Thursday, October 30, 2008

Out today: Q&A with Horror-Humour Artiste Diana Thorneycroft


Diana Thorneycroft is well known in Canada and abroad for her early, darkly themed works about the infliction of harm on the body. Her recent series featuring cartoon characters killing each other was on this theme, but also had an interesting copyright spin. Today, the National Post published my interview with her on her most recent--and possibly most lighthearted--body of work to date, a spoof on classic paintings called "A Group of Seven Awkward Moments." Click here or read on after the jump for Thorneycroft's take on everything from the G7 to Bob and Doug McKenzie.

Image of Group of Seven Awkward Moments (Jack Pine) courtesy of Diana Thorneycroft


If it doesn't kill you...
Leah Sandals, National Post
Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008

Tomorrow night, millions of Canadians will don costumes and live out the horror and humour that Halloween evokes. But Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft works year-round to integrate both masquerade and morbid joking into art. In her most recent series, The Group of Seven Awkward Moments, currently on view at Montreal's Art Mur, Thorneycroft both imitates and pokes fun at iconic Canuck creations. Here, Thorneycroft tells Leah Sandals how she crafts her artistic tricks and treats.

Q What do you like and dislike about the Group of Seven?

A The one thing I'm critical of is the claim that they represent Canadian art. Writer David Silcox says that their paintings are the visual equivalent of a national anthem, that represent the spirit of our whole country. But they exclude so much. Most of the paintings were done in Ontario and Quebec. And they're all by white guys. I'm not the first person to challenge their legacy, but I challenge it using dark humour.

Having said that, I look at the group's paintings a lot, and I really like them, especially Tom Thomson's. They're fantastic, considering Thomson did these outside when he was freezing or dealing with swarming blackflies. So overall I've really come to admire their work.

Q How did you start making this series, The Group of Seven Awkward Moments?

A I was doing a series called Canadiana Martyrdom, using paintings of Christian martyrdoms as a template. Instead of John the Baptist, I martyred Celine Dion or Wayne Gretzky or Don Cherry. So I was already working with Canadiana.

Then Winnipeg's Plug In gallery invited artists to do pieces for a fund-raiser called Group of Seven with a Twist. Right around that time, the Winnipeg Art Gallery had obtained Tom Thomson's Early Snow. So I bought a poster of it at their gift shop and put it in the background of a scene. Also, I'd recently purchased a toy Bob and Doug Mackenzie set, so I put them in the foreground. Then I surrounded them with wolves, and called the piece Early Snow with Bob and Doug. The response was really great and I thought, "OK, I know what my next project is."

Q Can you describe a couple of those awkward moments from your perspective?

A One of the first ones that I did is called Group of Seven Awkward Moments in Algonquin Park. I shop at Michael's craft store all the time, and I saw a figurine of two kids about to the lick this flagpole with a Canadian flag. It seemed so perfect, because pretty well everyone in Canada remembers when they first stuck their tongue to cold metal. So I played with that, and pushed it.

Another image, Jack Pine, is based on a theory about Tom Thomson's death, that a jealous boyfriend caught Thomson with his girlfriend and murdered him. So in this image the jealous boyfriend sees Tom making out with his girl in a tent, with little paintings Tom might have made also in the tent.

Q In your career, you've moved from portraying the body in rather dark ways to creating these art historical jokes. How do you make sense of that shift?

A What's common with all of the work I've done is the body in harm's way. In my early black-and-white work it was about my own body, and now I'm using all these GI Joes as surrogates. Though it's humorous, it's still about the body in harm's way, like Thomson's body floating in a lake.

Q What are you working on next?

A Well, the next body of work is going to be tough, not funny. The working title is A Group of Seven Atrocities. I started researching things like residential schools, Mount Cashel orphanage and the destruction of Africville, things that have happened in Canadian history that are much more than awkward. Later, I might expand these works to the G7 or G8, which means including atrocities that took place in the States and France and Germany. Basically, I see this going down a road that's a lot less humorous but still appropriate.

But before I do that I still have a couple of awkward moments I want to make! I had a friend build me an Avro Arrow replica, because when [former prime minister John] Diefenbaker cancelled that, it was a pretty awkward moment in Canadian history. I also want do to Santa Claus in a sled accident. Then I will start the harder stuff.

Diana Thorneycroft: The Group of Seven Awkward Moments continues to Nov. 8 at Montreal's Art Mur. Visit www.artmur.com for more information.

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Monday, October 27, 2008

News from the West: Or, Things I Love (or Hate) But Forgot About Until I Was Reminded Of Same



There's always notable things happening out West in Alberta and BC and Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But here are a few items that have come to my attention lately from the great Conservative land of AB.

