1990 - 1986  <  Split Tranquility - [Installation]

May the Circle Be Unbroken - [Installation]

Concrete, motor needle, microphone amplifiers, resonating speakers, sepia tone photographic print, vinyl lettering
Exhibit space - 6 x 6 m
Concrete sculptural form - 117 x 177 x 23 cm

1990 - Installation - The Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff  Canada
May the Circle be Unbroken / Split Tranquility)

“The recent deployment of Canadian military troops in such places as the Middle East, Kanasatake and Kahnawake compels us to reconsider the popular belief that our country enjoys peace. The developments of these two conflicts highlight, among other things, the breakdown of the illusion of protective discourses. Split Tranquility presents the work of two artists (Ron Huebner and Alain Paiment) exploring the tension between our craving for order and tranquility and our doubt-filled chaotic existence. At the same time, the cracked and ruptured tranquility referred to by both artists offers metaphors between celestial movements and the somberness of the present mood.”

Ron Huebner’s installation ‘May the Circle be Unbroken’ borrows from the structure of black holes. they are explained in Einstein’s theory of relativity in the following way: the passage of time is delayed by matter and speed. Allow they are allowed to exist from this theory, nothing proves their existence. It is said that nothing emerges from black holes. Stars, interstellar clouds and planets which get too close are swallowed by them. Because the structure of black holes is not fully understood, there is no consensus about the ultimate fate of material consumed by these gravity whirlpools. Matter disappears, totally engulfed.

In the tradition of landscape painting, the tranquility of the sky has evoked visions of the sublime. Huebner does not rely on celestial phenomenon as a source of contemplation. His sculpture evokes our society’s present condition, facing uncertain but unavoidable change. Huebner’s entire work probes the tension between the will to take action and apathy, the danger of action and the wish to escape the torpor of matter. The essence of this installation is based on our incapacity to move through information and reality.

Sylvie Gilbert, Exhibition Curator