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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Anitra Hamilton Retrospective on Parade
Kristan Horton Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove
At the AGYU until June 24, 2007
(earlier posts of Anitra Hamilton's work.)
Expo 67
More from the birds of London (Ont.)
On the first day the nest had three little pale blue dotted eggs. On the second day one egg was missing, one was hanging in the tree and there was a big fat brown spotted egg smack in the middle of things. Cowbird infiltrating a chipping sparrow nest?
Lyla Rye
The Home Show - An Open House 2007 Mixed media, video projections, site specific, size variable
Sunday Devotionals
I really gave a lot of thought to whom we should worship this Sunday. I can't choose between the best Country & Western war song ever written:
or the most amazing television show ever, from an Atlanta public access station:
This brought to mind Daniel Barrow who's ongoing project, Winnipeg Babysitter, a compilation of public access TV from Winnipeg accompanied by an overhead projector performance, is a work so stellar that it should be shown to all the crowned heads of Europe (ideally during glittering palace banquets).
Gareth Lichty
Mini I-Beams 2004 Wood, Steel, Nuts and Bolts, Size variable
Asada 2004 244cm x 137cm x 91cm, Brick and Mortar
Frame 2007 wood and fiberglass instillation 3m x 5m x 2.5m
Frame 2007 wood and fiberglass instillation, inner detail
Frames is currently at the Red Head Gallery. 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 115, Toronto
until April 21, 2007.
Last year, Von Bark and I were honoured to be involved with the all-ages art event, The Diorama Extravaganza, organised out of Landon Library in London Ontario, by Carolyn Doyle and Jean McKay. This weekend we get to do it again and we're highly psyched. The reception and awards ceremony takes place at the library on Saturday.
The 2006 diorama above was created by a young human in a single-digit age group. I believe it was titled "Happiness" and it depicts two small people watching a cardboard television in their home. There is also a very attractive coffee table complete with taped-on film canister lid and other unique elements. During the awards ceremony, Von Bark delivered a short critique on each of the pieces. Each of the entries won top prize in its own category. I can't remember the category for the piece depicted here, but I think it might have been "Most Beautiful," or possibly, "Best Concept."
You can see each of the dioramas from last year here. Unfortunately, we were too wowed by the incredible quality of the submissions to take proper notes, so the artists' names and titles are unfortunately not included. This year we'll do better.
From Anthony Easton:
I am curating a show based on an Ed Ruscha drawing called Will 100
artists Draw A 1950 Ford From Memory. The show is intended to
actualize what was originally intended as a conceptual piece. I want
people to draw a Ford from all kinds of memory: organic, commerical,
nostalgic, personal and others. This means that age range, gender,
geographical placement and variety of personal experiences are
important. Ruscha has given me permission, himself, and I'm really
kind of excited about this.
If you agree to participate, what I would need is a drawing on a
8.5x11 piece of basic, blank, white paper, like you would use for desk
top printing. Since this is memory it's really important that there is
no reference materials used (no pictures or films or actual Fords). It
doesn't matter how accurate the work is, just a reflection of what you
think a 1950 ford looks like.
The exhibition will be taking place in the fall of 2007 at the Art gallery of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta.
If you are interested in participating in this exhibition, Anthony can be contacted directly: anthony.easton@gmail.com
Julie Voyce: Paste Up at The Tom Thomson until April 29, 2007
Orange Finally 2005 silkscreen on paper 10 x 14 in.
L.M. made a link the other day to an interview with Charles Taylor. My friend B. Smiley had recently directed us to a webcast interview with CT, which prompted some email discussion. See the comments for an email exchange with B. Smiley and another friend name Charles (not the same Charles). Apologies to readers who are also on the Ideal list and have seen this all before.
gif illustration sourced by L.M.
There is a decent panel discussion online at MIT about art and technology featuring Lauren Cornell, of Rhizome and Jon Ippolito. For anyone who's been around internet art for awhile, the Rhizome presentation will be a bit redundant, but I found the discussion period fascinating. Ippolito identified a serious art challenge raised by new media and online activity.
I think that there are very strong connections, very important ones, with the past. But I do think that there is a rupture. It is less from the point of view of artists than it is from the folks that define art. What traditions of the definition of art do we have to draw on? Well, we can go back to the Classical period and say it's about proportion, we can go back to the Romantic period and say it's about being out of proportion. But if we want to go back to the most recent definition, that had pretty much universal buy-in among all the major players of museums and galleries and so forth, it's Duchamp. It's saying, if someone declares something to be art, in particular if it occurs inside the white cube of the gallery, then it is art.I'm not sure why, when you see something online, the question of whether or not it is art would even arise, unless you were a curator, or a critic, or a self-defined artist. The challenge posited by Ippolito is specific to art professionals. Bill Arning, curator at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, was in the audience and said this in response.
This definition has been useful in certain ways, I think it's been very damaging in many ways, but it pretty much reigned from Greenberg through the latest biennials at the Whitney. I think it's defunct. It's not the artists who are using that, it's curators ... I find that this excuse, of now we've got a pluralistic art world, has in fact reinforced the position of the curator because now they are the gatekeeper. Yes, anything in the gallery is art, but I control what comes in the gallery. Of course there are artists and curators who break that model, but that's been the predominant misinterpretation of Duchamp, that it's a sort of contextual, gate-keeped situation. And I think the internet just blew that away.
There is no gallery lintel, there is no museum facade, when you go to the web. There is no dot.art domain, thank god. Fortunately we've been able to kill the dot.museum domain which is pretty much dead in the water now. For me that's a great thing because it means when you see something online you have to decide, not some curator, whether you think it's art.
As a curator who's in this position, let me talk a little bit about the Duchampian legacy which does involve this institutional framework. One of the things about my practice as a curator is that a lot of the work I see on Rhizome, or [inaudible] doesn't need me. It gets from the maker to the audience without the institution. When you think about all the framing devices in this hyper-market phase with the art fair distribution system, things get talked about because they appear at Art Basel Miami and suddenly you have this whole network. Basically the only role for an institutional museum curator in all this is the stamp of approval. ... Being aware of this role is really perplexing, how do you use that in a productive way? ... I think in some ways the only role for the institutional curator is to step out of this, and ... just watch this system and see where we can be useful. ... I almost have to be interested on an amateur level because my professional practice doesn't help anything in this discussion.Arning's position is extremely unsual (and quite moving, I find). His ability to step back from his own power position and self-identify as an amateur might come from the fact that he is conversant with the paradigms raised by new media art. If pluralism on its own didn't do the job, the internet has definitely given us a window into a wide world of non-heirarchical cultural activity, much of it coming from people who don't define themselves as artists. And I think it's safe to assume that it is happening, and has always been happening, offline as well. In this context, keeping art criteria constrained to the established discourse of the avant-guard seems like a critical cop-out. But how to move forward? Should we adopt Arning's apprach and take a step back? I'm very interested to find out more about curators or critics who are responding to these challenges.
Mike Bayne
North of Princess #2 2006 Oil on Panel 6" x 4"
Yellow Car 2006 Oil on Panel 6" x 4"
untitled #8 2006 Oil on Panel 6" x 4"
North of Princess 2006 Oil on Panel 12" x 8"
Mimico 2006 Oil on Panel 16" x 22"
untitled #1 2006 Oil on Panel 8" x 12"
Sunday Devotionals
Run for your life besieged secular humanists, there's only two positions: my utter religious faithlessness or Pat Robertson, and you must choose! (United Church ladies have no standing, and Buddhists no longer get a free pass if they want to be artists, unless of course they stick with the Tibetan sand mandelas. But then they still don't get to be part of the discouse) Interesting interview with James Elkins about the Re-Enchantment Roundtable (thanks to simpleposie for pointing this out) Not enough discussions of this kind, but I found at times a smarmy tone of defensive pompousness and a narrowness that was enough to send me rushing into the arms of Charles Taylor.
This conversation with myself is going nowhere fast. So take an ecstasy break and listen to the art of The Barrett Sisters. (footage from the stellar 1982 documentary "Say Amen Somebody")
Below is the original trailer for the film that was set at a gospel conference in Houston:
The brilliant Lyla Rye is also opening tonight, Friday the 13th, but closing Sunday, such restraint. (I'll be posting a bigger selection of her work sometime in the next few weeks):
R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut
from the NYT obituary:
Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?
He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”
Work by Lorna Mills
curated by Cheryl Sourkes
at akau inc. 1186 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada
April 13, 2007 - June 9, 2007
Opening party: Friday April 13, 7:00 PM.
I also think the Ukrainians invented this:
Popular at church socials and funerals. And, eat three of them and riot in the streets over falsified election results & drag queens with accordions.
I fear them and you should fear them too. (angry Ukrainians, not the squares, you will love the squares and they will love you back, giving you super human powers)
(I am so fucking sugared up and happy)
Happy Easter!!!! and as usual the Ukrainians own it. (courtesy of Anthony Easton)
The Eurovision entry from the Ukraine was Verka Serdyuchka, precipitating street protests by angry Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russians. From Macleans:
[pro-Russians] took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the choice of Serdyuchka, [...] saying she will embarrass Ukraine on the world stage and demanding that the country withdraw from the Eurovision contest.
For Russians, the anger over Serdyuchka arises from her song, Dancing, and its apparent exhortation in the refrain for audiences to sing "Russia goodbye" (that she also performs, in part, in a German accent is seen as an attempt to tar Russians as fascists). Serdyuchka has dismissed the controversy, saying that listeners have misheard the offensive phrase, which actually means "churned butter" in Mongolian.
Sally & I made Easter eggs for you.
Snooping around for Good Friday art, I came across the Australian EJournal of Theology,
which has a lot of groovy images. I promptly poached these two.
Stations of the Cross in LODWAR CATHEDRAL, Kenya, from Australian EJournal of Theology
Christ in the Tomb by Philip Agius, from Australian EJournal of Theology
...and of course, let's not forget the sexiest sculpture ever!
Pietà by Michelangelo
Pietà (side view)
I'm proud to be a Gutter Guest, ie: guest writer in the current edition of Cultural Gutter!
Sheep Problem by Rob Cruickshank, 2007 current installation at Fly gallery, 1172 Queen St. W. Toronto
Thanks to the Gnostic World of Candy Minx for pointing this one out:
Doris Wishman would be delighted too.
Happy day: there's a little bit of Codco on Youtube now!