Saturday, November 29, 2008

Recommended: James Carl, Janet Werner, Ed Pien, Iain Baxter, John Marriott

Recommended Toronto shows based on my recent flitting and flotting about town:

  • James Carl at Diaz Contemporary - Incredible digitalesque sculptures made out of venetian blinds, of all things. Wow.
  • Janet Werner at Birch Libralato - This Montreal painter really won me over when I got to see her solo show at her hometown's Parisian Laundry in the spring. Though Birch Libralato's space is a little more humble (as are most TO galleries, bound to storefronts as they be) Werner's talent for depicting the constricted-yet-compelling cuteness of media females is still very visible.
  • Ed Pien at Birch Libralato - I've discovered of late that I have an affection for installation. One by Ed Pien that I saw at the SMU Art Gallery some time ago is at the apex of this affection. It was incredible. Pien's flat, framed works in cut paper are still pretty amazing, though nowhere near as immersive. Still, if you like these, don't miss a similar, bigger piece by Pien at the new AGO, where it is strongly juxtaposed with a Jonathan Meese, a Kori Newkirk and a Rachel Harrison. Fab.
  • Iain Baxter at Corkin Gallery - Iain Baxter... I can never figure out if his name legally is Iain Baxter&, as printed on his exhibition invites, or Iain Baxter, as printed in the society pages for the AGO reeopening. In any case, I appreciate Baxter being willing, over the decades, to stick his neck out. There were a few non-publicized works in this show that were just great, like the large sign spelling "GR$$D" and the stuffed animal tower, with toys skewered on a massive spindle. It's garish and unsightly and environmentally concerned and cheap, like Mike Kelley meets the World Wildlife Fund. Bring it, Baxter!
  • John Marriott at YYZ Artists Outlet - I actually went to YYZ to see emerging artist Atom Deguire's show, which was less than impressive here. Intentionally so, perhaps, but less than impressive nonetheless. Deguire could learn a thing or two at this juncture from John Marriott, a mid-career TO artist who shamelessly takes this exhibition op to plow a sword through a urinal, line the walls with crumpled paper, add a food bank donation box to the space, and install a desk with a completely blank calendar, as if to say, "what next for art? for me? for me and art?" Really great and funny in the best way.

Image of James Carl's Jalousie (baluster) from Diaz Contemporary

Read More......

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Curating e-Class: A New Web Resource

In my ever expanding quest to understand just what it is curators do, or how they think they do it, I'm happy to have stumbled upon Curators in Context, a new site that archives video talks from 31 curators on their practice. Though the talks seem to be from '05, there's likely many recurring issues here to be addressed. I haven't dug into it yet, but I will be.

Read More......

The National Gallery: If it ain't Baroque... oh, never mind


Okay, second full disclosure of the week--I've never really liked the Baroque period all that much. However, I'm feeling swayed by the rave NYT and LAT reviews that "Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture" has had during its run at the Getty. With that show hitting its sole Canuck stop, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, this week, I took the chance to ring up curator David Franklin and ask him how exciting this stuff can actually be to a new millennium. The results are in today's National Post. To read that (including Franklin's comment on his current status at the Gallery) click here and go to page L4 of the digital edition, or read on after the jump.

Lights! Plaster! Action!
A new exhibition on sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini tries to imbue the Baroque artist with a little Hollywood razzle-dazzle
National Post, Nov 27 2008, pg L4

There’s a new must-see that’s gotten rave reviews in the New York Times—but you won’t be seeing it at your local multiplex. Why? Because “Bernini,” rather than being a film offering killer chase scenes, is an exhibition offering incredible (if wrapped in stone) characters. This week, the show opens at the National Gallery of Canada, its sole Canadian stop following a successful run at Los Angeles’s Getty Museum. Still, as exhibition co-curator David Franklin explains, there is something strangely cinematic about these centuries-old works. Here, Franklin tells Leah Sandals what turns Baroque into blockbuster.

Q The portrait bust can be a pretty dull, dusty art form—particularly in a digital effects era. What makes Bernini’s exciting?

A There’s many aspects. I think the human face is perennially of interest. There’s also, for me, the virtuosity of these works, which make its subjects come to life in stone. And I think ironically, in the digital age, the authenticity of these objects when seen in person generates a kind of wonder; we’re so little used to anything authentic anymore.

Q There’s something almost snapshot-like about these sculptures, with Bernini capturing split-second moments of his disarmed lover Costanza Bonarelli, or of a cerebral cardinal or powerful pope. Do you think Bernini foresaw the need for more immediate art forms like photography?

A He definitely revolutionized a previously dusty art form. Before, these sculptures had to do with permanence and stasis. But he pushed this public art form into the private realm.

And the real revolution Bernini pushed was treating each work almost like a cinematographer. Each bust becomes like a story. There’s a sense of each being different and alive that’s very new. To me, it’s almost like there’s a novel behind each sculpture. That’s what’s so original about him.

Q Bernini was also a painter and an architect, creating famous Rome sights like Fontana Trevi and St Peters Square. Were he alive today, what do you think he’d be working on?

A Oh, I think he would definitely be a filmmaker. In his own time he also designed stage sets. So I think he would be designing operas and theatre sets too. But overall working in theatre and film, no question.

Q Some of Bernini’s artworks figure heavily in Dan Brown’s bestselling book Angels and Demons. What do you think of Brown’s use of these artworks?

A I’m very relaxed about it. Some academic types get very agitated. But you just have to realize it’s entertainment and it’s to be enjoyed on that level. And frankly, in our business with all its budget cuts, anything that brings attention to Bernini or Caravaggio or Leonardo da Vinci is wonderful—especially if it inspires people to learn the truth and see the originals.

Q Earlier this year, the Ottawa Citizen reported that this Bernini show almost didn’t happen at the Getty Museum, your key partner on the project. What was the problem?

A There were disputes between the Getty and the Italian government for several years over works that were allegedly illegally excavated from Italy and smuggled out of the country. In May 2007 about 40 artworks were returned to Italy from the Getty’s collection, which resolved the dispute and made Italy open to lending artworks like Bernini’s to them again. So this exhibition is really the first major collaboration between Italy and the Getty, and we’re the happy benefactors.

Q On another political front, there’s been a lot of drama at the National Gallery this year, with rumors that you might leave. What’s your status there now?

A I don’t know how much I can say, but I’m back at the gallery and everything is fine. The way I put it is that families fight but it’s doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. I’m back and we’re moving forward—and we always just want to focus on the art.

Q Getting back to art, Bernini’s son Domenico said that his father saw all the arts as equal. Do you agree?

A That’s a difficult question. What’s exciting about an artist like Bernini is that he was very eclectic, like Leonardo. Artists today tend to make their work for themselves and sell afterwards. But artists of the Baroque thought of themselves as designers and worked on anything that came their way. They had to be really good at multitasking and being open-minded.

“Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture” opens Friday (November 28) and runs to March 8 at Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada (www.gallery.ca).

Read More......

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

VanCity: Keeping the "Is" in Feminism



How great IS this? It's part of a new vitrine project at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. The project, coordinated by CAG curator Jenifer Papararo, will feature feminism-inspired slogans from various artists including curator/psychoanalyst/critic Jeanne Randolph, Kate Davis, FASTWURMS, Martha Wilson, Myfanwy Macleod, Dave Dyment, Kelly Mark, Kristina Podesva and others.

There's also a comments function on the gallery's site to invite feedback. No one has written in it yet... so everyone must agree. Or web commenting's not the best way to solicit reaction for a public art piece, mebbe. Or it's only been a few days since the vitrine was installed (Nov 21). In any case, the sign makes me smile.

Now if we could only figure out how to keep the "Emin" in feminism. That might be harder. Depending on who you ask, of course.

Read More......

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Canadian Pop Music: It does really matter, actually



Today it hit the news that the Kenny MacLean, bassist for Platinum Blonde--or as some call them "Canada's Duran Duran"--passed away suddenly this weekend.

I was 8 years old when Platinum Blonde's "It Doesn't Really Matter" hit the airwaves, and I heard it many times, particularly being an avid listener to Winnipeg station CFRW's Top 6 at 6 and Top 10 at 10. That was even before Canada's first music video program Video Hits hit the publicly sponsored TV in 1984. I also heard it repeatedly at the roller rink, where it animated many a careening crash.

I'd like to say that it changed my life, because that would make the loss of a creative person more meaningful, and give me a really very good reason for posting it on my art blog. Or even, perhaps, that it learned me some nihilism, and that I started reading Sartre in grade 3 as a result. That would be good too.

I don't think it did have such a dramatic effect, really. However, I do think that this song is still really great, as are other Platinum Blonde hits like Cryin and (to a lesser extent) Situation Critical. Of course, I'm biased as is anyone when it comes to the songs of their youth. But at moments like this it becomes every more clear how pop music lyrics and styles can be ingrained deeply in one's brain. Now that I have many more "brain is full" moments and the old neurons are on the decline, songs just don't get remembered the same way.

