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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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When words and their meanings got pulled apart by po-mo theorists, some people decided that signification (meaning) was old-fashioned and tacky, but the signs (words) were shiny bright and fun to toss around like glittery little trinkets. For other people, though, this pulling apart of things made the structure of meaning itself — the mutiple threads and interconnected nests — even more sexy and fun. Gary Kibbins, one of my favourite writers, belongs to the latter group. I worked on his book, Grammar & Not Grammar, briefly while I was at YYZ. Now that it is published I'm enjoying it very much again. Some day I will write a proper review. A single-author blog post is not enough. Luckily Von Bark is more babblicious than I.
VB says: Gary Kibbins is clever and funny and has interesting things to say about art. I do not want to toss off some glib little comment, I really want to go into depth, but there are so many dimensions of possibility that I can't possibly sum it up in a few sentences. Gary Kibbins comprehends the mercurial nature of nonsense. The tyranny of narrative helps us to understand the world, so Kibbins embeds subtle threads of narrative in a gleeful indulgence of nonsense. Nonsense, the media he swims in, reveals truths about the world we live in that cannot be accessed by rational thought, kinda like 'Alicia in Terra Mirabili'.
My brother, Joester, is a star. Good article by Chris Ashley.
 CPT demo in Toronto, January 29, 2006. Photo by Andre Fortier | This is from a demo in Toronto held by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). They are protesting the holding and abuse of Iraqi detainees. CPT members have been in Iraq for some time. "Team members accompanied the Iraqi people through the U.S.-led 2003 war and continue during the post-war occupation to expose abusive acts by U.S. Armed Forces and support Iraqis committed to nonviolent resistance." Four CPT members were kidnapped in Iraq in November, and are still missing. The kidnappers are calling for the release of all Iraqi detainees. I am impressed that while CPT are working hard for the release of their friends, they continue to focus their campaign on the rights of Iraqi detainees. Apparently footage from this demo was aired on Al Jazeera. In other news: more photos from Abu Ghraib were released to the media. They're as horrifying if not more so than the first batch. Also, the UN is calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. I am wondering how come I — a priviledged artsy middle class Canadian girl — how come even I know that there is torture going on at Guantanamo Bay, and yet a UN report to that effect is deemed debatable by White House officials? arrrg. |
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 | I haven't been reading VICE lately. I went off it for no particular reason except maybe boredom with other people's party pictures. Then the other day I brought this issue home for no particular reason other than it was free and I was curious to see what the kids were up to. I have never before in my life read a magazine in order, cover to cover, without even flipping through the pages first. This is the "Natives" issue. It's all about a Blackfeet Indian reserve in Montana. Each story is written by a different person living on the reserve. Simple, brilliant idea, better than AdBusters.* And guess what? It's all online. (*I must confess I've also stopped reading Adbusters for no particular reason other than apathy towards design-as-tool-for-political-transformation -through-emotional-button-pushing-and-stylish-formatting-of-painful -personal-email-entries.) |
On the other hand... the discussion threads attached to the Blackfeet articles have a lot of participation by people living on the reserve. A lot of them seem pretty cheesed off at the lead articles which focus on bars and drinking, and there's all kinds of ignorant racial flaming from what I can only assume are dumb white kids. But there's lots of articles that are about other stuff, like this one, by Charlene Burns who is a bundle holder. Charlene's sister shows up in the comments:
Char is my sister. I live in New York, I live in the white world. Our lives are very different. I love how my sister views life and how she lives life. We can all learn from her intelligence and her heart. She is a true humanitarian. I admire her. The Blackfeet people are lucky to have her. She is actively trying to improve things that need improving, and seeing the beauty in these wonderful people.
Our Quantal Strife catalogue lauch was really fun last night. Thanks to everyone who came! I have a backlog of tasks piled up now, included a bunch of things for the blog. There will be some more content up here soon, I promise. (I moderated a panel on art and science at the Performance Creation Canada Conference - must report!) In the meantime, brains and beans.
A Beginner's Guide to Quantal Strife
Oscillating dichotomies, cognitive assemblages, and the multivalent nature of communication when people make art and other people look at it.
But without all the big words.
February 7: If you prefer to stay downtown, join us at the Cameron House (480 Queen St. West) on Tuesday, Feb. 7th, at 7 pm for a free party with musical selections by DJ Von Bark...door prizes...free snacks...easy games...suprises...other things...and one very cute little art book/catalogue for sale!
(more details at the Doris McCarthy Gallery website)
Pop quiz: what do the movies Elizabeth, Lost in Translation, and Zoolander have in common?
The current show at InterAccess is really good. Both artists are from Finland, where, according to curator Nina Czegledy, "social awareness, art and technology fuse seamlessly." Well, I don't know much about Finland, but I know what I like! Minna Långström created huge Smurfy blue table and chairs that dwarf the adult viewer and make you feel small. There is also a huge dangling crib toy, twice the size of my head. When you clamber up onto the chair you can blow virtual bubbles with a big orange wand. Inside the bubbles are violent video scenes from the war in Iraq. Pulling the cord on the crib toy triggers the sounds of war. The bubbles were not activating when I was there (apparently some overly interactive art viewer had been underneath the table rearranging cables the day before) and so I am going back for sure before the show closes on February 11th.
Seamless is a good word. The installation, by Jaakko Niemelä is also elegant. [SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't seen the show yet stop reading now.] As you enter the gallery you see a wall sized grid of video feeds. There is a war or insurgence or disaster going on. The cameras flip past emergency vehicles, ladders, flashing lights, tumbled down structures, chasm-like spaces, chaos. The sounds are clipped, harsh and anxious-making — sirens, explosions, gunfire, men making urgent calls and giving directions with the tinny voices of megaphones and walkie talkies. The grid of video is always scrolling, like a security console, the cameras numbered at the bottom of each panel. As you proceed into the space you see around the corner, where a cluster of electronic toy helicopters, tanks, ambulances and fire trucks and emergency vehicles are nestled into a jumble of cables, clutter and spinning cameras, their little toy sounds activated and amplified.
Both pieces were immersive and elaborate but simple in design. And both, for me, invoked the infurating combination of cultural infantilization with dire and violent world events.
Paul Butler's exhibition, Getting There is Half the Fun
Wynick/Tuck Gallery, January 14 to February 1, 2006
reviewed by Valeria Rzianina here