A Sad History of Grave Mismanagement at the Art Gallery of Calgary
In an excellent article in this week's FFWD, Anthea Black and Drew Simpson Anderson investigate ongoing complaints about the troubled Art Gallery of Calgary. As they note, artist complaints about the 8-year-old AGC have involved one or all of the following: work being damaged; work being soiled; work being misused (eg. a text piece being rearranged to spell the name of a corporate sponsor!); not being paid promised exhibition fees; being given the runaround on said exhibition fees, etc. Further, the gallery has gone through three head curators in as many years, with two of these currently entrenched in legal battles against the AGC. What's more, the AGC can't seem to keep an artist on its board for more than a few months. For me the biggest shocker is that when current CEO Valerie Cooper arrived in 2004, "the key challenge...was simply paying employees on time. She arrived to find 11 bank accounts with about $50 between them and two weeks to make payroll." [emphasis mine]

Insane. And sad. Why? Because as Black and Simpson Anderson take pains to point out, the AGC was a grassroots endeavour at first, coming into existence because of the participation of 14 arts organizations.

I myself have talked with the new AGC head curator, Marianne Elder, and, as Black and Simpson Anderson assess, I too am tentatively optimistic that Elder, who's originally from Ontario and most recently worked in California, will do her best to turn this situation around. Still, it won't be easy. And as the Glenbow takes up the torch of contemporary art with former Art Gallery of Nova Scotia CEO Jeffrey Spalding at its helm, funders will likely be drawn to that museum's more established administrative track record, even if it's Spalding, newly arrived, who's bringing a strong contemporary arts focus to the traditionally history-oriented museum.

On a More Inspiring Note: Ronnie Burkett's New Show
It was not until I saw former Calgary Herald and FFWD staffer Martin Morrow's feature on Alberta-bred theatre artist Ronnie Burkett at CBC.ca the other day that I remembered just how much I love Burkett's work. Burkett is an amazing puppeteer and puppet maker who actually plays all the roles in his quite-sexy-and-grownup puppet plays himself. Now I know from this one-sentence summary that this actually sounds a bit like a creepy horror flick waiting to happen. But in real life experiencing a Burkett show is nothing short of wondrous. This man is seriously a Canadian cultural treasure. Here's how Morrow summarizes Billy Twinkle, Requiem for a Golden Boy, Burkett's new production just premiered at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre:

An affectionate spoof of the American variety puppet acts that flourished in the middle of the 20th century. ... In typical Burkett fashion, the new show has a cast of 24 wood-and-string characters, all manipulated by their nimble-fingered creator. They include the denizens of Billy’s splendidly louche act: drunken opera diva Biddy Bantam Brewster; naughty old man Murray Spiegelmann, with his balloon-in-the-pants shtick; burlesque babe Rusty Knockers; and the lovable, roller-skating Bumblebear.

Then there’s Billy’s late mentor, Sid Diamond, who appears to his despondent protege as a hand puppet. Sid comes back to rescue Billy when the middle-aged puppeteer, fired from his job with Happy Sea Fun Cruises, considers leaping overboard to his death. Refusing to leave Billy’s side, the insistent Sid makes him relive his life as a marionette play in the hope that the erstwhile “golden boy” will recapture his passion for puppetry.


Yes! Yes! Yes! Can't wait to see it if and when it makes it to TO (so far the closest web fer-sure is the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Or the Sydney Opera House, if you're really willing to spend those Aeroplan points.)

Finally: A Promising Glimpse Into a Not So Harper-Centric Alberta
Gillian Steward has been a journalist in Calgary for decades, spending some of that time as managing editor at the leading city daily, the Calgary Herald. So when her biweekly columns in the Toronto Star come out, I always make a point to read them for an informed first-person view from the west.

In her most recent column, published this Sunday, October 26, Steward tries to make the case that "beneath that apparently impenetrable shield [of conservative voting] there are a few signs of a yearning and a churning for change, especially in Alberta." She notes to this end that an NDP candidate was elected in central Edmonton and that the highest Green Party vote in the country came from downtown Calgary. She also points out that provincially, four Liberals--yes, you've got that right, Liberals--hold the seats for downtown Calgary.

As Steward predicts it, the economy might play a role in even larger left-leaning votes to come: "There's no question that a sharp drop in the price of oil can quickly shift the sands of support for the ruling party. And the price of oil has certainly dropped a lot in the past few weeks. This time around, Albertans won't have the National Energy Program to blame for their troubles. Instead, the blame will likely fall much closer to home." Really worth a read if this last election gave you a hangover, oil or otherwise.


Image of Ronnie Burkett with one of his puppets from Cbc.ca

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Public Art Picks in Toronto


For this weekend's gallery hop, published in Saturday's National Post, I picked out three public art genres that are on view right now in Toronto. It was a great opportunity to give a shout-out to 24/7 window spaces like Convenience Gallery, whose opening for the tongue-in-cheek Parkdale International Art Fair is pictured above. Read on after the jump for more.

