Jeremy Shaw’s transcendental art experience to come to The Polygon

Fusing together light installation, video and sound, the latest artwork to come from Jeremy Shaw is something to be experienced more than it is simply viewed.

From June 23 to September 24 the North Vancouver-born, Berlin-based artist will be showcasing the immersive Phase Shifting Index on home soil at The Polygon, and given Shaw’s already impressive repertoire – the artist has previously shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and New York’s MoMA – there is much excitement for its debut.

“Phase Shifting Index is Jeremy’s most ambitious and accomplished work to date,” said Reid Shier, Director of The Polygon Gallery, and the exhibition’s curator.

Shier describes the piece as “a kinetic and dynamic combination of sound, light and visuals,” a seven-channel video, sound, and light installation that functions as a science-fiction pseudo-documentary.

It follows a trilogy of films, she said, that “lay the groundwork for its parafictional themes: Quantification Trilogy (2014–2018).”

Each of Shaw’s seven screens depict distinct subcultures of people from various eras between the 1960s and 1990s, who each believe they can fundamentally alter reality.

All seven videos are tied together by an overarching narrator, who describes the belief systems of each group of people and the significance of their movements – with each jerking and moving to their own rhythm.

The piece continues until the seven groups come together in a singular dance routine, with all subjects carrying out the same synchronized choreography, before the visuals and sound collide into one brash, chaotic, psychedelic art installation.

Shaw’s art is known for its recurring motif of transcendental experience, with his immersive experiences often navigating altered states and cultural and scientific practices via the medium of dance, movement, sound and light.

Like much of Shaw’s work, Phase Shifting Index, which premiered at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2020, has been sought after by galleries the world over – with it having toured Europe and beyond before its arrival in North America.

The exhibition has travelled the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany, the Kumu Art Museum in Estonia, the ARoS Art Museum in Denmark, and the Museum of New and Old in Tasmania.

Following its stint in North Vancouver, it will travel onwards to the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal next year.

“Phase Shifting Index received wide acclaim since opening at Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2020, and we are proud to bring this work to North American audiences for the first time,” said Shier.

Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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Mina Kerr-Lazenby, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, North Shore News

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