AGO marks 25th anniversary of Toronto artist Louise Noguchi’s acclaimed video installation Crack

Louise Noguchi: Selected Works 1986-2000 opens Saturday, January 18 at 2 p.m., with remarks by the artist

Curated by the AGO’s Associate Curator of Canadian Art Renée van der Avoird, the three works on view highlight the artist’s conviction that identity is not given but constructed and shaped by events, beliefs, and circumstance. “In revisiting Noguchi’s early works we see the foundations of an artistic approach that has since the early 1980s continued to explore identity and selfhood in increasingly complex and playful ways,” says van der Avoird. “My hope is that this exhibition will introduce an under-recognized Canadian artist to new audience. At 25, Crack is a work that continues to captivate.”

Reverberating with sound, Noguchi’s looping three-minute video Crack (2000) is the first in a four-video series entitled Language of the Rope (1998-2005) documenting the artist’s education in rodeo arts, including trick-roping, bull-whip cracking, knife-throwing and trick riding.  Crack debuted at the Japanese Cultural Centre, before being acquired by the AGO in 2004, where it was exhibited to wide acclaim.

Filmed as a series of close-up shots, the video is projected on a gallery wall at the end of narrow corridor, immersing the viewer.  Against a pale, calm blue sky, the artist appears dressed in a black Japanese haori (a traditional men’s jacket), performing as an assistant in a wild-west act.  In her hands she holds out white flowers, one after another, first a lily, then a hydrangea, then a chrysanthemum, only to have them suddenly cut down mid-air by the lash of bullwhip.

“Crack,” says Noguchi, “is both a visual and audio experience. The sound of birds calling back and forth mimics the back-and-forth actions of the two performers both on and off-screen. The loudest sound in the video emanates from the crack of a bullwhip. You can never see the whip since it moves faster than the speed of sound and slips between the frames of the video, making it invisible to the eye but not the ear.”

Nearby, Noguchi’s three-part sculptural installation Fruits of Belief: The Grand Landscape (1986) brings together a wooden head, a cornucopia, and an off-kilter photographic reproduction of Thomas Gainsborough’s 1770s pastoral painting, A Grand Landscape.  A swirling, idealized vision of the British countryside, replete with cows and rolling clouds, the Gainsborough painting was originally thought to have been created in his studio, far from the fictive countryside it depicts. Rising out of the earth, each piece of this work is installed directly on the floor, encouraging viewers to examine our shared relationship to nature—as something simultaneously real, constructed, and imaginary.

By contrast, the third work in this exhibition sits high, almost menacingly above visitors’ heads. Noguchi’s 1990–91 mirror sculpture Eden is a convex mirror inscribed with one word and addresses themes of surveillance and freedom. It asks: are we approaching paradise, or withdrawing from it?

A public opening for Louise Noguchi: Selected Works, 1986-2000, featuring remarks by the artist and van der Avoird, will be held on January 18 at 2 p.m.  This event is free with General Admission. For more details, visit //ago.ca/events/louise-noguchi-public-opening.

Louise Noguchi: Selected Works, 1986-2000 is on view through July 27, 2025.  Admission to the AGO is always free for Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members and Annual Pass holders. The AGO is open late on Wednesdays and Fridays until 9 p.m. and every Saturday and Sunday between 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., as well as select holiday Mondays.

For more information on how to become a Member or Annual Pass holder, visit //ago.ca/membership/become-a-member.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Toronto in 1958, Noguchi graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1981, and immediately embarked on a very successful career, working primarily in sculpture, photography, and installation. Noguchi received her MFA from the University of Windsor in 2000 and was a professor in the Art and Art History Program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. Her works have been included in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, most notably in Louise Lawler, Louise Noguchi, Beauty Supply, Toronto (2023);  Contemporary Photographic Art In Canada: The Space of Making, a circulating exhibition co-produced with Neuer Berliner Kuntsverein, Berlin and VOX, Montreal (2005); document (solo exhibition), Dazibao, Montreal (2004); The Language of the Rope, New Gallery, Calgary (2004); and In Light, Art Gallery of Ontario (2002).

Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts

ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists to European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion project undertaken since it was founded in 1900. When completed the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection and reflect the people who call Toronto home. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.

The AGO is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and generous contributions from AGO Members, donors, and private-sector partners.