Merry Hanukah!

Merry Hanukah! I'm going to try being on actual vacation for a week, so posting will be light to nonexistent. Thanks for reading, and hope you have a super-duper holiday yourself.

Image of Christmas cat from Cute Overload

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Christmas Eve Criticism & Cash Flows

For some time now I've been wanting to blog about art writing and criticism. My general philosophy of criticism can be summarized as follows:

Artmaking can be an amazing, healing process for virtually anyone to participate in. It's really important and I would recommend it to anyone. In fact, I think there should be more people doing it--engaging in creative work--for the rewards and insights it provides to the maker.

But does that mean I should recommend that other people should spend time viewing someone's creative product? Does that mean your creative product has useful meanings to others outside yourself? Not necessarily.

So.... do I think criticism is necessary to societal functioning? No, not really. The main reason I might have upset about shrinking column-inches or hours-paid for art writing is that it's a big part of how I make a living. Just as auto industry workers are shook up about the Big Three, I get shook up about the increasing tenuousness of text-based media outlets: print is losing to the web, and the web hasn't figured out how to make comparable money on text content yet.

How will art writing be funded into the future? I ask this out of self-interest and out of general curiosity. 

In this vein, I thought the following links might be interesting:

• This week, Paddy Johnson, the force behind popular art blog Art Fag City (one of my faves) set her readers a challenge: to help her raise the $6,000 needed to keep her blog running. She set up a deal with a local nonprofit to issue tax receipts for same. After two days she raised $3,000, half her goal. Johnson has some ads on her website, but evidently not enough at this point to keep going.
• After announcing it was to shut down January 1, cityblog Torontoist received sufficient reader support to convince owner Gothamist to keep going a bit longer--and try to find better ad revenue sources, I presume.
• NOW Weekly recently cut art reviews and book reviews from two each per week to one each per week
• The respected brand the New York Times (print and web) recently reported November ad revenue down 20% compared to last year
• The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun are planning on sharing some content to beat ad revenue drops
• GateHouse, a community newspaper chain in Massachusetts, is suing the New York Times for their improper use of GateHouse links on the NYT-owned Boston.com site.
• The Huffington Post has received criticism of late for outright stealing content from other sites
• Kate Carraway reports in EYE Weekly that "Good magazine fired seven people this week, and New York magazine, which has done right with its approach to the web, had to toss a few staffers. American Media, a sort of tabloidy organization, let go of 12 people." Read the post for more indications of broad media die-off

To me, it's clear from all this that online venues need to figure out revenue big time. Could it be that the future would be dominated by outlets like Akimbo.biz, which is essentially an advertising site that added a blog later in its development? Or will it depend on people working largely for free or on honorarium, a tack that has served a lot of community outlets (like Spacing.ca) well but does not provide the resources for in-depth reportage?

Another thing the industry needs to figure out is what's okay and not on the web. Aggregation of content from diverse streams IS a strength that the web offers, and it's a service many readers are looking for. But there needs to be a sense of fair use, just as there is for fair use in print reproduction. Clearly, based on GateHouse's lawsuit and the HuffPo backlash, this fair use judgment is not yet in large professional play.

On another layoffs tack, I have to say a freelance-dominated media workforce, while good news for freelancers like me, is not necessarily good for news coverage in general. In order to really deliver important, under-wraps information to readers on any topic, there has to be retained reporters who have time to milk sources, learn their field, sift through press releases, and receive regular column-inches from their editors. 

So as the dark of Christmas Eve draws near, I say: Santa, please bring us in the media industry more insights into how we can keep telling important stories to the broader public. I know it's a tall order, but... we've run a hella lotta stories on you this month, so you owe us one.

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My Top Ten @ Sally & LM

My top ten of 2008 is now up at Sally & LM. I think they are taking them until tomorrow (the 24th) so send one in if you want to see your own name in pixel-lights....

UPDATE LM says they'll take them as long as they keep coming in... within reason, like early Januaryish I'm guessing.

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Recommended Roundup: Andrew Morrow, Chris Flanagan, More Top Tens

A veritable roundup of recommendations:

Andrew Morrow @ Ed Day Gallery, Toronto - Morrow is a heckuva painter, who built his career by plucking the themes and techniques of romantic history painting into the present day. In the past few years, Morrow's become known for massive works on the big themes: sex and death, mostly death. Now the pendulum has swung back in the other direction: massive works on sex and death, mostly sex. The great thing about Morrow's work is there usually isn't viewer-torture heaviness involved--well, there's a little more of that in the newer work, with self-conscious "notes on painting" applied to the picture plane, stuff like "more blue here" or "x finds this hot" and such. That's a little distracting, and I think mostly due to Morrow's current grad studies--frequent crits'll do that do you. But overall, how can you beat a painting with a title like "Some asshole blocking my view of the apocalypse"--"and it really is a bared asshole blocking a distant view of an apocalypse? I know I can't. (Okay, I guess there is one big question outstanding: Is or isn't this macho war porn? Either way, it's worth a look to make a decision on.)

