March 9, 2010 Fringe Arts

Fumbling with intimacy

Photography show Seven Minutes in Heaven comes out of the closet

by Stephanie La Leggia

Arden Wray’s photo series “Natural History” catches her close friends in quiet moments. Her work shows in photography exhibit Seven Minutes in Heaven, opening this week. PHOTO ARDEN WRAY

Whether they’re studying art or accounting, one thing many university students have in common is the unforgettable awkwardness and vulnerability they experienced in high school.
“[It’s] based around transition and youth transition, and we realized those who come to university are kind of in a transitional time,” said Alannah Clamp, co-curator of photo exhibition Seven Minutes in Heaven. “We just really wanted to work with the age group and the context and location in which the show was going to take place.”

Seven Minutes in Heaven takes its name from a party game popular with the hormonal set: two teenagers, one closet and a time limit—do the math. Though many volunteered to play, it would be hard to deny the pressure and vulnerability the rules of the game imposed on the players. It is these feelings that the show’s curators hope to evoke with the pieces they’ve selected from 14 student photographers.

Alannah curated Seven Minutes with her twin sister, Rossanne Clamp. Both are art history grad students.

“We realized it’s kind of weird to be twins and to be doing kind of the same thing, but we’re actually just really into the same things,” laughed Alannah.

The photographs in the show include subjects that range from Italian in-laws to teenage skateboarders to high school friends, each image a highly personal documentation.

“I’m usually shooting people I’m close to in domestic places, so I guess all of them are about intimacy and comfort, honesty and closeness,” said photographer Arden Wray. Her collection, “Natural History,” includes photos of her closest friends and their relationships.

Another photographer, Kinneret Sheetreet, isn’t married, but the photos in her collection “Marriage of Convenience” explore pre-wedding cultural rituals—ones that she is worried she may miss out on.

“I’m not romanticizing marriage,” explained Sheetreet. “It’s really about exploring my family traditions.”

“There’s a strong domestic component in the show, a lot of interior spaces, a lot of social moments,” said Alannah. Although the pieces in Seven Minutes are of different sizes, people and places, they all link to one another as a series of transitional moments. “We wanted a lot of artists,” concluded Rossanne. “It’s a group show, so the more the better.”

Seven Minutes in Heaven shows at Galerie Lilian Rodriguez in the Belgo Building (372 Ste-Catherine St. W., room 405) until March 21. The vernissage is March 11 at 6 p.m.