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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
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OMG! OMG! OMG! THE NON-CONFIDENCE VOTE HAS PASSED, THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT JUST FELL!!!!!!
(let's burn some cars)
If you are looking for an on-the-ground New Orleans blog... read email from NOLA. Dude can write.
How does mickey mouse's carnium [sic] look like [sic]? Find out at Google Video. I came across this one by searching for "video art". At the moment there are about 52 entries that fit the bill. "Cat" brings up 677. It's only early days.
I like the recent Wired article listing who's afraid of Google and why. Me, I'm about 50% afraid and 50% curious. Which pretty much sums up how I feel about the future too.
news [thanks CM]:
Today in Montreal the Canadian Heritage Minister, the Honourable Liza Frulla, announced significant new support for Canada’s arts community, including artists and art museums. The federal government plans to increase funding to the Canada Council for the Arts funding to $300 million by 2008. >>>more
Chris Ashley, of html painting fame, has just made a really super nice post about my work on his blog. Thanks so much, Chris! Those nice words mean a lot coming from a grooovy artist like you.
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I had a lot of fun operating The Burning Pit at the uTOpia launch yesterday. I was gratified that people seemed to really experience some catharsis when they rang the silver bell and I cut the cable, sending their demon plummeting into the fiery depths. Here are the Toronto demons that were banished throughout the day:
condo developers
Ontario Municipal Board
mega bins & sign variances
Hummers & SUVs
SUVs & Minivans
cars that cut off bikes
"pedestrians cross other side" signs at intersections
police harrassment
Rogers Video strip mall at Yonge and Roxborough
proliferation of Tim Hortons
city by-laws "weed" inspectors who continue to attack non-conventional gardens/gardeners
block apartment buildings
people who don't smile back
always waiting for permission
aggressive, reckless drivers
pushy people, no smiles, greedy drivers
ugly new proposed refuse bins & other impediments to pedestrian traffic
transit sucks, need to drive car
Motomedia truck billboards
crime
drivers oblivious to cyclists
pot holes in bike lanes
The Drake (Fake) Hotel
Homelessness, blame the victim legislation, bad cops
self entitled Rosedale drivers in their fucking S.U.V.s
red tape
the DVP
no bike lane on Dupont
bridge just east of Atlantic on King St.
Annex Yuppie Mafia
24 hour nothings
Dundas Square
violence/crime
lack of good bike lanes
lookism
billboards @ Yonge & Dundas
City-TV
garbage
HIV
I adored the riot grrrl phase in the 1990s. By then I was already ensconced in my own identitiy as a hetero-feminist freak, more interested in doing my projects and hanging out with interesting people than in weilding the potential power of my sexual persona. Grrrl power, with its focus on girls doing interesting things with their time and having fun too, was a very welcome development. And in my optimistic ignorance I thought it was here to stay. But no, tatoos and piercings and hoodies and choppy hair and boots and loud voices and acting out have been replaced with strapless little tops and silky long hair and demure stances and eye-lash batting and expensive weddings and fear of mice and white wine spritzers and bird-like portions of food and stupid shoes and little handbags and all kinds of other nasty irritating things. So I was interested in the latest Goodreads missive which includes this NY Times article by Maureen Dowd about the lack of feminist ideals among young women today.
I appreciate that Dowd, in her own way, is lamenting the same sad backslide that is bothering lots of my contemporaries. However, her POV is an objectionably two-dimensional corporate world. Dowd describes the post-feminist fate of us poor females who find that career success impedes our chances of snagging a man and tricking him into marrying us. Good golly but that sounds boring! Honestly, the only thing that puts me to sleep faster than someone's office politics is their wedding plans. Dowd's article presents a hegemonic fairy princess world where afterwork martinis and dates with boring corporate guys who foot the bill are all the fun that life has to offer. That is until you fulfill yourself by getting pregnant. Newsflash: procreation is not required. There's nothing exactly wrong with babies, but let's just say that if you don't have one, you will live.
