Kathleen Vaughan, grapes, ghouls, ghosts and green moonlight

"grapes, ghouls, ghosts and green moonlight" (1999): a curatorial essay

grapes, ghouls, ghosts and green moonlight is an essay that accompanied a show of landscape photographs by Rose Kallal and Normand Rajotte that I co-curated with Marsha Wineman. The show, Terra Incognita, was at Gallery TPW in Toronto from June 12 to July 10, 1999. My 1500-word essay lives on (with its companion, terra incognita, by Marsha), in the brochure created to accompany the show.

The title of the show and of my essay derives from a poem by D.H. Lawrence.

(Gallery TPW is the exhibition space of Toronto Photographers Workshop, an artist-run centre in Toronto, Canada. From 1995 to 2000, I served as a TPW board member, assisting with programming, operations, and governance.)

The challenge here was one of articulation: how to communicate what I found compelling and mutually reinforcing about these two photographers' works. That was, in part, their intuitive working processes, but more profoundly, the similar kinds of experiences that each offers a viewer. These experiences are body-felt and emotion-based: inchoate, pre-verbal. Putting those into clear, simple words that might enhance a gallery visitor's experiences or reminiscences of looking, that was my writer's goal.

When describing their image-making, both Rose Kallal and Normand Rajotte indicate that they leave home without knowing the specific content they're looking for. These artists move expectantly through their turf -- Rajotte the back country, Kallal the back streets -- with senses open, scanning, alert. The similar quests on which they embark as they leave their homes, photo gear at the ready, are not simply for the pleasing image. Their quests are for the pleasing image that may serve as portal to an unknown world. The next few paragraphs will explore three means by which Kallal and Rajotte move us from the known world -- after all, their medium of photography relies on an actual external -- to terra incognita.

For information about obtaining the full text of this curatorial essay or to inquire about other work of this kind, please contact me.

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All original artwork and texts: © Kathleen Vaughan, 2000-2008, except where otherwise noted. 'redhanded' text-based logo design: © Dale Barrett, 1997. 'redhanded' logo photo: © Paul Buer, 1996. • All Rights Reserved

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