Chris Flanagan @ York Quay - The exhibition pamphlet says Flanagan is "an Australian installation artist based in Toronto" but I'm not sure I believe this. Because is this the standard description for an artist who would put an ugly baby vulture in an uglified vitrine (with extra wall cracks and water stains drawn into the space with pencil, natch) and soundtrack the whole thing with a reggae song about how great he is. Bizarre and sad enough to be worth seeing. 

Andrew Harwood's Top Ten and Four Worst @ Sally & LM - Read it, and believe in the acumen of insider commentary.

Gabby Moser's Top Ten at Gabrielle Moser Projects & Things - A tidy and well thought out list of works. Why did I not see Stephen Appleby-Barr? [Insert sound of kicking self.]

Jerry Saltz's Year in Art, in Superlatives & Top 9 Shows @ NY Magazine: I wish they gave him more space to expound and explain, but I understand print and budgets are a-shrinkin. That Urs Fisher show does look amazariffic.

Image of Andrew Morrow's "Oh Happy Meat" (96" x 192" in real life) from Edward Day Gallery

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Wandrin' in a Winter Web-erland

Toronto is one big snow day today--or "snowmageddon" as those meterological wags like to call it. So it's a perfect day to stay in with good web reads, with some print thrown in for old-school nostalgia.

• Over at digitalmediatree, Sally McKay and Lorna Mills have started their annual, and annually enjoyable, top-ten fiesta. Best so far is RM Vaughan, who uses Britney's lack of panties to demonstrate how we are all celebrities. Or something like that. All folks, self-designatedly famous or otherwise,are welcome to submit, so toss that snow shovel aside, do a shot of eggnog and type away.
• Year-end best-of lists also show up at Akimblog, which has their critics from Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal, Calgary and Toronto weigh in for a nice cross-Canada feel.
• EYE Weekly and Toronto Life art critic David Balzer offers his view on '08. I don't share the same vitriol he has for museum panels and larger exhibition venues, but overall his stance, as always, worth reading. 
• My part-time boss, Canadian Art editor Richard Rhodes, offers his top ten of 2008 at canadianart.ca
• And in case anybody in Canada is interested in what's happening in New York--how unlikely is that?--Peter Schjeldahl's top ten shows of the year provides a guide.
• No best-ofs but definitely some good info over at the recently launched shotgun-review.ca, which brings more frequent reviews from Alberta to the nation
• The Coast reports on how Halifax arts orgs are being impacted by Harper's late-summer arts cuts
• On a related note, Canadian Magazines reports that the Canadian Conference of the Arts is urging Canada's finance minister to stimulate the economy through arts funding
• Museum 2.0, as ever, delivers interesting peeks behind the scenes of museums' attempts to get accessible

And, in old-school print:

• The 100th edition of C Magazine launched in Toronto last night. (In a strange feat of synchronicity, it's focusing on pedagogy/education, just like the winter issue of Canadian Art. Stranger still that Border Crossings and Canadian Art both had Marcel Dzama on their fall covers.) I got my hands on a copy prior to the launch, and have so far enjoyed reading Gabby Moser's feature on curatorial programs, as well as Earl Miller's summary on the state of art criticism--though he almost completely excludes the web from his considerations, what up? Lydia Perovic's report on private art philanthropy was also informative.
• Border Crossings's winter issue, themed on photography, is also out. So far the interview with Philip Lorca diCorcia, though somewhat overlong, was worthwhile for me. 
• The winter issue of FUSE is also out; I've only skimmed it so far but look forward to the article on the Textile Museum's excellent Afghan War Rugs exhibition
• As previously mentioned, the winter issue of Canadian Art is out. So far I recommend John Kissick's essay on failings in art education.
• Artforum's year-end issue is something I'm still wading through. I did like the geographic reports a lot: Caroline Busta and Linda Yablonsky on New York, Walead Beshty on Los Angeles, Emily Pethick on London, Dominikus Müller on Berlin, etc.

And, in a strange admixture of web and print:

• I self-consciously recommend some old articles from the Canadian Art archives that I scanned and put on their website. Call me an eighties queen, but I loved seeing old photos of now-well-established artworld figures, as well as old photos of those whose legacies have, well, pretty much evaporated. Here you can find links to articles on Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto; and here's one on Halifax/NSCAD, all full of 80s goodness (just click through the slideshow till you get to the article.)

