Outside of the country itself, Winnipeg is home to the largest population of Icelanders in the world, so it is no surprise that Ragnar Kjartansson's haunting installation, The End: Rocky Mountains has found a receptive new audience four years after its creation. Exhibited as part of the Winnipeg Art Gallery's NGC@WAG program, the installation landed nicely in the theatre left vacant after the recent departure of Christian Marclay's crowd-pleasing The Clock.
Ragnar Kjartansson, The End: Rocky Mountains
Produced under the geographic influence of a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Kjartansson and collaborator David Thor Jonsson filmed five interrelated melodic moments in five distinct locations, all while playing on notions of romanticism and the old west. The artists/musicians dressed in fur hats and cowboy boots, took swigs from a bottle of whiskey, and lit up cigs. Seen and heard jamming on banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, a piano, a drum kit, and a bass guitar, they appear on each screen providing the different parts of the score.
The resulting interaction between screens is remarkable. For the viewer sitting in the middle of the empty room, the beauty builds minute by minute – sweet notes from the piano filter in to fill the silent air between strums on the banjo, then the bass kicks in to anchor the sound. The installation itself echoes the reverberation one finds in the mountains. The connection between music, nature, and art is so clearly portrayed.
While the visual aspect of the work is impressive, the music also stands alone. At the entrance to the installation a quote from Kjartansson sums up the essence of the work: "In Canada, I will make a video that will make me cry. In unbearable frost and air I shall hold my shivering dried up heart in my hand..."
Winnipeg Art Gallery: http://wag.ca/
Ragnar Kjartansson: The End: Rocky Mountains continues until April 20.
Lisa Kehler is a writer and curator from Winnipeg. She most recently co-authored the forthcoming publication Art Tomorrow: 40 Years of the Future Now (Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art 1972 - 2012). She holds a Masters in Cultural Studies: Curatorial Practices from the University of Winnipeg and is currently the Special Projects Director at Border Crossings. She is Akimblog's Winnipeg correspondent and can be followed @LisaKehler on Twitter.
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Ragnar Kjartansson at the Winnipeg Art Gallery
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