I don't know if Dowd's post-feminist scenario of polished, power hungry pretty young things, caught in a horrible choice between flexing their corporate muscle or playing it soft like a little kitten, really exists. If so, I'm thrilled to be out here in exile. Sure some of my friends are married, some have children, and some are extremely successful in their professions, but they are focused on the content of their projects. It may not always work out perfeclty, but these women want to spend as much time as possible doing exactly what interests them nearly every single minute of the day and have fun doing it. Sound good? It is good ... it's called liberation, women's liberation, and everyone deserves it not just weirdo retro freaks like me.
| Come to the uTOpia book launch on Sunday! (venue: Gladstone, publisher: Coach House) The book is a groovy big anthology all about Toronto. I wrote about Fly gallery, because I find them inspiring. There are gonna be panels and activities at the launch! I'm on a panel at 3:00 with Bert Archer and Sheila Heti, moderated by Misha Glouberman. Our topic is Private Space. I'm also going to be hosting an activity booth where you get to consign your least favourite things about Toronto to the buring pit of hell. I've constructed an extremely classy and operational burning pit, but you'll have to come to the event to get a look at it. In the meantime, here are a couple of dYStopic burning pit images that I found with Google Images. All the details about the event and the book are here. | |
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Regular guest poster L.M. is on a much deserved break. Thank you, L.M.!! (when you come back we wanna hear your thoughts on France)
 | temporary chair "the event is unattainable..." |
"We feel in wartime comradeship. We confuse this with friendship, with love. There are those who will insist that the comradeship of war is love—the exotic glow that makes us in war feel as one people, one entity, is real, but this is part of war's intoxication. Think back on the days after the attacks on 9-11. Suddenly we no longer felt alone; we connected with strangers, even with people we did not like. We felt we belonged, that we were somehow wrapped in the embrace of the nation, the community; in short, we no longer felt alienated. As this feeling dissipated in the weeks after the attack, there was a kind of nostalgia for its warm glow and wartime always brings with it this comradeship, which is the opposite of friendship.
Friends are predetermined; friendship takes place between men and women who possess an intellectual and emotional affinity for each other. But comradeship—that ecstatic bliss that comes with belonging to the crowd in wartime—is within our reach. We can all have comrades. The danger of the external threat that comes when we have an enemy does not create friendship; it creates comradeship. And those in wartime are deceived about what they are undergoing. And this is why once the threat is over, once war ends, comrades again become strangers to us. This is why after war we fall into despair."
-from a text of a speech by Chris Hedges
(author of "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning")
Finished with TAAFI yesterday and the last two days at were Porn-O-Rama. I love culturally sanctioned porn, meaning porn I can watch in an art gallery with the pornographers present, and laugh at. Laughing at a cable station is never as much fun.
On Sunday, artist Lisa Pereira presented an Emerging Video Artist Retrospective, with oodles of porn, once again in the Yoga room. (I enjoyed this exciting new direction that the Drake hotel was taking with their Yoga Room) The video I viewed was horoscopic (new word, all mine) with graphic instances of each sun sign's specific sexual proclivities, introduced with brilliantly cheesy 3D graphics. Monday's yoga room presentation were video works by Julian Calleros, who being a lovely young gent, warned me when the sexually explicit material was about to start. He seemed a little disconcerted when I yelled "YAY! MALE HOMOEROTICISM!" and started laughing (I don't know why I love to holler that phrase, I just do.)
Head and Yeti shoulders above the rest was, per usual, Allyson Mitchell. (shocking that over a week has gone by on this blog with out someone raving about her work!) I couldn't get a full shot of the eight foot furry voracious ladies, so these details will have to do.
Images of their naughty bits are in the comment section.
I mentioned Angela Leach here recently - she has a show opening at the Doris McCarthy Gallery tomorrow (Wednesday) night. There's a free bus to shuttle us downtowners out for the show, leaving from 401 Richmond at 5:30 pm, heading back from UTSC at 8 pm. Last time I took the shuttle bus to DMG I saw a cat leap for a hanging birdfeeder and then dangle in the air. It failed to get a bird but put on a great show nonetheless.
I have a few things to mention about Ryan Carriere:
His art is amazing.
The memorial was incredibly sad.
He shouldn't have died. We have known that trucks need sideguards for a long time (ie: there was a well publicized coroner's report in 1998 based on the downtown deaths of cyclists in Toronto that said TRUCKS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO HAVE SIDEGUARDS).
There is lots more on this here and here and here.
Candlelight Memorial for cyclist Ryan Carriere
When: Monday November 7th, 2005; 7:00 p.m.
Where: Queen and Gladstone.
Toronto cyclists were saddened to learn that 31-year-old Ryan Carriere
was killed last Monday, October 31, at the intersection of Queen St W.
and Gladstone Ave. Ryan was headed home on his bicycle to help prepare
for Halloween, to be shared with his wife and two daughters.
Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists (ARC) along with Ryan's many friends
and family will be holding a candlelight memorial for him at the scene
of the accident, on Monday November 7th at 7:00 p.m. Cyclists are
encouraged to join ARC at the Peace Garden at Nathan Phillips Square at
6:15 p.m. that night to ride together in solidarity to the memorial
site. ARC also specifically invites Toronto City Councillors to ride
with us.
In 1998, in response to a high number of cyclist fatalities and
injuries, the Toronto Coroner prepared a detailed report. This report
found that 38% of cyclist fatalities involved large vehicles (non-Class
G) and that cyclists were 4 times more likely to be killed in a
collision involving a large vehicle, such as the one that killed Ryan,
than in collisions with smaller vehicles. One of the key
recommendations of the Coroner's Report was for the government to
legislate sideguards for trucks, a recommendation that has not been
acted upon. This report can be found at:
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/coroner_index.htm or via the ARC website:
www.respect.to . ARC calls on Toronto City Council and the government
of
Ontario to implement the key recommendations of the Coroner's Report.
There's an intriguing Neutrino movie tonight! Damn I am going out of town. If anyone sees it, can you make a comment here and tell us about it? (thanks to Tom G. for the tip!)
I thought I'd better post something before Sally takes my photo privileges away. I'm participating at TAAFI again this year, and acting like a socialite with Alzheimer's.
Performance artist Tanya Mars handed out Seven Deadly Sins balloons at the opening gala, (I chose "Wrath", although, really, any old sin will do). The cluster in the picture below were tied to a balcony door at the Gladstone Hotel the next day and they kept on blowing at me like an insistently moral molecule while I was trying to have a smoke.
Sandra Rechico introduced me to one of her former students, Tejpal S. Ajji, who was showing a video installation at the Drake.
(wall)
(ceiling) (The ceiling projection was quite a bit brighter than the wall, and after much technical discussion, we concluded that something optical was going on. That's what I remember.)
The videos are 23 minutes of Tej hanging by his feet from the ceiling STRUGGLING and SUFFERING. (but quite sensibly, I thought, taking on the occasional snack from an upside down table that was also hanging from the ceiling)
(projectors)
The projector setup was hilarious. (I also laughed at all the suffering.)
This image is at a funny angle because I was, myself, practising SLOTH and lolling on a couch when I shot it. But it's supposed to show how a projector was hanging over a tub of water with a mirror inside to reflect the rope ladder footage up to the ceiling (note the bungee cords, scotch tape and Band-Aids holding it all securely to a stool that is, in turn, bungeed, taped and Band-Aided to a small table).
I'm hoping that the Drake Hotel keeps this work in their Yoga Room as a permanent installation. (as long as those awkward yoga folks don't knock the projector into the tub of water)
Peggy Anne Berton is my new Canadian art hero (after I saw her feature length film, The Legend of Buck Kelly, on Monday night). More on this later (soon)...
TAAFI is a big art fair in Toronto that happens at the same time as the official art fair in Toronto. I don't like art fairs but TAAFI is different. Don't miss Lorna Mills', Living Will By Sandra Rechico By Lorna Mills, 2005, video installation (a Drake "Invitational").
"Based on a true story, this video is the second installment in the series Peace Time Activities that began with Mill's 2004 video LM vs. Leni R. In this new, mercifully short video, Mills continues to toy with recent conventions of reality television and directorial abuse."Also Andrew J. Paterson, just back from a big do in Calagary, is performing at the Gala at the Gladstone on Thursday and so are Tanya Mars and Miss Canadiana. Also there's a big contingent of groovy nature-kitsch-and-myth with Mary Anne Barkhouse, Fastwurms and Allyson Mitchell all showing in the same building.
Also Lise Brin is hosting another colouring night on Friday! (The last one brought out my dark side.)
And lots of other stuff too...
Canzine was very very fun. Grey Goo sold out, which was gratifying, and the Halloween 1/2 Accordion Dime-a-Death Puppet Performances (a shorter name is in the works) were a hit. We forgot to put this drawing in the zine!
How could we? Well because we had another even better one that we used instead. Thanks Rob.
NOTE: Jim Munroe was a real star on Sunday. No Media Kings was a hive of useful information. Jim ran a tight, packed schedule of panels and screenings. If all you did was sit in that one room all day, you would've had a great day.