Happy reading!

UPDATE Hill Strategies just released a report on museum and gallery revenues. It's dry as hell but has some interesting stats -- like that attendance at 113 public museums and galleries was 10 million last year. Nice.

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Q&A: Giovanna Borasi on Actions at the CCA

With all the predictions that this recession-flavoured holiday is to be more about "moments" and "experiences" than about "stuff", it's extra timely that Montreal's Canadian Centre for Architecture is doing a show all about actions--rather than about traditional architecture. I got to talk with co-curator Giovanna Borasi about "Actions: What You Can Do With The City" by phone earlier this week; today the National Post published our condensed interview. Click here or read on after the jump for artsy spins on playing soccer, herding sheep, eating roadkill (!) and more.

Image muf architecture/art Fake Horses Plan Real Park 2004 / photo Oliver Claridges Copyright muf architecture/art from Canadianart.ca

Take this space & love It
Leah Sandals, National Post
Published: Thursday, December 18, 2008

With recession routing our holidays, more Canadians are giving time and energy, rather than purchases, as gifts. Now, a new exhibit at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal is highlighting how actions, rather than architecture, can be a real gift to our cities. Here, exhibit co-curator Giovanna Borasi tells Leah Sandals more about Actions:What You Can Do With the City.

Q The name of your museum usually connotes buildings, like office towers and housing. Why focus on actions, which have no material form?

A In the last few years our museum has opened up this idea that architecture is not only about buildings but also about urban organization. It's touching generally on the way we live in the city.

Three years ago we did an exhibition that described the city through sound and smell, for example. This Actions exhibition has a bit of the same idea-- to look into the city considering non-building factors.

Also, this year, 50% of the world's population came to live in urban environments. In 2050, this will be 75%. So we thought it was a very important time to talk about what it means to live in a city.

Q What kinds of actions are featured in the show?

A We chose four key themes: gardening, recycling, walking and playing. And we took these as a chance to introduce 99 ideas about urban design. So recycling isn't just, "What do I do about these plastic bottles?" but, "What do we do with this building that's not being used anymore?" There's a Paris group called Coloco, and they mapped these type of buildings on a website. And there's a group in Belgium that's looking to create short-term rental contracts for buildings that are under renovation.

Q A lot of the actions in the show seem quite fun, like playing soccer in a museum plaza, or dress-up in the park. But can silly actions like that really make cities better?

A I think they can. That's one part of the show people say they find really inspiring, the fact that it opens up possibilities. Like maybe instead of paying someone to cut grass in public parks, we could bring in sheep, as they did in Turin. Or maybe this public square can be a playground. The aim is to offer different ideas for people to choose from and take into their own lives.

Still, these actions also become a critique. We have one action called freeganism, where people decide to eat only food in the garbage or on its expiration date. This action can exist only because we have a society that throws edible things away So this exhibition brings fun new ideas to people, but it also exposes the limits of the way we live.

Q Which action is your favourite?

A Well, I'm not sure I'd ever be able to do it, but I was intrigued by Fergus Brennan, who's survived near London, U. K., for one year solely by foraging. He eats only what he finds in nature, even roadkill. Again, while I couldn't do it, I think it's interesting to imagine the city as a place where you could find food rather than buy food.

Q What about the legality of some of these actions?

A This exhibition actually has a section about guerilla or "do-it-yourself" civic improvements. The interesting thing is many of these actions are right on the legal borderline. Toronto's Urban Repair Squad heard people asking for a bicycle path [and] city hall was taking a long time. So in a way they were carrying out an official function.

Similarly, a Los Angeles group called Fallen Fruit works on the law that if a tree branch goes outside a fence, it's public and the fruit that grows on it is public. They tour and harvest food from these sites. I really think such projects aren't trying to make trouble; they're trying to make the city better.

Q What do you hope people do when they leave the show?

A We have a website, cca-actions.org,where people can add their own ideas for action. Even if they don't do that, I hope that the visitor will reconsider basic elements of everyday urban life. One of the things we're doing is publishing instructions in a local homeless paper on how to make heating-vent shelters. So we're taking it out of the museum, too.

Actions:What You Can Do With the City continues to April 19 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. For more information, visit cca. qc.ca.

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Review: You Don't Really Care for Music, Do You?

Recently, energy drink manufacturer Red Bull bizarrely decided to turn part of its Toronto office lobby into a gallery space. The most bizarre part is some of the shows have been pretty good. So it is with "You Don't Really Care for Music, Do You?", a group show on to December 20. NOW published my review today.

Image of Alana Riley's Songs of Love from NOW

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