Sep 23, 2017 to Jan 7, 2018
Zev Farver: Machine Fantasies/Human Events
About the Exhibition
Machine Fantasies/Human Events is a site-specific installation comprised of an evolving audio piece broadcasting over FM radio, a computerized transmitter constructed from parts of an old stereo receiver and two associated schematic drawings. Presented as part of Present|Perfect|Continuous, an exhibition marking the Varley Art Gallery of Markham’s twentieth anniversary, Zev Farber’s installation makes use of evocative objects that mark the intersection between our contemporary technological era and tenuous memories of a family history that has passing affiliation with Frederick H. Varley.
In this new work, the artist seeks to bridge the divide between himself and both Fred Varley and Farber’s own late Grandfather Edward Cohn, who, as a Toronto art dealer and gallery owner, temporarily held work by Varley. Further, Farber drew from his personal narrative and family history to find similarities between Varley’s life and that of his grandfather (notably, mental health issues and financial difficulties). Through these connections, Farber hopes to redress a mysterious and unreconciled past. As proposed by the title of the exhibition, the study of history (artistic or otherwise) is not fixed, but is always bringing to the surface new critical readings. Equally, as the artist discovered, past events still bear consequence on both today and tomorrow. Farber considers history as an evolving continuum within space and time, so he situates Machine Fantasies/Human Events as the spectral tool or gateway through which one can access earlier eras. With this work, the artist is asking the viewer to consider how objects and sound can act as a “wormhole,” a device that would allow us to reach back into the past. The emphasis here is on the links among the emission, the transmission, and the reception of sound, and how they may combine to create a framework that collapses varied moments and narratives from the last half-century.
Influenced by Varley’s work from the collection, as well as the late artist’s love of music, Machine Fantasies/Human Events charts Farber’s attempts to develop a mechanism that enables communication across a largely imagined time and an essentially intangible space. At the nerve center of the installation is a piece of software programmed to organize, synthesize and play back different audio elements, which are then broadcast within the gallery. The artist thinks of these elements as “interstitial sound,” the slivers of ambient noise that exist between time periods and within the space that surrounds us. These are seemingly generated from synthesized frequencies, coded communications and resonant interstellar emissions. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the CBC broadcast of the National Research Council’s time signal from September 8, 1969 (the day of Varley’s death) will sound at 1:00pm EST. This iconic time signal, still audible today, is included here as a beacon, or as marker of “official” time. It enables us to grab on to and resist being lost within the vortex of history.
“…on one occasion, as his young friend played the violin, Varley soundlessly accompanied him using a table for a piano.”1
The artist gratefully acknowledges support for this exhibition from the Ontario Arts Council.
Special thanks to Greg McRoberts, John Diessel and CBC Radio Archives.
1 Atanassova, Katerina. F.H. Varley: Portraits into the Light. Toronto: Dundurn, 2007. 94
About the Artist
Zev Farber is an interdisciplinary artist based in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He completed his undergraduate degree in music at the University of Toronto and received an MFA in visual art from York University. Over the past decade, Farber has exhibited, performed and published work in a wide variety of settings in Canada, Australia, the United States and South Korea. In summer 2017, a new work – Endless Nameless – appeared in the 5th annual Vector Festival organized by InterAccess in Toronto. In addition, he actively collaborates with many artists and musicians on notable commissioned projects. Farber has been a recent recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council. He has been teaching in the field of new media art since 2009 and currently leads interactive and generative media courses at OCAD University in Toronto, while also running OCAD U’s Centre for Emerging Artists & Designers.
The artist gratefully acknowledges funding support for this exhibition from the Ontario Arts Council.
