I'm Available. And You?

 

 

For the past ten years or so, Toronto-born artist Nadine Norman, who lives in Paris and Montreal, has produced multimedia projects (performance, installation, Internet, etc.) that explore the roles and functions assigned to women. Focusing on the interaction with visitors and a specific social reality, these works examine the factors that shape female identity and underlie its perception. Norman's projects invite us to question the sociocultural context, communication codes and the realms of private and public. Darlings, 1997, proposed a dialogue between prostitution and labour; DIY Woman, 1999, allowed viewers to construct their own image of the ideal woman; Call Girl, 2000, looked at the sex industry and the notion of exchange; I'm available (01) ‹ Lyon, 2001, dealt with the phenomenon of singles clubs; IÔm available (02) Paris, 2001, offered a promemenade where participants inevitably cross paths en route with one another encouraging the possibility to exchange partners; and Pierre, lÈche ma vitre !, 2001, examined submission and domination. Norman's new inter-media and performance-based project I'm available. And you?, created for her first solo exhibition at the Musée d'art contemprain de Montréal, explores the ambiguities and polemics surrounding the notion of a woman's "availability" and elaborates on the relation between communications and desire.

 

I'm available. And you? presents a series of social and aesthetic situations and propositions incorporated into an installation. Like the artist's earlier works, this multimedia project (ads, interactive website, videos, photographs, performance) is based on various strategies for infiltration, collaboration or simulation that emphasize the process (development in real time and in social space) rather than the production of objects. The project offers the possibility of meeting and conversing, in which the blending of fiction and reality challenges our expectations with respect to our own availability and our conditioning about interpersonal communications.

 

A series of photographic images and videos portrays the artist as an "available woman" in different situations, based on seven interrelated themes: love, sex, family, work, complicity, solitude and fantasy. Each image integrates the slogan "www.Iamavailableandyou.com". Distributed like ads throughout the city, these images are linked to the artist's interactive website. In an on-line, agency-like consultation, "www.Iamavailableandyou.com" clearly indicates that anyone wishing to meet the woman in the ads may submit an application. An expert marketing organization, composed of focus groups, determines which candidates are worthy of meeting the "available" woman artist in one-on-one live encounters in the museum installation. Completing the presentation is also a selection of videos of recent performances and installations by Nadine Norman. On the occasion of this exhibition, there is an accompagnying catalogue and includes writing by Sandra Grant Marchand and an interview between C⁄cile Bourne and Nadine Norman.

 

 

 

Sandra Grant Marchand, curator

Musée d'art contemporain de Montr⁄al

November 21,2002 to January 26, 2003

 

 

Website created and co-produced by Bluesponge

 

 

Contact : her@iamavailableandyou.com