et une collection de petits objets. L'artiste y souligne l'importance de certains de nos sens (le toucher, le son, l'ouïe et la vue) et la multitude de formes que peut prendre la communication humaine. La deuxième partie. When the Mind Hears, Part II, dont un extrait est publié dans la revue CV photo, se présente sous la forme d'une alternance de diptyques et d'images simples. Ici, l'artiste se concentre particulièrement sur le développement de sa fille. Ces photographies juxtaposent les souvenirs et les sensations ressentis par l'artiste, nous suggérant l'existence de parallèles entre ses propres perceptions et celles de son enfant. April Hickox, sensible à la nature, imprègne son travail d'un rythme fait de musique et de silence, d'espoirs et d'aboutissements, analogue à celui de la vie. «Quand la mémoire écoute,» les yeux caressent et les mains parlent.
Katy McCormick received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 from the University of California at Santa Barbara, California. In 1987 she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1988-89 she taught photography at Northwestern University, and at Elmhurst College, in Illinois, then in 1991-92 at Concordia University. In 1992 she was presented in a solo exhibition at galerie VOX, in Montreal and at The Toronto Photographers Workshop. Between 1982 and 1992, she participated in several group exhibitions in The United States and Canada.
April Hickox currently lives and works in Toronto. She studied photography and engraving at the Ontario College of Art. April Hickox is a co-founder of Gallery 44, a self-managed artists' centre in Toronto devoted to photography. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Montreal, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Quebec City and is represented by the Garnet Press Gallery in Toronto.
Katy McCormick · CV24 · Mercredi, 01 Septembre 1993 00:00
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