HARD CANDY

with Gabe Sawhney

Installed at Convenience Gallery, Toronto, 2008

hard candy, acrylic, cctv

120 x 380 x 23 cm

From diurnal temperature fluctuations to the transformation of cities, HARD CANDY aimed to measure the passage of time by revealing the slow changes that take place beyond the capacity of our immediate perception.

Installed in the window of a former candy store, a miniature world of figures was caught below a deluge of a sweet yet menacing storm and tracked by a surveillance system. Monitors displayed the resulting time-lapse footage at different speeds to expose the changes over the life of the exhibition. The candy which appeared static was not: every day it was reanimated by the sun and gravity.

The installation engaged pedestrians to peer into the manufactured chaos and re-examine their immediate surroundings in its reflection. While the elaborate surveillance system was able to capture the candy’s slow molten movement and the daily changes in the urban scene beyond, larger changes, such as the gradual gentrification of the neighbourhood, remained elusive.