Audrey Gair & Allan Rand
When I can’t get to sleep, I dismantle my world

[En anglais]

There are days when the concrete, that which is near at hand, familiar, close, is easier to deal with than any abstraction the world has to offer. There’s comfort here, far away from structures that stir up crisis, catastrophe, and despair. But there are also days when mysteries, misgivings, and the digital cacophony of the virtual overwhelm the concrete. Relief is sought. The real world of practical socio-political concerns and the wild, free-flowing whirl of mediated events can get to be a bit much. Daydreaming offers an antidote. Devoid of purpose, this simple act constitutes part of the spiritual sustenance of life, affording the possibility of opening up a world of abstracted play.

When I can’t get to sleep, I dismantle my world, Audrey Gair and Allan Rand’s two-person exhibition at Galerie Eli Kerr, offers another antidote, this time with paintings that subtly hover around the schism between our yearning for both the abstract and the concrete. Curated with a discerning eye by the artists, the show offers allowance for the flowering of imagination. As such, there’s no need to bleat about what the works on display mean, or what au courant topics they’re exploring. It’s the specificity of the artworks and the sharpness of their effects that matter here.