, 2008. Fibreglass stone and airplane. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Purchased 2011. Photo © Roman März](/images/content/menuSeeGallery.png)
Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe (Detail), 1770
oil on canvas
152.6 x 214.5 cm
Transfer from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921 (Gift of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, England, 1918)
National Gallery of Canada (no. 8007)
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Battered Moonlight (Pale Fire Freedom Machine), 2005
Geoffrey Farmer
Canadian, 1967
dye coupler print
frame: 124.9 x 94.5 x 5.2 cm
Purchased 2006
National Gallery of Canada (no. 41840)
© Geoffrey Farmer Photo © NGC
The Pale Fire Freedom Machine series depicts carefully composed groupings of thrift store wooden furniture that have been photographed straight-on in a clinical, gallery-like space. The title of each work echoes the formal qualities of the furniture's quirky arrangement. For example, Cage Work presents a desk upturned on its side, topped by two chairs, one yellow and one white. The spindles of the white chair correspond to the cage of the title and conjure up the metaphor of office work as entrapment. The series was created in conjunction with a larger, multi-media piece, A Pale Fire, which involved gallery staff in stripping and disassembling chairs, commodes, bureaus, desks and tables, after which the furniture was burned. In this sense, the photographs are both functional and metaphorical; they depict an inventory and operate as memorials.
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Triangle (Pale Fire Freedom Machine)
Cage Work (Pale Fire Freedom Machine)
Propeller (Pale Fire Freedom Machine)
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