Photo courtesy of Flavio Trevisan, Convenience Gallery


The Great Outdoors
Leah Sandals, National Post
Published: Saturday, October 25, 2008

A chill wind passed through Toronto streets this week, sending pedestrians scurrying for forced-air cover. But the truth is that there is still plenty of hot public art out there to take the threat-of-winter edge off. Whether you mix up some toddies in a thermos or grab a mocha on the go, checking out these outdoor art sites provides a grown-up kind of trick or treat.

1. PAINTED ON THE CITY: CHALK DRAWINGS AND GRAFFITI ALLEYS

Everyone in Toronto has seen a decent chalk drawing or two in their trips around town. But U. K. chalk artist Julian Beever takes the technique to the next level, using anamorphic perspective to create works that, from certain angles, seem completely three-dimensional. (Google him for some appealing eye-popping evidence.) Admittedly, Beever's no Banksy -- though his technique is remarkable, his content is mundane and is often contracted out for corporate purposes. Such is the case this week, where Beever's first trip to Toronto has been-- rather unromantically --made in service of a new frozen pizza brand. Still, the skills of the self-dubbed "Pavement Picasso" are worth a drop-by as he creates some pics on the sidewalks around Yonge and Eglinton. If your tastes run more hip hop than Holbein, be sure to check out Graffiti Alley just south of Queen between Spadina and Portland for a more pointed painted-on-the-city view.

2. WINDOWS ON ART: 24/7 STREETSIDE SPACES

Another way to experience public art is through the many window galleries that have cropped up around Toronto. Convenience Gallery, so named for its former corner store incarnation at 58 Lansdowne Ave., is one that's worth a look right now with its show called the Parkdale International Art Fair. In a dozen 2 x 3 x 2 foot mini booths, PIAF highlights neighbourhood artists while poking fun at the convention-centre-centric art fair craze of recent years. There's a surprising diversity here for the size, with highlights including Diane Borsato's Arrangements of a Stolen Flowers (exactly what it sounds like),Orest Tataryn's Great Scott, It's Mini Flav, a neon installation that jokes about famed light artist Dan Flavin, Melissa Levin's Witness, a diorama of a winter scene and Shawn Skeir's Untitled -- a glossy, colourful lacquered work. Other window galleries of note include Side Space Gallery at 1080 St. Clair Ave. W., Fly Gallery at 1172 Queen St. W. and QueenSpecific at 787 Queen St. W.

3. LIVE FROM TORONTO: PUBLIC PERFORMANCE ART

Another major form of public art to seek out this week is performance, as the 7a*11d performance art festival brings its seventh incarnation to parks and sidewalks around the downtown core. Watch for Vancouverite Glenn Lewis's wittily titled A Sweeping Statement tomorrow afternoon as the artist collects rubbish for sculptural material along Queen and Dundas between Spadina and Church. Also keep an eye out for local artist Tonik Wojtyra's Hush My Dear, a humorous performance where an RCMP officer seemingly attempts to lull a Canada goose at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Regina artist Robin Poitras's The Oval, a temporary installation of 24 chairs and 60 rearview mirrors set up in random public spaces, will also provide a spot for reflection. Find out more at 7a-11d.ca

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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Out today: Interview & Review for Art Market Tome; Q&A on Karaoke Art; and a Review of Kruger at Art Met


Out today from me in various media:

An interview on art market issues for www.canadianart.ca with Don Thompson (pictured above) author of The $12 Million Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.

A review of the same book for NOW. The print version was chopped for space; read on after the jump for my full review.

An National Post Q&A with young TO curator Maiko Tanaka about the karaoke art show she recently co-curated for the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.

A NOW review of Toronto artist Nestor Kruger's somewhat disappointing current show at Art Metropole. I love Art Met, but the work Kruger chose to show there just really doesn't seem to work in the space.


THE $12 MILLION STUFFED SHARK: THE CURIOUS ECONOMICS OF CONTEMPORARY ART
by Don Thompson. Doubleday. Cloth. 268 p. Rating: NNN

Review by Leah Sandals

As world markets crumbled last month, at least one man knew his net worth wasn’t falling: British artist Damien Hirst. On September 15, Hirst’s works earned their highest-ever auction prices, including $17 million for a stuffed shark piece.

In The $12 million Stuffed Shark (which refers to Hirst’s previous high-sale price) York U business professor Don Thompson tries to figure out why certain works of art bring in so much cash, while others molder away in cramped studios.

The best part of the book is that Thompson is an economist. His chapters focus on things like the branding of artists, collectors and dealers and competition between auction houses and gallerists. All of these do help explain why prices for some contemporary art is so high—even equal, at times, to the operating budgets of major museums like New York’s MoMA.

