Les Invalides, by Angela Grauerholz. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada.

By Mike Levin

There nothing more interesting than watching an apparent bystander get drawn into a framed image and stand for minutes with a look caught between confusion and recollection. This is what Angela Grauerholz wants her photographs to do, trip memories, spark associations, “stretch it out, that perfect moment, to allow something else to occur,” as she told Jonathan Newman in the National Gallery of Canada’s Vernissage magazine. And I saw it happen.

During the preview of Grauerholz’ upcoming show – The Inexhaustible Image…épusier l’image - at the  Gallery, a security guard stood in front of a photo of a train platform. The station’s, and the photo’s, name is Harrison – an Anglo name, probably in an Anglo country. But, the guard tells me, it can’t be England or America because the people on the platform seem dressed as the French dress.

He was caught in the photo because he’s from Morocco, and France is an image he’s lived with all his life (his country was once a French colony). Grauerholz’ photo gifted him a memory, completely co-incidentally, that merged his past and present. It’s this moment that makes her product art and attracts the notice of corporate sponsors, something, according to Gallery Director Marc Mayer, that is uncommon for a contemporary artist.

Angela Grauerholz. Photo by Mike Levin.

Grauerholz’ show extends past her large-scale photos taken during the past 40 years. She’s also displaying multi-media and installation art as well as an archive, of sorts. It’s all part of her attempt to document her collective memory. Not so strange considering she was born in post-WWII Germany when documenting took a distant back seat to rebuilding the tangible world.

The Inexhaustible Image…épusier l’image strives for timelessness, but it grounds viewers in the present moment, trying to figure out why items seem so familiar. It starts May 28 and runs until September 26.