Art in Odd Spaces: An RIA House Tour in Ottawa

Organized by Petra Halkes as part of her ongoing Research in Art project (RIA), the Art in Odd Spaces house tour, which took place on two weekends this May, was inspired by a Deborah Margo installation that came out of a RIA residency that saw Margo place salt licks in unexpected places throughout Halke's home. That installation has triggered a series of responses that Halkes has called tangents, of which Art in Odd Spaces is the sixth. Proving to be remarkably fecund, Margo's salt licks, entitled The Traffic of Matter, remained in Halkes' attic as part of the tour.

Deborah Margo, The Traffic of Matter, 2014, installation view RIA House Tour

Five homeowners responded to a call to make their odd spaces available for an installation like Margo's, and five additional artists were selected for the task (Gail Bourgeois, Vera Greenwood, Dipna Horra, Stephanie Nadeau, and Svetlana Swinimer). Each responded to their assigned space with her own artistic stratagem.

I wrote about the exhibition for the May 20 Akimblog, and you can read the whole thing by following this link.