Path

A line is generally thought to be a static thing. Nonetheless, Emilio Portal has spent the last few years exploring the notion of the line as movement, as a form of fleeting energy, and most importantly as a link between past, present and future… somewhat like the white line revealing a jet’s passage across the sky.

His notion of line as movement first took form in the context of an architectural drawings of a small restaurant in Sudbury. As he visualized this space on the basis of a floor plan, Portal included a series of lines that represented the comings and goings of the clientele. Later came more floor plans of other public spaces, culminating in an ebb and flow of movement on the scale of a whole city.

Then drawings gave way to photographs. In these, the artist documents the movement of a body in a static image, through lines that appear as memory of past movements.

In this exhibit entitled Chemin (Path) the artist continues to explore the line, now with the help of ropes. These are used to trace movement, in way where lines are sometimes meshed as in interlace, sometimes jumbled as if simply thrown down. Through order or chaos emerges a representation of life-lines, the continuing thread of experience, both physical and emotional.

Chemin is therefore an observation of potential itineraries. Portal is intrigued by the notion that every person draws a path through life. Structured movements attempt to control the future; random movements make the future unpredictable. Nonetheless, individual movements are subject to a universal influence. Thus our paths continually cross, interlace or collide.

This exhibit presents nine impressions made by rope on large-format white paper. It will be made complete with the comings and goings of viewers at la Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario.