Alejandro Tamayo, At the Moment This Work is Like This, 2024.
This exhibition examines how context influences the way we perceive objects and spaces. Contexts can include the gallery itself, the frame around an artwork, the language used to describe the work, and the sequence and timing in which viewers encounter the works. In At the Moment This Work is Like This, Windsor-based artist Alejandro Tamayo explores how context influence our perception of art. By bringing parts of his studio into the gallery, Tamayo invites us to reflect on how context can shift what we see and how we engage with it.
The title of this exhibition—At the Moment This Work is Like This—hints at the way this show evolves over time. Upon entering the gallery, visitors first encounter a desk at the end of the hallway. On this desk is a 1:20 scale model of the three walls featured in the gallery, accompanied by a text explaining how the setup of these walls will change each month.
In the main gallery, three large walls replicate the interior of Tamayo’s studio in a nearby apartment building, hinting at the domestic spaces surrounding Tamayo’s workspace. There are subtle texts on the walls that guide viewers in their interpretation of the artwork while simultaneously encountering objects. These texts influence how they might frame their understanding, encouraging thoughtful observation. As viewers engage with both the text and the objects from a distance, their interaction shapes the evolving experience of the exhibition without physically altering it. Lines on the floor indicate where the walls have been, and where they might yet go.
On the surrounding gallery walls, there are 15 framed pieces displaying objects from Tamayo’s daily life. Each object is paired with text noting the time when it was made, and how the movement of the work may have changed over time. This framing allows viewers to see everyday items from the artist’s life presented as artworks, with the passage of time a key part of the object’s transformation from everyday item to fine art.
Throughout his career, Tamayo has been interested in how meaning is transformed, and how an object becomes art when placed in the context of an exhibition. What begins in the studio is redefined within the gallery.
