|
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 |
View current page
...more recent posts
I'm on the Editorial Committee at FUSE magazine with a great bunch of people. It's very very interesting, I'm learning lots. I hope y'all can come out to the launch on Thursday of our current issue. Details below...
an invitation from FUSE magazine, precarity-canada
and the Toronto School of Creativty and Inquiry
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Smiling Buddha Bar
(962 College St., Toronto)
7:30pm sharp
Pay What You Can or
$10 dollars includes a copy of the issue
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
For the launch of the current issue of FUSE magazine, we have invited community organizations, political groups, and individuals to make statements on how "PRECARITY" affects their work and lives and how they are fighting back. We see the concept of precarity as a useful way of linking existing struggles and strengthening networks of solidarity and we want to hear how this network could help in your struggles.
We invite you to join us and make your own statement on precarity by participating in the on-site production of a video archive, or to just come out to support community organizations, FUSE magazine and precarity-canada by enjoying a night of djs, dancing, and drinking.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
We are precarious when we are homeless, unemployed, and underemployed; when we are struggling to pay rent, to find work, to access resources; when we are exploited, living under occupation, without status, and without benefits; when we are policed, surveilled and imprisoned; when we are isolated, alienated, and under-romanced. For these and many other reasons, we are precarious.
more information on precarity....
http://www.euromayday.org
http://republicart.net/disc/precariat/
http://www.precarity-map.net/
http://metabolik.hacklabs.org/alephandria/txt/Foti_Precarity.pdf
http://fusemagazine.org/current.html
[for more information on the event, contact precarity {at} gmail.com]
Monophonic 2007 wood, fluorescent lights, speaker box
New work by Nestor Krüger on now until March 10, 2007 at Goodwater Gallery
234 Queen Street East (Queen & Sherbourne)
Ryszard Kapuscinski 1932-2007
I was hoping he'd live forever and eventually write about everything.
Laurel Woodcock
wish you were here³ 2003 airplane with banner, DVD, mixed media installation
TRIBUTE wall lamp 2004 animated GIF version of 20 free-floating light boxes (12 1/2” x 12 1/2”) display images of the artists’ hand illuminating a variety of Bic lighters.
Unsolicited Service 2006 Photo documentation of performance: "I took on the role of artists as
service provider by delivering espressor and hot milk to people in the morning — unannounced."
Panya Clark Espinal
The Jack Pine Remembered 2003 aluminum, steel, paint, 15' x 6' x 6'
Thief 1999-2000 wooden trunk, wood, latex paint
Tart 2000 wooden pie safe, wood, latex paint
Four men who I never met and whom never knew each other but whose
bloodlines converge in my children 2003 aluminum, latex paint, powder coating
clockwise from upper left (from varying angles): Pedro Espinal, Juan de Dios Merlos,
Almeron Husband, and Avdeij Plistik
If I lived in California I'd probably eat more avocados and I'd probably learn how to drive a car but for sure I would have gone to the Perception of Perception events last weekend! My busy brother was a patricipant. I'm gonna see if I can coax a report out of him.
Karl Mattson
Karl Mattson, Time Machine
Karl Mattson, Peepshow
Karl Mattson, Peepshow (detail)
Karl Mattson, Industrial Evolution
Karl Mattson, Industrial Evolution (detail)
Karl Mattson, making of Industrial Evolution
Karl Mattson, Dust Bunny (detail)
Karl Mattson, Dust Bunny
I feel compelled to mention that Karl Mattson is an environmentalist who does not harm nor kill any animals. Rural living in northern B.C. provides plenty of carcasses for those who want them. A while ago I posted an image of Karl Mattson's excellent Surveyor sculpture at mile zero of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. I actually prefer the dystopic sculptures posted here. In the summer I got to see Peep Show and Dust Bunny for real. The horrifying aspects of the work seem to me like an appropriate response to the enormity of environmental destruction and toxic intrusion that is felt much more immediately by people living in Canada's north than it is by those of us (those of us who don't have asthma, that is) in the middle of the GTA.
Candian copyright law is getting scary..."Close observers of the file say all signs point to a new regime that will improve safeguards for major music, film and media companies and artists for unpaid use of their material, but neglect to make exemptions for personal use of copyrighted content." (more at cbc.ca) (thanks Jeff!)
The current issue of Canadian Art has an excerpt of a talk by Ken Lum (click the "learn more" link for a nice interview), originally delivered as the keynote address at the 2006 Sydney Biennale. I found it very grounding and clarifying. I've transcribed a bit below:
Political economy is a constant yet largely unspoken referent in many of the contemporary-art biennials that take place around the world. In Dakar [attending Dak'Art, "the largest art biennial in West Africa'], I heard complaints from several visiting European and American critics and curators about how shoddy Dak'Art looked. Exhibition walls were not always properly painted and the technical equipment was older and more modestly scaled that in the richer biennials of the West. Leading critics and curators failed to recognize the degree of lack in a place such as Senegal. Even immersed in the hard realities of West Africa, the myth that all artists start from the same place continued to be perpetuated.
We like to believe that art operates in a space separate from political economy. We even like to believe that this separation is necessary in order to maintain a critical distance from the social order. There is some validity to this separation, in that critical distance from one's own presuppositions can allow for different epistemic perspectives. But I am also wary of the ways in which this separation can be used in the service of a neo-colonialist logic in the context of places like Senegal, where, historically, cultural production has often been measured in imposed-from-afar formalist or anthropological terms, but seldom regarded in terms that recognize indigenously derived criteria.
There have been several occasions in my life when I contemplated withdrawing from art in order to find out what I did not know about art. But my withdrawal was in the manner of a Heideggerian withdrawal of the withdrawal. The trip I made to Dakar in 1998 was undertaken on my own initiative as a means of breaking out of the art system as I then knew it, and effort to deepen my understanding of how art could be defined differently. This was a time when I felt great disillusionment about art and great disappointment in myself, a crisis of being that I believe afflicts all artists from time to time. I had a choice: I could either stop being an artist or I could enlarge my frame of understanding of art by looking away from what I was accustomed to.
I began to embrace an increasingly philosophical view of artistic purpose, one inscribed more in terms of the artist's life and less in terms of the art world's idea of the artist. I saw the necessity of letting go of the art world as I knew it in order to be more free, to rediscover the true purpose of art and to become re-enchanted with it by giving myself over to the world.
We have a three hundred dollar coin.
I saw this story about Canada tracking American Contractors with spy coins. I wanted to believe that CSIS came up with that retarded idea and put oodles of surveilance equipment in coins that an unsuspecting American Contractor wouldn't spend right away.
Turns out that it was the American government that pulled that story out of their ass and now they are taking it back. (sorry CSIS!) (and I know you Google yourself all the time and the story doesn't mention belt buckles or sculpture, I was just trying to make you look good)
The Miss Mouse and Miss Teapot video is now on youtube.
Video documentation for Thicket 1: The Voyage is now on youtube.
This just in from Vid Ingelevics...
Following are my top ten favourite email scams of 2006:
1. Received Jan. 15, 2006. Subject: MY FAMILY NEEDS YOUR HELP - this one was from Vuyo Gwala and was labeled as "strictly private and confidential" (sorry, Vuyo). This was a convulated tale of death and heroism in Zimbabwe that somehow ends with me, for some reason, being offered 20% of USD $15,000,000 (FIFTEEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS). Perhaps foolishly, I procrastinated a little too long and missed my chance.
2. Received: Jan. 20, 2006. Subject: Congratulations on your Sony 42" Widescreen Plasma TV - I was asked by Jaz Pester, Customer Service, Gift Card Division, to verify my address by Jan. 30, 11:59 PM EST because I had apparently aswered a survey (which I couldn't for the life of me remember doing). Unfortunately, I once again procrastinated too long and missed my chance as I was still mulling over Vuyo Gwala's offer - hey, I could have bought a lot of widescreen tv's with that. This was small potatoes anyway - no big loss.
3. Received: Jan. 26, 2006. Subject: Fund for Charity - Azia Al Sheriff of Kuwait sent me a gut-wrenching email that began: "Dear Friend, As you read this,I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday." Mr. Al Sheriff's wife and children had died in a horrendous car accident and he himself had just been diagnosed with esophageal (sic) cancer that had defiled (sic) all forms of medical treatment." Basically, Azia Al Sheriff admitted in his email that he had been a jerk all his life and wanted to do some good deeds before he croaked and I could help him distribute his money to charity while collecting 20% of USD $20,000,000 (TWENTY MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS). Selfishly, I chose not to help Azia with his good works.
