Quick Hits: Kitty Scott Q&A, Roy Arden review, Mary-Anne Barkhouse interview

I'm away this week, so posts will be few and far between. Still, here's a few quick hits on my recent stories published elsewhere:

• Last fall, former National Gallery of Canada curator Kitty Scott left a much-vaunted post at the Serpentine--after just one year on the job--to be director of visual arts at the Banff Centre. In a Q&A with her this week at Canadian Art Online, Scott talks about why she left, as well as her views on the recent David Franklin/Pierre Theberge debacle at the National Gallery. Also of particular note is the curating symposium she's co-coordinating for the fall, which will have (gasp!) actual curating grads speak on their programs, rather than the program heads themselves. A smart move. It will be interesting to see what she does next, and whether her goal of refocusing the Banff residency program on artist (rather than administrator) interest will succeed.


• Respected Vancouver photog Roy Arden has spent the last decade-plus amassing 32,000 images from the Internet. In my recent NOW review of his current show at Monte Clark Gallery, I talk about how this practice makes the internet a kind of uber-camera for human experience. Don't know if Arden would agree and all, but I think it's an interesting idea. It also fits with the very conceptual approach of the Jeff-Wall-epitomized Vancouver school of photography.


• On a (strangely) more fun note, Ontario artist Mary-Anne Barkhouse has coin-operated horsie rides stand in for the four horses of the apocalypse in her current installation at the Ottawa Art Gallery. In my interview with her published recently in the National Post, Barkhouse makes a compelling case for why "end of days" fears actually have a recurring, short-term quality for each generation. If you're in town, sounds worth a spin.

Image of Figure In a Mountain Landscape creative residency working plein air at Sunshine Meadows, Banff, photo by Adam Costenoble, courtesy of the Banff Centre