Tegan Moore

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VARIATIONS
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Zalucky Contemporary
January 12 - February 10, 2018.
Documentation by Toni Hafkenscheid
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Tegan Moore’s sculptures are slight and unassuming. They are constructed from materials used to regulate climate such as air filters, vents and polyethylene foam; materials designed specifically to disappear within the architectural fabric of a building. By excavating these objects and reassembling their various parts in the gallery, Moore’s new exhibition Variations draws attention to the forces that structure our everyday lives. Indeed, as climate change accelerates and weather patterns become increasingly inhospitable, we retreat indoors because at least there, we control the temperature. The great irony, of course, is that the non-renewable energy sources used to heat and cool our homes are directly fuelling the same ecological crisis from which we seek refuge.

Thinking alongside these currents, Moore’s work starts a subtle conversation within the controlled atmosphere of Zalucky Contemporary. Featuring a significant intervention onto the gallery’s air duct enclosures, the artist playfully extends and exaggerates an architectural apparatus typically designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. Moore’s accompanying sculptural works also toy with the formal textures and materialities of what is typically ensconced within our walls and appliances: layers of a humidifier pad meticulously dipped in clay take on a dense, honeycomb-like quality, and an air purification filter lined with Rolodex card protectors creates something akin to a minimalist painting. Yet despite the seemingly cool formalism of these works, Moore does not lose sight of their functional politics and histories: what do these materials filter out, what do they protect and what residues build up in between? As these pressing questions circulate throughout Variations, the exhibition ultimately tugs at the core of how we live—at what cost—and what we are willing to live without.

This exhibition was generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

Featured in"Room Temperature" by Daniella Sanader (Canadian Art, Fall 2018, Climates)