4. Received: March 6, 2006. Subject: Royal Spanish Sweepstake Lottery - unbelievably, I received this email from Wilfred Alberto, Lottery Director, letting me know that my email address "attached to ticket number: 212005600545 188 with Serial number 4888/02 drew the lucky numbers: 41-6-76-13-45-8, which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of •1,000,000.00(One million Euro) in cash credited to file KPC/9080333308/03." While I was excited, I had already been offered 20% of USD $15,000,000 (FIFTEEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) by Vuyo Gwala, a Sony 42" widescreen tv and 20% of USD $20,000,000 (TWENTY MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) by Azia Al Sheriff so a million Euros was not of great consequence and hardly worth my time to reply.
5. Received: March 8, 2006. Subject: Enquiry. This was amazing. Ms. Linda Anthony of Meyer & Clark Business Consulting emailed me to let me know that a "leading United Kingdom Bank" was involved in an investigation of a client who "shares the same last name" as me. The client apparently died "intestate" and had no will or next of kin. Ingelevics is, of course, a pretty common last name in England so I didn't think I'd have a chance of collecting on this one so I passed. Linda Anthony's email was intriguing for someone who works for a business consulting agency - linda anthony100@excite.com.
6. Received: March 31, 2006. Subject: Reply Urgently - Mr. Godwin Elisha, an accountant with the Bank of Africa (BOA), Dakar Senegal Branch emailed me. He was very contrite ("I am very sorry if this is an inconvinience (sic) in any way, just that i need you to see me through with this transfer. This business request may seem strange, but I crave your indulgence and pray you view it seriously as I am convinced that you would be capable to provide me with a solution to a money transfer.") By bizarre coincidence, another person had died without a will and US$12,500,000.00 (TWELVE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS) was left unclaimed. Mr. Elisha kindly even gave me a link to a BBC story about a guy who recently died. I was to get 30% for helping him in a complicated plan in which mr. Elisha would wind up with 50% and 10% would be used for our "expenses". I did think it a bit odd that that didn't add up to 100% but, hey, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth. I was a little shell-shocked by all the continuing good fortune coming my way in 2006 and somehow neglected to email or call Mr. Elisha. I'm still kicking myself.
7. Received: July 24, 2006. Subject: Dr. YOUR NAME, will it bring raise in your job? - Since I am currently enrolled at York U. doing a graduate degree this one really hit home. I've been doing course work, presentations, essays, exhibitions, etc., and then this email comes along. It states that "we can assist with diplomas from prestigious non-accredited universities based on your present knowledge and life experience" and then the kicker, "No required tests, classes, books or interviews" (!!). What have I been doing at York? I felt like a fool. The email went on - "Bachelors, masters, and doctorate (Phd) diplomas available in the field of your choice - that's right, you can become a Doctor and receive all the benefits and admiration that comes with it!"
8. Received: Sept. 9, 2006. Subject: Mr. Steve Morgan! - This one was addressed to "vingelevics" and is from Mr. Steve Morgan, who works in a bank in the Netherlands. Unbelievably, again a dead bank customer has left US $ 6,500,000.00 (Six million five hundred thousand, United State dollars Only), Mr. Williams, from England. Mr. Steve Morgan helpfully tells me that Mr. Williams "has passed away (dead) leaving no beneficiary to the account." Once again I could make quite a few bucks - 40% - while 10% goes for expenses and the remaining 50% goes to Mr. Steve Morgan and his "colleagues" (who clearly know how to add). Unfortunately, I got bogged down in doing laundry one night and missed the deadline, but, hey, what a year, eh?
9. Received: Nov. 6, 2006. Subject: Treat Urgent - Miss Tina Bongo, from Abidjan-Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa begins her email thus: "It is with profound interest that i am sending you this business proposal ,which will be of benefit to you too,so much time and caution has been taken before this proposal is sent to you with a conviction that you will understand and appreciate my intention and not to betray my trust." Another tragedy has apparently befallen Miss Bongo, daughter of the Minister of Finance in Sierra Leone. Her father was killed by a rebel group but not before he had deposited the sum of $10.5m [Ten million and five hundred united states dollar] with a private security company in London, United Kingdom. For helping Miss Bongo recover this money I would make 15% plus 5% for expenses. I don't know how I let this one slip by but I did.
10. Received: Dec. 8, 2006. Subject: You WON 620,500.00 GBP to the FREE lotto SWEEPSTAKE PROGRAM - what a way to end the year! Mr. Robert Manival, Online Coordinator for free lotto Sweepstakes Program, UK Head Office, Suite 23-30, Lion Towers, Central London England, informed me by email that I had won a total sum of 620,500.00 pounds ( six hundred twenty thousand five hundred pounds ) in cash credited to file KTU / 9023118308 / 06 of Free Lotto. Imagine my surprise! Although I have to admit that being offered thousands and millions of dollars was becoming a bit routine.
