Number of the best
Gordon Lebredt’s 30-year-old exhibit still provokes and amazes
Kristen Pauch-Nolin

Gordon Lebredt’s By the Numbers, curated by Robert Epp, is a fascinating and complex exploration of the relationship between image-making, technology and philosophy. The retrospective exhibition offers a challenging combination of mixed-media paintings, prints and works of sculpture created while the artist attended art school at the University of Manitoba in the ’70s.

At the conceptual core of By the Numbers is Lebredt’s assertion that physical markings on a piece of art can be understood as they are ordered, like the grammatical structures used in writing.

The idea, which establishes a system for both making and understanding art, was inspired by the work of philosophers including Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger and Jacques Lacan.

After reading Derrida’s Of Grammatology (1976) Lebredt postulated that images are capable of transmitting meaning to their viewers, providing an opportunity to experience and understand art beyond its physical boundaries. Challenging the confinement of images within the conventions of painting, their frames and/or the gallery space became an essential element in Lebredt’s artistic argument.

Each of the 21 pieces included in By the Numbers is installed in the gallery as part of an overall installation or environment. The exhibit as a whole is organized based on the space’s architecture and arranged to create physical relationships between the objects that are located within it.

Epokhe, a central piece, was painted in the mid-’70s but was not considered complete until 2005, when the customized four-part frame, overlaid sheet of acrylic and the word “Epokhe” (meaning a moment of suspension) were added. Previously identified and displayed as an example of ‘photo-realism,’ the work now allows the text to interrupt the image and provide a larger philosophic context.

The exhibition’s largest work, Ripple Rock Blowup, also features a painted image that has been interrupted. In this case a black line divides the canvas and is identified by Lebredt as both a “strikethrough, effectively taking the painting off-line,” and as a mark indicating the end of the artist’s interest in painting.

Lebredt’s investigation of the “discrete grammar” of images also extends to his print work. Natural Facts-Red X Yellow X Blue, 1977 illustrates the progression of images from life to photo to grid to print and eventually back to life. Here the artist dissects his work and reveals the complexity of an image’s formation.

Scan, a partner piece to Natural Facts, “depicts the algorithmic programme” Lebredt employed when creating the larger serigraph.

Revelations about images and the perception of objects are most clearly demonstrated by Lebredt’s sculptural works. Labour of Vision and L + R (ToRS) involve the containment and reflection of images. In both cases, mirrors are used to reflect an existing three-dimensional object and to create an optical illusion. The result causes many viewers to reconsider the reality of what they are seeing.

By the Numbers is a remarkable show. Despite its complexity, it is still an insightful, accessible and relevant offering from one of Canada’s least-known significant artists.
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