More Information (More Lies)
Information about the Artist
Linda Duvall was born in Newington, a village of two hundred hardy souls in Eastern Ontario, Canada. She began life on the corner of Duvall Avenue in a home that housed three generations of extended family. Possibly as a result of this environment of close family and even closer neighbours, Duvall has been very engaged with people and community. Duvall has completed degrees in both Sociology (Carleton University, Ottawa) and Visual Arts (OCAD, Toronto, ON and MFA University of Michigan). These two disciplines have merged into projects that involve and give voice to her friends, neighbours, relatives, and interesting new acquaintances. In recent works she creates contexts in which she is physically present to interact with an audience.
Duvall currently divides her time between Saskatoon and Toronto. She has been teaching media and sculpture classes at University of Saskatchewan for the last 14 years. Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally, including Guatemala City (GA), London (Engl.), Barcelona (SP), Westport (County Mayo, Ir.), Moose Jaw (SK), Halifax (NS), Brandon (MB), New York (NY) and Edmonton (AB). Look for her in her portable booth presenting her project Embroidered Truths and Shameless Lies for 12 hours during Nuit Blanche in Toronto September 2006.
Information about Duvall’s other projects is available at www.lindaduvall.ca
Information about Reinvented 2006
Reinvented is a video-based exhibition around the subject of reinvention, through the presentation of a series of intimate narratives that will form the basis of reinvention activities. The subject matter of reinvention is approached, not through disguises or physical alteration, but rather through the direct verbal articulation of alternative identities in front of a video camera. Each of the short stories that I provide consists of an occasion in which one has shifted a version of their own history. Something is hidden, or is told is a way as to alter one’s history for the audience. And each text has elements of potential shame, embarrassment, or disrepute.
I meet directly with each participant and tell them one at a time a series of very short stories, such as “When my mother recently became ill, she told me something that she had kept secret all these years. My biological father is not the person I had assumed, and also he is of another race” I ask them to tell each story back to me in the first person. As they do this, I ask them more details about the situation. For example, in the above example, I then asked various details about the situation. “So what race is he?” Have you tried to contact him? Why do you think your mother kept this secret for all these years? ” Through this process, the original story then becomes more theirs than mine, as they acknowledge how this situation would play out in their personal context. The questions gradually reveal attitudes and biases.
From this activity, a series of repetitions of the same situation is presented on video, with minor variations. The initial appeal of the stories emerges from the intimacy of the narrative, and the ‘talking head’ speaking directly to the camera in the first person. This is quickly undermined by the subsequent versions of the same text, delivered by different people in equally convincing ways.
Technical requirements
6 TV’s
6 DVD players
Information about Polygraph 2006
Four people are sent to an RCMP polygraph examiner to be tested about the same fictional guilt-ridden situation concerning a childhood mishap.
Polygraph consists of 11 photograph panels and a three channel video installation focused on a consideration of truth and lies through the use of polygraph tests.
I sent 4 individuals to receive a polygraph test. Each person sent was chosen based on their culturally perceived relationship to truth and the construction of lies – an actor, a clergy person, a person who has been trained to detect lies in others, etc. Each was prepared with the same starting point – a situation based on an event that happened in my own childhood in which a seemingly innocent play activity in an abandoned house resulted in serious injury. Beginning with this familiar situation, each participant constructed their own version of this event to present to the polygraph tester.
The polygraph tests were completed by Mike Robinson, RCMP polygraph tester for the province of Saskatchewan until his retirement. The polygraph raises questions as to the contribution of science as opposed to our individual perceptions of truth.
This project considers the ease with which we can and do lie and the presumption that a listener can readily distinguish the “truth”. I am building into this project a context for a systematic analysis of the complexities of truth and lying through the use of an official polygraph machine.
In the actual polygraph experience, a complex psychological relationship develops between the tester and the participant. Unlike on TV, real polygraph tests last two hours on average, and involve the tester building up a trusting relationship with the subject in order to prepare them to ‘confess’. A crucial element in the process of the polygraph test occurs at the end when the subject is cajoled to confess, regardless of the actual results provided by the machine. In this project, a potential confession is made more knotty in that the original situation is totally constructed by myself, and then reconstructed through the imaginations of the participants.
Technical Information
Photographic Panels
11 digital prints on photo satin, mounted on gaterfoam board with 3 ml satin laminate Each 14 in. x 44 in.
Video Installation
Shooting Format - Digital 8 Video Length of one loop – 38:10:03 Audio DVD 1 – Stereo Audio DVD 2 – No Audio DVD 3 – Stereo Audio
Production Credits
Director, Producer, Editor, Concept Development, etc. – Linda Duvall
Camera Assistant – Wendy Paterson
Technical Assistant – Dwaine Moore, Media Group Saskatoon
Performers:
Polygraph Tester – Mike Robinson
Participants being Tested – Adrian Stimson, Alexandra Badzak, Bruce Russell, Pamela Haig Bartley
Technical Requirements
3 Video projectors
3 DVD players – provided by artist (with synchronizing unit)
2 pair of powered speakers with adjustable volume control on speaker
Exhibition Schedule
This project was presented at the following locations:
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
72 Queen St., Civic Centre
Oshawa, ON L1H 3Z3
www.rmg.on.ca
June 30 – September 4, 2005
Curator: Linda Jansma
Mendel Art Gallery
950 Spadina Crescent East, PO Box 569
Saskatoon, SK S7K 3L6
www.mendel.ca
September 2- November 13, 2005
Curator: Dan Ring
McIntosh Gallery
The University of Western Ontario
London, ON N6A 3K7
www.mcintoshgallery.ca
March 2 – April 9, 2006
Curator: Catherine Shaw Elliot
A publication is available for sale at the above locations.
Credits
The artist thanks all the participants who generously gave of their time and creative genius in telling their stories in front of her camera. She totally appreciated the support, input and conversations with the three curators Dan Ring, Linda Jansma, and Catherine Shaw Elliot. And many thanks to Mike Robinson for his willingness to use his polygraph equipment under more unusual circumstances.
Duvall would like to acknowledge project assistance from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, technical support from Dwaine Moore of Media Group, and equipment assistance from Long & McQuade Musical Instruments, Saskatoon, Oshawa, and Stratford.
Funding support for this project from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, City of Oshawa, Saskatchewan Arts Board, Saskatchewan Lotteries, the City of Saskatoon, and the University of Western Ontario are gratefully acknowledged.
This website was produced with funding assistance from the Mendel Art Gallery.
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