I estimated that I had won and/or been offered almost CDN $250,000,000 (TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS CANADIAN) last year. I'm usually loathe to boast or to feel smug when good things happen to me but my pride just got the better of me. I just have to share this with you all. I am one lucky guy.
To a fortunate 2007,
Vid Ingelevics
Carlo Cesta
Mausoleum / Better Living 1992 wrought iron, plexiglass, bird feeders and birdseed, concrete
Vertical Blind 1994 wrought iron, aluminum vertical blinds, plexi-glass
Mello Drama 2002 installation at The Balcony
R12 2004 Aluminum
"As cycling would combat climate change by removing people from their cars, and ease the burden on the health care system by helping people maintain an active lifestyle, we ask the Canadian government to do everything in its power to promote cycling as a means of transportation." (more...)
sign the petition here
Tejpal S. Ajji
The Oral Projects 2006 performance with mouth freshening strips photo: Miklos Legrady
Libby Hague
Libby Hague Avalanche (paper sculpture)
currently on display at Off the Map Gallery until January 31
Libby Hague 905/our town
(print / sculpture, steel, ribbon, paper, magnets, watercolor)
Libby Hague everything needs everything (installation of woodcuts)
Libby Hague Martian Odyssey (print project and bookwork in progress)
Suzy Lake
Co-Ed Magazine #1 1973 b&w selenium toned print
Peonies and the Lido #2 2002 three colour gelatin prints
You Really Like Me 1998 laminated colour photo on canvas
Vote Thomas 10125 and Vote Cole 10114 2004 colour gelatin prints
Deirdre Logue
Deirdre Logue Beyond the Usual Limits PART 3 (video still)
from the series Why Always Instead of Sometimes
Deirdre Logue Worry (video still)
from the series Why Always Instead of Sometimes
Deirdre Logue Crash (video still)
from the series Why Always Instead of Sometimes
Deirdre Logue Beyond the Usual Limits PART 1 (video still)
from the series Why Always Instead of Sometimes
Deirdre's generous website has tons of video clips like these:
Deirdre Logue Always a Bridesmaid (video still)
from the series Enlightened Nonsense
Deirdre Logue Scratch (video still)
from the series Enlightened Nonsense
Deirdre Logue Fall (video still)
from the series Enlightened Nonsense
Anthony Easton
Digital Photos 2006 unprinted images
virtual Milgram experiments. Yike. (thanks Rob)
This is what the side of my filing cabinet looks like right now.
I am guest-curating the 2007 biennial for the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KW|AG).
Are you an artist in the region (see below), or do you know someone who is? Send in a submission! Deadline is February 16, 2007.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KW|AG) in cooperation with the Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists (KWSA) is seeking submissions for the third in a series of biennial curated exhibitions scheduled to open at the KW|AG July 6, 2007.
CURATOR’S STATEMENT
All submissions will be welcomed with enthusiasm.
Curatorial themes for the exhibition will be developed
from the submissions. Attention will be given to
artists who demonstrate a sense of adventure and to
those who have not previously shown work at the
KW|AG as well as to those who have. I have a
curatorial interest in the mechanics of perception,
empathy, narrative and communication, however
these are broad topics that apply to many forms of
art practice in many different ways. Any and all
artists who are over the age of 18 and are living
within the region are strongly encouraged to apply.
I am eager to see your work!
ELIGIBILITY
Artists living and working in the Region of Waterloo,
Perth County, Wellington County, Oxford County and
Brant County are eligible. Please provide a studio or
home address as proof of residency. Individuals
under the age of 18 are not eligible. Student work is
not eligible. Artwork accepted for exhibition must be
original and not previously shown at a KW|AG
Biennial.
More info and downloadable submission package here
Mr. Nobody (a.k.a. Tanya Read)
Tanya Read Consumed (installation) 2006
Tanya Read Consumed (video still) 2006
Michelle Johnson's Top Ten 2006
1. FLOCK (in), an exhibition by a pair of media artists, Marc Fournel and Thomas Oulette Fredericks.
http://www.interaccess.org/exhibitions/index.php
2. The thrilling delight of an inflatable jumping Castle - Pneutopia by Clive Murphy at Mercer Union - interactive & approaching whiplash
http://www.mercerunion.org/show.asp?show_id=346
3. Hyperrealist painting of suburban landscapes by Mike Baynes at the Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art Project
http://www.kmartprojects.com/
4. Game Over Zombie Nation - by the ever clever and funny Myfanwy Ashmore - don’t miss the tale of her ironic response to the fears of violating Nintendos copyrights.
http://www.student.ocad.on.ca/~myfanwyashmore/zombie.html
5. Mr Nobody as he sits, squeezed into that tiny Fly Gallery on Queen St W..
http://www.mrnobody.org/ Oh, don’t miss the movie!!
