Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins
Three Dimensions
October 19 - March 17, 2024
Three Dimensions is an exhibition showcasing the multidisciplinary art practice of Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins. The show features three installations: Balancing Act, THX2020, and ABCD, which combine painting, sculpture, kinetics, interactivity, virtual reality, and video.
Balancing Act consists of a user-controlled large-scale claw crane game where participants can stack sculptural components and create ad-hoc compositions. Accompanying the installation are paintings depicting various combinations of the sculptures. THX2020 is an interconnected installation that combines paintings, narrative video, and an interactive headset that responds to bio-feedback by moving shapes on video screens. ABCD is a multidimensional installation incorporating diverse mediums, including AI and VR that deftly juxtaposes physical and virtual realities while exploring otherworldly absurdity.
Taken together, Three Dimensions emphasizes viewer participation and explores themes of authenticity, agency, and the digital age through performativity and interactivity. Like many of their previous works, the installation references high and popular culture, combining science fiction, politics, and current events in a pop-minimalist setting where symbols are equalized in hierarchy. For Marman and Borins, the exhibition aims to disrupt traditional notions of reality – whether authentic or synthetic – and present dimensions that challenge the viewer’s perception. With an emphasis on engagement, the artists prompt contemplation around visual language, mass media, consumerism, and the ways in which images circulate in the information age.
Installation view, Jennifer Marman & Daniel Borins: Three Dimensions. October 19, 2023 - March 17, 2024, Contemporary Calgary.
About the Artists
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins have been making large-format sculpture, paintings, mixed media, installation, and electronic art since 2000. Their projects extend through galleries, museums, and into public space.
In the studio, Marman and Borins work in a materials-focused practice, combining conceptual art with visual appeal – where they produce complex projects that tell stories, often conceiving of exhibitions in an intertwined and narrative-based perspective. Their artworks are situated within popular culture, examining questions of authenticity, while simultaneously referring to aspects of both modern and recent history through speculative narratives and the effects of the digital age.
Marman and Borins have lectured at galleries and institutions both nationally and internationally, including University of Calgary, Tulane School of Architecture, and SOMA in Mexico City.
Jennifer Marman is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. Daniel Borins is a graduate of McGill University. Marman and Borins both graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design, where they started their collaboration.
Marman and Borins’ work is in the collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the University of Toronto, York University, and the City of Toronto. They are represented by Cristin Tierney in New York, where their third solo show with the gallery opened in June 2023.
Marman and Borins' work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, The Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Related Programs
