Talking to Death: An Allegory for Sculpture

Talking to Death: An Allegory for Sculpture is a multi-media installation by the artist Trevor Gould. As Gould’s title indicates, there is a great deal at stake for sculpture in the 21st century as artists move into non-genre specific studio practices. Talking to Death is exemplary in that it is indicative of this broad trend by artists to work in a manner that is not easily defined in terms of the media in which they work. For example, this project is composed of many works of art, but they are treated as a bloc or a holistic work of art comprised of highly representational sculpture, loose gestural paintings, and non-objective abstraction. 

In addition to being art historically significant, Talking to Death provides an honest dialog related to the capricious nature of human interactions historically and currently. While there are certainly amazing benefits to globalized cultural, political, and economic systems, there are also negatives. We are currently in the throes of a global pandemic, the likes of which has not been seen for a century. As a result, many are painfully aware of how negative elements of human nature impact broad segments of society, colonialization and other sources of inequality chief among them. 

Trevor Gould was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and spent the majority of his career teaching at Concordia University in Montréal. During that time he was a Stiftungs Professor in 2003 at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach am Main, Germany. His background, as well as his international exhibition record position him as an important voice in the dialog surrounding globalization. His exhibition credits include projects at the Museum of Contemporary Art Montréal, XIII Biennale Internazionale di Scultura di Carrara in Italy, National Museum of Fine Arts Québec, Musée Gassendi Digne-les-Bains in France, the Johannesburg Biennale, and le Pavilion d’Hannibal, also in France. His work resides in many collections in Canada, Poland, Italy, France, and Germany.  

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. https://canadacouncil.ca/