6. Marla Hlady’s ink line drawings that map sound - giddy up!! - at Jessica Bradley Art Projects
http://www.jessicabradleyartprojects.com/artists/marla_hlady/show
7. The evocative drawings in the exhibition "a deer in the headlights" by Stephen Andrews
http://www.akau.ca/07_press.htm
8.The sounds of a relaxing canoe trip by Peter Flemming at the Koffler Gallery.
http://www.bek.no/~flemming/details/canoe.htm
9. Those pigeons of Luis Jacob's on exhibition now at the Power Plant - also his Pigeon condos are not to be missed.
http://www.pigeoncondo.com
10. Convenience Gallery is off to a fine start and looks like it will be a grand 2007 for the new space -
http://www.conveniencegallery.com/
Top 10 List for 2006 by Leah Sandals
1 Online and in-print commentary regarding RM Vaughan’s Antwerp Diary: Rarely is the role of art criticism and art magazines in Canada so openly debated; I sure wish this was done more often, for everyone’s sake. Partly because the silent treatment always sucks, and partly because even cattiness can be interesting.Leah Sandals is a writer and artist based in Toronto. She is also Public Art Editor for Spacing Magazine.
2 Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century: Think the world is going to hell? (You know, that world beyond the art world?) I certainly have had such thoughts, and this tome, however imperfect, helped give me hope again. Also has sections on new textile and interactive art, if you need some aesthetic juice with your enviro-techno jabber.
3 Deckchair Dreams: London, UK’s Royal Parks Foundation kicked off its first public art program that has plenty to inspire cultural bureaucrats around the world. Namely, take an iconic piece of park infrastructure (in this case, the deckchair), ask prominent artists and designers to create their own version, scatter the multiples throughout the parks for eyes and butts to enjoy, and let the public vote on their favourite.
4 Nuit Blanche Toronto: Speaking of public art, this event was a doozy, featuring hundreds of artists and volunteers, as well as top-rate curators. The best part, however, hands down, was the hundreds of thousands who gave up sleep to partake in contemporary art. Rather than letting this be a yearly one-off, let’s apply its principles (free admission, accessible publicity, imaginative curation) to other arts outreach projects.
5 Imagine a Toronto: Strategies for a Creative City This free booklet details the results of a collaborative study of London, UK and Toronto, ON, pointing out useful ways that Toronto (and many other municipalities) could do more to support the artists and other creative workers in their communities.
6 The Arbour Lake Sghool’s ongoing yard art projects: Who says the suburbs have to be boring? This spunky Calgary collective shows otherwise with a roster of yard art projects ranging from geodesic pizza domes to recreations of trench warfare. And who can argue against easy Slurpee access within 10 minutes of a sculpture garden? It really should be mandatory.
7 Stephen Harper lying his face off post-Dion-leadership-election about how he has “always believed climate change was happening” but that he was just “angry the Liberals hadn’t done anything about it sooner.” Stephen! My sides! Please! Stop!
8 The continuing growth of portable, ephemeral mini-galleries across Canada as documented in Or Gallery’s outofofficereply project and beyond.
9 Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable’s ongoing and emphatic experiments in a politically engaged public art. From handing out anti-idling tickets on city streets to hosting a 24-hour food-and-shelter tent for homeless citizens, this dynamic duo lands solidly on top of the egalitarian, anti-hierarchical heap.
10 The children (you know, the ones everywhere), and those who treat them with respect. Sometimes I think of the environmental crises our society perpetuates as a large-scale, long-term form of child abuse. Let’s start taking this form of abuse, and others, a lot more seriously.
Andrew Harwood
Flower Rider 2006 sequins on laser print
Dirt Biker 2006 sequins on laser print
And with the help of the sparkling Mr. Harwood we say goodbye to 2006.
Scott Carruthers
Scott Carruthers, untitled 2006
Scott Carruthers,Out of Time Or Out Of Space? 2006