Reviewing the video today, I grin at the hairstyles, wince at the misogyny (my, how times have changed... not) and wonder how much current teens and preteens would pay to get their hands on these now-retro clothes and shoes.

I won't be "Cryin" over MacLean; but I am grateful for what he produced. A chance to dance, which, as I indicated on Monday, also makes for some great art sometimes.

Read More......

99 cent dish towels! 5 dollar shoes! And art, art, art!


Well, this sounds interesting. Toronto artist Iris Haussler caused a stir a couple of years back with her project The Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach, which transformed a Toronto house into a repository of sorts for a fictitious artist resident. (The project garnered lost of media attention, summarized here.)

Now Haussler's looking to reconstruct the experience of another Toronto house--this one our metropolis's house of deals and lights, Honest Ed's.

For those who aren't in the know--or who've never had to track down a cheap shower curtain while living in Maggie Atwood's Annex nabe--Honest Ed's, named for its founder, the late Ed Mirvish, is a massive mazelike discount store at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor streets in Toronto. Its signage is a Toronto psychogeography icon, while its deals attract students, new immigrants and generally rent-poor Torontonians alike.

Haussler's upcoming project at the store, called "Honest Threads", promises the following:

"Honest Threads will display garments and the memories they carry. Lent by Torontonians, each item holds a personal story revealing a glimpse of the many threads that weave our identity over time. Visitors will be able to borrow the garments and wear them for a few days, experiencing both literally and psychologically what it is like to “walk in someone else’s shoes.” At the same time, they will add new layers to the clothes’ history. Trading experiences on both tactile and narrative levels will enrich our collective perception of the place we call home. As pieces of a vast puzzle, these individual stories will render a fragmentary portrait of the city, attesting to its complex history."

This project is facilitated through the Koffler Centre of the Arts, and information about how to lend clothes to the project can be found here. The Koffler, which focuses on Jewish culture, says that "Honest Ed’s is no ordinary store but a museum in itself, blurring the boundaries between commercial, public and exhibition spaces. The place equally attests to the inspiring story of its founder, Ed Mirvish, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania and Austria..."

A few other notes on Honest Ed's and art: Ed's son, David Mirvish, owns Canada's largest art bookstore--or at least the only one to sport a massive Frank Stella painting above its shelves. The bookstore itself was created in 1974 as an outgrowth of David Mirvish's gallery, which exhibited abstract artists and colour field painters and sculptors including Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, Jack Bush and others. Though the gallery has since folded, David continues to hold a large collection at his warehouse, where a show is currently taking place for British sculptor Tim Scott. This year David also commissioned Ed Burtynsky to photograph the Royal Alexandra Theatre, which he and his father helped revive.

On a different tack, I discovered a contrasting, and very relevant, view of Honest Ed's via the short stories of prizewinning Toronto author Austin Clarke. In his tales of Caribbean immigrants, Clarke draws a picture of Honest Ed's that I read as a desolate place, a kind of flourescent beacon of false hope for those from abroad. The collection Choosing His Coffin is worth a look if you're interested in exploring this theme.

Also, I've noted elsewhere about Barr Gilmore's appropriation of the Honest Ed sign for this year's Nuit Blanche. And when Ed Mirvish died last year, I took a look at his wacky window displays as a strange kind of art in themselves.

Read More......

Monday, November 24, 2008

Lessons on Lassitude from the New York Times



Well, goldarnit it sure hurts to be scooped by the New York Times on something happening just down the street in your own hometown. Worse hurtage occurrs when one had been thinking about writing of said thing, but just never got around to it.

Such is the case with artist Margaux Williamson's video "Dance Dance Revolutions Co", which I enjoyed at Harbourfront a couple of weeks back, and which talented Montreal writer Heather O'Neill singled out to the NYT Magazine this weekend as her favourite screen moment of the year.

What I liked about the video was: 1) It was easy to enjoy, brought a smile to my face; 2) The music was familiar to me, as it was made in part by a friend of mine, Marlena Zuber, who is part of the band Tomboyfriend; 3) It reminded me of being crazy dancing, and of all the people worldwide who find pleasure in that same harmless, joyous thing even though the world is filled with much darker things much of the time as well; 4) I had enjoyed Williamson's feature-length film Teenager Hamlet (and posted on it) earlier this year, and wondered if this often-pegged painter was finding new, more appealing (for me) strength in narrative, and in handing a starring role off to others.

In any case, it teaches a lesson to me if no one else--when you want to write about something, write about it! Slow Blogging and the rest be damned.

Oh, and another lesson -- dance, or enjoy others dancing, more often.

Read More......