Press release For immediate release2011121175958

							                                                                                                                           Press release
                                                                                                                   For immediate release


Montreal, September 3, 2009 - Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal and the Darling Foundry present Cargo (The Wealth of Some
and the Ruin of Others) (2009) by Shelley Miller. Plan Large is a coproduction by Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal and the
Darling Foundry.



The 11th presentation of Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal will take place from
September 10 to October 11. Organized around the theme The Spaces of the Image
developed by French guest curator Gaëlle Morel, 24 solo exhibitions and public
space interventions will be presented in a variety of different sites across the city.
Artists from 13 countries will explore the question of mechanisms and staging in
contemporary photography.

With Cargo (The Wealth of Some and the Ruin of Others) (2009), Shelley Miller
reconfigures azulejos, the blue and white ceramic tiles that are traditional ele-
ments of Portuguese culture. Using sugar to reproduce the popular motif of clip-
per ships, she hints at the history of the state of Bahia through the sugar trade and
slavery. The work, designed to be gradually eroded and destroyed by the weather,
was photographed as it disintegrated. The trompe-l’oeil photograph keeps the art-
ist’s fleeting and fragile intervention suspended in the heart of public space.
The new work was created especially for Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal.

                                                                                                          Shelley Miller, Cargo (The Wealth of Some
Shelley Miller was born in 1975 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.                                                          and the Ruin of Others), 2009.
                                                                                                            Installation detail, Day 2, after rainfall.
She lives and works in Montreal.                                                                                              Courtesy of the artist.
www.consumptuous.com
Shelley Miller’s objects and interventions apprehend vernacular culture in its most diverse manifestations. By reproducing contemporary
society’s popular settings and consumer items in perishable materials, Miller shifts them from their usual private value. She appropriates, in
the form of ephemeral decors, the poor and inhospitable supports of public space and affixes her own signs to pre-existing graffiti (Signature,
2006). She creates temporary street sculptures out of foodstuffs such as sugar, icing, and meringue, which she applies directly to wall
surfaces. Her interventions are erected on anonymous building façades and in exhibition spaces, where they take the form of arabesques
(Trimmings, 2002), tiles in the traditional colours of Portuguese azulejos (The Wealth of Some and the Ruin of Others, 2008), coffered walls
made with cake moulds (Pipe Dreams, 2001), and advertising objects, such as the automobile used to arouse the desire for modern consume-
rism in India (The People’s Car, 2008). Miller’s temporary markings are superimposed over architectural elements; employing covering
strategies, she momentarily duplicates the built landscape, edging it away from its original look or purpose. Her actions, which are both
pictorial and artisanal — the true-to-life scale of her works updates the popular art of fresco-making — can be compared to the optical
game of trompe-l’oeil. Slated to gradually erode and disappear, Miller’s works highlight the contingency of the city and its symbols.
Shelley Miller’s works have been presented in both solo exhibitions (Consumptuous, Access Gallery, Vancouver, 2005; Scopophilia, Galerie
Articule, Montreal, 2006) and group shows (La Demeure, Optica, Montreal, 2002; Inside the Inside, The Lab, San Francisco, 2004; Saccharum
BA, Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, Salvador, 2009).

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DARLING FOUNDRY                                                                                  Source:
745, Ottawa St.                                                                                  Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal
514 392 1554 | www.fonderiedarling.org                                                           Marie-Catherine Leroux
                                                                                                 > mc.leroux@moisdelaphoto.com
PUBLIC SPACE INTERVENTION ON THE CORNER OF DUKE ST. & WILLIAM ST.,                               Catherine Fortin
ON DISPLAY FROM SEPT. 12, UNTIL AUGUST 2013                                                      > catherine.fortin@moisdelaphoto.com
> Opening Saturday, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m., the artist will be present                               T: 514 390 0383 | Cell: 514 239 2750
Correction to the program:                                                                       www.moisdelaphoto.com
The work presented is Cargo (The Wealth of Some and the Ruin of Others) (2009)