September 10 – 21, 2014
Thomas Hlavacek’s Sibbald Point is an installation of photographs and video footage shot during the thirteen weeks between vernal equinox and summer solstice. The work documents the arrival and passage of spring in a northern landscape, examining the natural phenomena and dramatic transformations that occur during this brief yet extraordinarily vital and eventful period.
The project was inspired by the work of Glenn Gould, in particular his 1967 radio documentary The Idea of North. Gould believed that the North possesses a certain cathartic value and those who venture to sojourn there for any length of time are irrevocably altered by the experience – in Gould’s words, they become “philosophers”. The North, understood in this context, connotes the idea of a frontier and a retreat – both physical and spiritual.
