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About The Work
Richard Martel's work explicitly addressed his view of the political
situation in Israel. Having emphasized the cage quality of the setting
- a tennis court, Martel positioned fish tanks, each containing one
goldfish, on both sides of the court. He then switched the water from
the tanks on one side to those on the other by means of a straw. At
the beginning of the piece, a $100 bill was glued to the wall and presided
over the action; at the end of the performance, Martel was trying to
knock it down with a lamb's heart.
About The Artist
Born in 1950.
Canadian performance artist Richard Martel is the coordinator of Le Lieu Contemporary Art Centre and editor of the Lieu journal, as well as the organizer of the IN(TER)VENTION performance festival in Quebec. For him, as an artist, the internal connection between historical, political, and ideological contexts is paramount.
Martel comments on a thematic series of performances he held in a number of countries between 1982 and 1987: “It was extremely interesting when touring these performances to discover how social codes differ in Denmark and in Mexico, for example. On another level, performance in Poland is a kind of catharsis and has nothing to do with the approach prevalent on the West Coast or, more precisely, in Vancouver where performance resembles entertainment.”
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