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Threshold

White wax strip

Works by:

Shannon Garden-Smith, Corrie Jackson, Emily Smit-Dicks, Polina Teif

Threshold

March 27–April 7, 2012

University of Toronto Art Centre

XXXX Collective presents Threshold, an investigation of the physical and perceptual bounds informing bodily experience. The threshold is a point of demarcation, indicating the start of a new state or experience, and marking the point of the smallest detectable sensation. Threshold traverses the border between the permanent and malleable, the internal and external, the perceptible and imperceptible, and the spaces where things are not yet classified as one or the other.

Threshold investigates how our experience of the body is shaped by its physical and perceptual boundaries. A threshold marks a starting point for a new state or experience and it also refers to the smallest detectable sensation. Threshold explores this point as it relates to the body and its function both as a physical object and a sign capable of producing various meanings.

The threshold as a physical space, denotes a hallowed-out absence that functions as an interstice between definite places. Thresholds are discernible points in space, but they necessarily refer to that which is behind or beyond. In a sense, the threshold’s identity depends upon the existence of space outside of it. As an emptied-out centre, the threshold shifts the locality of interest onto the “frame”, which – digested in bodily terms – also becomes the skin.

Identity is often illustrated through the body and the manipulations made to it that mark it as one’s own and the mediator between internal and the external world. With that said, there is a limit to the amount of control one has in regards to the body – it functions or fails without our consent. There are limitations to manipulations, alterations or “improvements” in that they can only go so far…

Threshold investigates the fluctuating boundaries between the permanent and the malleable, the internal and external, the perceivable and imperceptible, and the spaces where things are not yet classified as one or the other.

Our Supporters

We gratefully acknowledge the project support from Manulife Financial.

Title Image: Polina Teif, Wax Strip, 2012.

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