Is it still too early in the year to call something the best of 2015? Nudging Marcel by Lois Andison sits right in the centre of her solo exhibition at Olga Korper. It was made in 2014 and appeared in the survey exhibition of this singular artist that toured Ontario last year, but I just saw it last weekend and fell in love, which is appropriate because it is, among other things, about love or, at least, relationships. Being a critic, I love it mostly because it gives me a lot to talk about. 
Lois, Andison, Nudging Marcel, 2014, bicycle wheel, found stools, wood, metal, acrylic, custom mechanics, custom electronics
Appropriating one of the foundational works of appropriation art as well as one made by arguably the most important artist of the 20th Century takes some moxie. Andison does it with aplomb by introducing a second bicycle wheel on a stool – this one triggered by motion detector to start spinning and then lean across to the first wheel to send it into motion – that makes her the active agent and Duchamp merely the recipient of her gift. At first it’s a demonstration of the physical relationship between two objects but then the metaphors start spinning off as well: it’s a story of artistic influence, of interpersonal connection and disparity (the wheels necessarily spin in opposite directions), of historical change, of circadian rhythms, of the gender divide.
These last two also appear in the others works in the exhibition. In addition to surreal mechanisms, Andison likes to play with words. The moon and the sun are paralleled through opposing vocabulary lists (e.g. sunbathe/moonglow) that, she tells me, tell a story about how female artists often take second place to their male counterparts. There are also neon text pieces that twist common phrases and a video of a swimmer dancing that relies on the pun threading/treading water. Each one is an immaculately crafted puzzle waiting to be disassembled. The most touching piece disassembles itself: Fragmented Self is a list of the works found within the artist’s name and the result provides an inadvertent portrait of both the person and the artist: loins, loss, loan, etc.
Olga Korper Gallery: http://olgakorpergallery.com/
Lois Andison: texts, combs, wheels, & poems continues until September 26.
Terence Dick is a freelance writer living in Toronto. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, BorderCrossings, Prefix Photo, Camera Austria, Fuse, Mix, C Magazine, Azure, and The Globe and Mail. He is the editor of Akimblog. You can follow his quickie reviews and art news announcements on Twitter @TerenceDick.
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Lois Andison at Olga Korper, Toronto
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