Michael Maranda
Review
“Scrutiny only deepens the mystery.”
The Montreal Gazette, 4 April 1998
Henry Lehmann
Michel Gérard Maranda’s installation, History (aufhebung),
at Galerie B312, has to do with repetition and the non-persistence of memory.
Don’t expect to find a melting watch somewhere behind the 1,100 little
drawings fastened row after row to the gallery walls. In fact, a time bomb is
more likely.
Each small element represents a kind of emotional “tick.” Like the
work of Schwarz, that of Maranda can be understood as language or as pure écriture,
no strings attached. Each little sheet of paper contains a kind of blob —
often a leaf-shape — produced by pencil at times so obsessively applied
that the paper begins to look like beaten silver.
And, in the case of Maranda’s art of ideas and latent anger — understandable
given that Maranda is currently a doctoral student — more is truly a great
deal more, with the paper and the little pins that hold it to the wall, adding
up to a poetry of time.
The charm of this work is preciseIy that it doesn’t grab attention —
it just sort of gets to you.
Michel Gerard Maranda's History is at galerie B312, 372 Ste-Catherine St W., Room 312, to April 18 [1998].