Bio

Gilles Hébert has been actively engaged in visual art since the 1980s. His early work included object graffiti interventions on construction-site fencing in downtown Winnipeg and Toronto. Since then, he has been active as both an artist and a curator across Canada, and beyond. As well, he has served as the Director of the Mendel Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Windsor, and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Most recently he was Vice-President at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. His interest in film dates back to the film studies courses of his undergraduate days. He has, over the years, made several video works and gallery installations. His work has long been conditioned by a preoccupation with what he describes as ‘the transitory nature of significance’.

Works

Town Without Pity

  • 1989
  • Gilles Hébert

Town Without Pity is seven relentless minutes of suburban/sub arctic strip malls. Strung together, one after the other, these shopping centers become a featureless, undifferentiated mass of convenience. All of this is set to Gene Pitney’s memorable hit.

Town Without Pity

PullFreight - el prôlogo

  • 2015
  • Gilles Hébert

The false memories are just swimming. Hauntology.

Pull Freight

That's Life

  • 1991
  • Gilles Hébert

This tape is based on a short visit to the American Pleasure Place, Las Vegas. The record shows a labour dispute which forced bartenders and casino dealers to boycott in the streets as their employers engaged in union busting and generally unfair labour practices.

That’s Life

Alleyway

  • 1986
  • Gilles Hébert

The video deals with latent innocence. Browsing through, the viewer is treated to a failing siren, an obscured message, and a vanishing material influence. In the end, the alleyway supplies a lost leader for the post-nuclear vaudeville to come.

Alleyway