Scott Lyall: The Color Ball

On the heels of his participation in SITE Santa Fe's Seventh International Biennial, The Power Plant presents Toronto artist Scott Lyall's largest solo exhibition to date. Somewhere between a survey of past work and a new assemblage, 'The Color Ball' is also The Power Plant's 2008 Commission, realized under the gallery's annual Commissioning Program and commissioned in partnership with the Toronto-based visual arts support group Partners in Art.

As with recent artist surveys at The Power Plant, 'The Color Ball' is a new installation that draws from past work, in this case seven of Lyall's previous projects involving performance. The commission a structure of rotating party lights functions within this conceptual framework and, in conditioning how viewers see the work, incorporates the entire exhibition. Named after a fictitious gala reminiscent of The Power Plant's annual fundraising Power Ball, 'The Color Ball' evokes a haunted ballroom. It also alludes to art works which have taken parties and socializing as their theme from Marc Camille Chaimowicz's 'Celebration? Real life' (1972) to Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' (1974-79) and Rikrit Tiravanija's projects serving food. Literally, the exhibition references the color-sphere selector used in computer imaging-software. This spherical diagram incorporates every hue at every intensity and shade, resulting in a black centre. 'The Color Ball,' suggests Lyall, is therefore the figure of "every image, whatever"

Performative and conceptual aspects exceed the installation. These include images used to market the show drawn from fashion photography, celebrity magazines, and the fairytale Cinderella; a performance by artist Ei Arawaka staged within the exhibition on the closing weekend; and a 'multiple' comprising a hand-blown glass ball containing coloured bath salts that would stain the user's body.

Scott Lyall (born in Toronto, Ontario, 1964) has recently collaborated on exhibitions with artist Rachel Harrison at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver (2006) and with Blake Rayne at Art Basel (2008).

A catalogue accompanying The Color Ball will be published in 2009.

Curated by Gregory Burke, Director of The Power Plant

Scott Lyall
The Color Ball

Kurator: Gregory Burke