Curatorial Assistant Robert Zingone curated this pairing of a video by David Askevold (Halifax) and a photo-text installation by Ellen Moffat (Prince Albert, Saskatchewan).
In Askevold’s video Don’t Eat Crow (1994), a voiceover narrative (letters from a struggling writer to her friend) is intensified by its association with static, fixed-camera video sequences. Moffat’s work also depends on the idea of fixation, expressed through the seemingly obsessive use of a set vantage point and shooting schedule. To make Line Break (1996), she undertook a trans-Canadian rail journey, photographing the view through the train window every hour on the hour. Moffat’s images are the opposite of “scenic,” the result of a procedure that overrides aesthetic decision-making but remains true to memory.
