Koffler Arts welcomes Governor General’s Award winning artist Cybèle Young to the Koffler Gallery for the international debut of her exhibition, Kamiphony , curated by Zoë Foster.
At the centre of the exhibition is a pantheon of kinetic paper machines. Over time, each sculptural object performs a small, repetitive action. Lighting and sound amplification accompany their movements, creating a shifting tableau of motion, dancing shadows, and sound.
These kinetic sculptures are situated within a long tradition that has championed uselessness. From Aristotle to Baroque automata, from Bruno Munari to Jean Tinguely’s anarchic sculptures, philosophers and artists have repeatedly returned to this idea. By engaging with these historical debates, Young invites viewers to consider our present-day predicament. The sculptures’ refusal to be efficient mirrors a contemporary moment in which we are re-examining the value of work as a result of COVID-19.
For Young, this project is also deeply personal. She began creating the work in response to her experience of menopause, during which her body felt as though it was “breaking down.” This experience inspired her to explore the space between what no longer works and something new that has yet to take form.
The machines’ repetitive movements foreshadow that something will – over time – emerge. Their persistence draws viewers into a public ritual where repetition itself becomes a form of meaning-making. In conceiving this work, Young was also influenced by her great-uncle, the composer Colin McPhee, who, while encountering ritual traditions in Bali, observed that usefulness is not measured by output or progress but by duration and presence.
As visitors move through the exhibition, the sculptural machines become a mischievous orchestra. They invite us to reimagine our world together and question its parts.
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Cybèle Young is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and author. Her decades-long collaboration with Japanese paper anchors a practice concerned with transformation, ritual, and shifting perspective – from intricate paper miniatures to kinetic installations. Drawing from Dada, Fluxus, and the anthropology of play, she builds poetic structures that unsettle the familiar.
Since graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 1995, Young has presented more than twenty solo exhibitions and over thirty group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, including New York, Los Angeles, London, Oslo, Singapore, Beijing, and Tokyo. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, Global Affairs Canada, BMO Financial Group, OMERS, and Ernst & Young. She has received more than thirty grants and awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award and a Canada Council residency in Paris, and is represented by Forum Gallery in New York and Los Angeles.
Her practice continues to evolve through interdisciplinary projects, bringing together sculpture, movement, sound, film, and participation. Kamiphony marks a significant new chapter in this ongoing exploration.