Similarly, the worst part of the book is that Thompson is an economist. He describes artworks in terms of materials, not meaning or sensation. One gets the sense that he might call Anna Karenina a pound of cheap paper containing a few words about a two-timing lady who kills herself. Or describe a great pizza as flour and water topped with old tomatoes and cheese, warmed over.

Still, there are locally relevant insights to be had. A chapter about museums and private interests is particularly timely given that the AGO’s huge reno gives collector Ken Thomson an exclusive display space. And a chapter on art fairs explains why Queen West gallerists spend so much time out of the country these days.

Toronto never have Hirst’s shark, but its lessons still linger.

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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Catch the Colour Excitement: 3 Bright 'n' Shiny TO Shows


So I've realized I really really do like bright and shiny objects. I know art writers shouldn't, really, because it can kind of make you blind to whether an artwork functions on many other levels. Still, here's 3 TO shows that I think fit the bill:




1) Elizabeth McIntosh & Elspeth Pratt at Diaz Contemporary to November 15
I will unabashedly say that I love Elizabeth McIntosh's work. Her abstract paintings, usually of technicolour triangle forms on canvas, just rock my world somehow. The one I saw at Blanket Gallery's TIAF booth was especially rockin, with lots of silver paint. The Diaz show is a bit more adult and grand, with larger canvases, a deeper palette, and a more greyed-down metal shade. But it's still quite lovely. Pratt's minimalist yet scruffy sculptures make a good complement with their piles of plywood parallelograms and corrugated cardboard made formally Flavian. A do-go-see.



2) Team Macho at Magic Pony to October 26
This show has already had a chunk of publicity, and strong sales, but it is good enough to merit more. Team Macho illustration collective indeed riffs on the much-trod Royal Art Lodge vein, but some of their work is plain old irresistible rather than just plain old. I loved the images with cats in sorcerer hats looming massive in classic English landscapes, the perfectly realist watercolour of a bicycle, the imaginary 1940s Women's Auxiliary Choir and Breast Exposition League. All gold. Even better: the "Perfect Day" painting showing a guy in a boat with two dolphins, it's implied, humping in the water. And even better than that: The "Worst Day" painting showing the same guy in a boat with a dolphin, it's implied, humping his girlfriend in the water. I do agree with my colleague Fran Schechter when she many of these faux-naive works make her "want to call the art therapist," stat. But I still like it.



3) Regine Schumann at Galerie Lausberg to November 4
Bright and shiny is pretty much the definition of German artist Regine Schumann's coloured plexiglas boxes. But they're not as shallow as they might seem. Sure, they could stand in for many a high-end-bar's lighting fixture. But they also have a really lovely colour-combination quality if you have the daylight available to really observe them in. Pretty, pretty stuff in that unadorned minimalist way.





Bonus: Instant Coffee's "Say Nothing in Bright Colours" at MKG127 to November 15
I haven't had a close look at this show, just a quick drop in, hence the bonus status. Still, from what I saw--folding signs with the eponymous "Say Nothing in Bright Colours" saying and similars, cellophane-covered flourescent light sculptures and neon-pink wallpaper, it seems to fit the bill. And hey, even though the economy's tanking and the weather's getting frostbitey, Instant Coffee has proclaimed it "The Year of Bright Days." And if you can't tell already, I'll take all of those I can get, irony coated and otherwise, thank you very much.


Artwork from top: Elizabeth McIntosh's Untitled (sectioned composition- triangles and parallel lines) 2008; Elspeth Pratt Facing Out 2008; Team Macho artwork; Regine Schumann's colourful plexi boxes.


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Monday, October 20, 2008

The Schlock of the New: A Writing Workshop at U of Toronto Art Centre this Wednesday

This Wednesday, October 22, I'm giving a student workshop at the University of Toronto Art Centre on arts journalism. The talk is called "The Schlock of the New: Separating Good Art from Bad in 300 Words or Less," and it starts runs from 11 am to 12 noon. Tips for both writing on art and undertaking freelance writing in general will be offered, and the pros and cons of the arts journalism genre discussed. If you're a student at all interested in the behind the scenes of art magazines and mainstream newspapers, come on out--and learn from my many mistakes!


Image of stilled, writer's-blocked hands from wikieducator.org

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Fun video: Adrian Searle at Frieze Art Fair



Though sales are slower at the Frieze Art Fair this year, it seems there's a lot of fun stuff to look at. Since I can't be there myself, I enjoyed this video following Guardian art critic Adrian Searle around the fair--in it, Canuck Rodney Graham has a cool bicycle-photokinetoscope that earns him a shout-out. Searle's colleague Jonathan Jones's top 10, the Guardian's photo galleries and Roberta Smith's reports in the New York Times are also helpful.

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