• Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge, from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge, from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge, from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

  • Shivering Giants Great Lounge from the series Bang Bang Baroque, 2024 Graphite on nylon textile, air pump, 105 x 380 x 195 cm. Exhibition view Emma Waltraud Howes. The Time it Takes, Musée d'art de Joliette, 2024. Photo: Paul Litherland

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Shivering Giants Great Lounge
The Time it Takes

2024
Graphite on nylon textile, air pump.
105 x 380 x 195 cm10 minute loop

xvii. The “Ghost Army” was an American tactical unit during the Second World War whose sole purpose was to mislead Hitler’s German forces regarding the size and location of the Allied army. The tools for this deception included inflatable tanks and artillery. The plan worked, but the story came to light only when it was declassified in 1996. Many of the men in this unit, including Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer and Art Kane, were artists hired specifically for the purpose of designing these soft sculptures.

Like a whale in a natural history museum, this strange organ hangs over the museum’s foyer. Inside the glass, steel, and concrete chest cavity, it has a life of its own. A cross between a chaise longue and a psychoanalyst’s couch, this inflatable chair invites us to leap into the void. When deflated and shivering, it seems to wither away, like a strange fruit or a worn-out parachute. When inflated, this giant evokes self-elevation, baroque opulence, even Russia’s Catherine the Great (and her erotic furniture). But this imposing presence is fleeting, and like Sisyphus, the whole endeavour must always begin again.

Here, Howes refers to the psychoanalytic process of durcharbeiten or “working through,” whereby an individual works to accept elements of their unconscious to free themselves from a repetitive compulsion; that is, the recurrence of problematic behaviour. This awareness allows the person to act on negative patterns in their life rather than suffer from them.

Credits

  • :

Exhibition History

  • The Time it Takes
    2024
    Musee d'art de Joliette
    Joliette, CA

Related Publication

Acknowledgements

This exhibition is made possible by the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Superframe Framing Fund.

Part of The Time it Takes Project
All Works