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TO ARCHIVE THE SHAPE OF MEMORY
An exhibition of Freda Guttman
The exhibition runs from October 12 to November 12, 2000
The work of Freda Guttman is above all known for the quality of its commitment. In the past she has looked as the tortuous
course of the 20th century, while underscoring the degree to which the contingencies of history, place, gender, race and class impact on an individual life.
In To Archive the Shape of Memory, the artist pursues this research, juxtaposing memories of her Jewish childhood in Montreal with what could be remembered of the historical events that occurred
in those years. In particular, she is interested in the growth of Fascism and the 20th century phenomenom of the enthrallment of masses of people by a dictator such as Hitler; how these two kinds
of remembrances are mediated and (re)constructed by technologies of representation and the passage of time; how they cross paths and affect each other.
In this latest work, Guttman uses the art of anamorphosis, a Renaissance practice in the metaphysics of optics: the distortion of images in accordance with mathematical principles. These then can
be magically restored to their right perspective within the infinite depth of a cylindrical mirror, or if the viewer positions her/himself at a fixed point of "truth".
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