Galerie Marie-Anne E.

The Wanderings of Alexander
Susie Major & Andrew Forster

As for you, you proudly claim that you come in pursuit of bandits, but to all the people you have visited you are the bandit. You took Lydia; you over-ran Syria; you are in control of Persia; you have the Bactrians in your power; you have set your course for India. Now you are stretching out your greedy, insatiable hands toward our flocks. Why do you need riches? They merely stimulate your craving for more. You are the first man ever to have created hunger by having too much - so that the more you have the keener your desire for what you do not have. Do you not realise how long you have been delayed around Bactria? While you have been subjugating the Bactrians, the Sogdians have commenced hostilities. In your case victory spawns further war. No matter how far you surpass others in power and strength, the fact remains that nobody wants a foreign master.

‘The History of Alexander’
by Quintus Curtius Rufus (10 BCE - 53 CE)

Susie Major is an artist, curator and writer
based in Montreal. Recent exhibitions include
“all the rivers I’ve crossed” at Eastern Edge,
St. John’s, and “Small Wars” at Saint Mary’s
University Art Gallery, Halifax. Curatorial
projects for articule include “You Scratch My
Back and I’ll Scratch Yours in the Colonial
Room” by Garry Kennedy and “New Work” by
Michael Jolliffe. Recent writing includes texts
for the catalogue, “Superstar Shadow: Garry
Neill Kennedy” published by Museum London,
London, Ontario, “Being Subject: Kelly Lynne
Wood, Christopher Flower and Johnny Eisen” for
The New Gallery, Calgary and texts on the work
of Michelle Gay, Demian Petryshyn, Luis Jacob
and Caroline Lathan-Steifel for "Immersive/
Immersion" a publication from articule, Montreal.

Small Wars 2
Winter 2006 - 2007
corner of Laval and Marie-Anne
(215 Marie Anne East), Montreal

The term "Small Wars" refers to wars of resistance whose threat and power are of a calibre that arises from the on-going insurgent activity of organized civilian groups. Carl von Clausewitz in the early 1800's called this a "people's war" where "the elements of resistance will exist everywhere and nowhere." Small Wars 2 explores the visual and conceptual rapport between work of the Russian avant-garde, specifically Kazimir Malevitch's Suprematism, and aspects of the current military campaign in Iraq. By proposing this particular historical counterpoint to contemporary world events, the installation aims to present a relationship between the insurgency of the artistic avant-garde and that of current groups opposing political/military occupation.

Susie Major