HORIZONS

HORIZONS is a conceptual art project by Garry Neill Kennedy (1935–2021) in which a selection of landscape paintings are rehung so that the horizon lines are at the eye level of the artist, and—when viewed together—these otherwise disparate landscapes form one continuous horizon line around the gallery walls.

Kennedy conceived of this project when he was invited to participate in the group exhibition Pluralities at the National Gallery of Canada in 1980. His proposal to rehang historical paintings illustrates one of the questions that has been central to institutional critique—what does it look like when a museum or gallery centres other perspectives? With paintings shifted from their standard positions and set in relation to one another in unconventional ways, Kennedy reimagines gallery norms and practices, and asserts the primacy of the artist.

Kennedy had been thinking broadly about the medium of painting since the mid-1970s. These investigations took the form of paintings in which the artist followed a series of predetermined, systematic steps to create a work, as well as site-specific projects that considered the gallery as a framework for his conceptual interventions.

HORIZONS is being revisited at this time as a companion exhibition to OF & ABOUT POSTERS: THE LAWRENCE WEINER POSTER ARCHIVE (1965–2021) AT THE VANCOUVER ART GALLERY to help build an understanding of the relationships between these two artists. Featuring a selection of historical and modern paintings from the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, HORIZONS has been developed collaboratively with Cathy Busby, a celebrated visual artist and Kennedy’s spouse.