ART INTERRUPTIONS
Art Interruptions, cotton thread, 2022, Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia, ON
Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” – Walter Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility” (1936)
From January to July 2022, regional artist Amy Bagshaw animated transitional spaces at the Orillia Museum of Art and History with her Art Interruptions Project. Installed in public hours over the course of four weeks, these site-specific fibre art installations was placed in unusual spaces: vaults, jailcells, hallways, and windows to highlight and engage with aspects of space and place. The goals of this project were to draw attention to OMAH’s unique site in a pandemic world, to playfully engage with audiences through the installation process and final works, and to remind viewers of the specific relationships born between the collection/art works and their layered and meaningful contexts. The Art Interruption Project brought viewers back into museum spaces to recall the inherent qualities of being enveloped by art and design.
