I looked for Sarah everywhere
Gilbert Boyer
July 23 – September 30, 1992
Gilbert Boyer, I looked for Sarah everywhere; 1992; granite; 6 units, each 3" H x 36" L x 36" D
Artist Statement
The urbanscape is composed of a grid of roads, freeways, houses, buildings and a few parks - animated, of course, by people. Every individual has a separate life and a particular way of moving around the city, and each of us exists according to a subjective notion of how we fit into the urban grid. No two people live the same life or inhabit the same landscape. So, within each city there are millions of cities.
I looked for Sarah everywhere is about these intimate spaces and moments in city life. It is personal story about someone moving through the absence of someone else. It is a simple story charged with the dramatic weight of her absence looming in public spaces which would otherwise seem innocent and blank.
For the teller of this story, the city has become a series of reference points, each pregnant with meaning, each filled with the absence of Sarah. The work is an attempt to trace one invisible life-thread across six slabs of granite set in the ground so as to be almost unnoticeable. Carved in stone, the search for Sarah and her absence are written in words and pictures incorporating different locations around Toronto. I looked for Sarah everywhere is rooted in the desire for intimacy within a public space.
Translated by Ann Diamond
Additional funding for this exhibition was provided by the Ontario-Quebec Commission for Cooperation.
