Even though David Balzer and Terence Dick didn't like Koki Tanaka's show at YYZ, I really, really enjoyed it. Tanaka's playfulness and slight silliness really worked for me. Such a steadfast, elegant approach to lightheartedness is rare. So I just wanted to flag that this weekend is the last chance to check it out--the show closes today, February 20.
Promo image for Tanaka's show from canadianart.ca
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Last Chance: Koki Tanaka at YYZ
Friday, February 19, 2010
Collecting Cultures: Q&A with Helen Gregory

Sometimes I must admit I feel a bit perverse in my story planning. All eyes are on Vancouver and where do I focus an artist interview on? The other end of the country, in St. John's. Ah well. Art does happen everywhere, even (gasp!) during the Olympics.
I have to say I did enjoy my chat with Helen Gregory, a well-regarded Newfoundland artist currently exhibiting at the Rooms in a show curated by award-winning novelist Lisa Moore. Where I thought our conversation would focus on death--Gregory includes a lot of skeleton imagery in her work--it ended up being more about collecting, both personal and institutional. Here's an excerpt from our condensed chat published in today's National Post:
Q [You say you were inspired by 16th-century wunderkammer, or cabinets of curiosity.] What were cabinets of curiosity?
A They were predecessors to the modern museum -- basically accumulations of objects meant to inspire wonder in the viewer. Things were displayed quite crammed together, with the theory that if each object was awe-inspiring individually, the effect would be even more so when things were displayed together.
A lot of these cabinet collections were started by the very wealthy, and they were more about a display of wealth than about education. They weren't divided scientifically -- that came later. A lot of the stuff in my paintings is from natural history collections at the Rooms, the Redpath Museum in Montreal and the Canadian Museum of Nature near Ottawa.
Q But a lot of your paintings conjure death, not just collecting. How do you account for that?
A Well, some of these items, especially in earlier paintings, are from my own collection. In one painting, there's a sparrow skull that still has a ball of feathers attached -- this is something I picked up on a walk, and kept. A lot of people might find it disgusting, but I see the beauty in decay. And I like to collect these types of objects as a result. I used to think about my tendency to collect things as a personal impulse. But in my recent studies -- I'm doing a doctorate right now -- I've been looking at collecting as a global and social impulse, an institutional impulse, too. Granted, some of my images are very personal -- of sentimental souvenirs like dried roses, for example. But I can also recognize that it's a general human impulse to collect.
There's also a nice bit in the interview about a mollusk with body issues and a legendary giant squid.
Image of Helen Gregory's Blue Tanagers courtesy of the artist and the Rooms
Thursday, February 18, 2010
UPDATED Sighted on Dundas West...

...a slightly creepy, slightly compelling pasteup jobbie. It's also quite tall, maybe 7 feet? Huh. Snap taken by yours truly near Morrow Ave intersection in January.
UPDATE: Simon Cole from Show & Tell Gallery emailed to say this is the work of Dan Bergeron, who is doing a series called "faces of the city" that have so far appeared in Toronto, Paris and London. Thanks Simon!
Upcoming Sandals-riffic Events: Face the Critic & Reel Artists Film Fest
It's a bit of a slow news day here at Unedit My Heart Central, so I thought I'd highlight a couple of upcoming events that I'll be speaking at:
1) Face the Critic - Drake Hotel - Thursday, February 25 at 7pm
The plan for this panel is for three critics—RM Vaughan, Andrea Carson and I—to show and talk about one work we loathe and one work we love. We will also prove we have faces! I'm looking forward to seeing the other critic's picks and responding to audience questions/comments/faces.
2) Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival - Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara - Friday, February 26 at 2:30pm
Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara is one of three free student screenings happening Friday afternoon as part of the Reel Artists Film Festival. I will introduce the flick, where I hope to make the leap beyond my typical experience of Nara's work, ie. fun products on view at Magic Pony.
Serendipitous image of poster from the Bronson Pinchot feature film Mr. Art Critic (yes, you read that right! Bronson Pinchot, Art Critic and Feature Film all in the same cultural reference) from Brauer.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Thinking About: Nicole DeBrabandere at Alison Smith
You know when you see one piece from an artist previously unknown to you, and you find it so intriguing that you are dead-set to go to their next show and see if the rest delivers?
This is the way I feel about Nicole DeBrabandere, a Toronto-based artist who has a show opening Saturday at Alison Smith Gallery. I saw one of DeBrabandere's smallish ceramic sculptures at Smith's TIAF booth this fall, and I really liked it. That sets up the possibility of potentially really liking (or really not liking, or really feeling indifferent about) a wider span of her work. In any case, I do play to drop by sometime after the show opens. You can find a few more images here and here.
Image of one of DeBrabandere's works Alison Smith Gallery
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Not in Vancouver, but Still Lovin' Vancouver Links
The other day, someone emailed me to say, "Hey, looks like you're in Vancouver, hope you're enjoying it!"
Sadly or happily, I am not in Vancouver, just enjoying various net manifestations of it. Here's two items on that theme that caught my eye today.
1) On the sad Vancouver front: Vancouver Olympics one of most challenging ever for journalists from J-source.ca. This blog post looks at what happens when media "sponsor" an event--Are they obliged to be positive about it? How do readers think the influence is working? Writes BC Civil Liberties Association Director David Eby,
As ugly as it is out there for a journalist who wants to write critical stories [about the Games], what is less apparent is that the current environment in Vancouver is also bad news for those who want to write an honest to goodness positive story about the Games. Nobody will believe them.
It’s hard to blame the public for being skeptical about anything published by the corporate entities that control all of our local news but also have a major business stake in the Games. Even if, as it often is, the story published is of the highest quality either positive or negative, our journalists have been forced to become the story, and as a result, they have had to give up their cherished observer status.
More than anything, journalists should rue this loss.
One wonders how these types of ethical questions might relate to media sponsoring art events... it ain't a crime, and is far less dramatic, but questions of credibility still often arise for the reader, perhaps?
2) On the happy Vancouver front: If only there were gold medals for pin collecting from the Tacoma News-Tribune. This article offers a fascinating/absurd look into a truly obscure collecting subculture--almost as obscure as art!?--the "pinheads". As staff writer Craig Hill reports,
Today, pin collecting is such a popular part of the games that Vancouver2010.com sells more than 300 types of pins and even a bag designed for carrying them.
Media, sponsors and even activist groups promote their organizations by circulating pins at the games.
In Vancouver, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will distribute a pin depicting the games’ mascot bludgeoning a seal. The group hopes to encourage Olympic organizers to take a stance against Canada’s sealing industry.
The epicenter of pin collecting in Vancouver is a large trading zone packed with licensed sellers and areas where collectors can wheel and deal. Regardless of whether you’re interested in pins, [Tacoma pin collector Greg] Murphy says, it’s worth dropping by to take in the spectacle.
“It is a frenzy,” he said. “You might not expect it if you haven’t seen it before, but it will blow you away.”
Murphy says it’s not uncommon for him to be surrounded by so many people that he can’t move.
“I come out of their sweating like a competitor in the Olympics,” he said.
Pin collectors are easy to spot at the winter games. They typically wear a scarf covered with pins. Murphy puts up to 300 on his.
“It’s so heavy it gives me a headache,” said Murphy’s girlfriend, Cindy Berg.
...
The hobby isn’t all fun and games. It has a dark side.
“I’ve seen fistfights when a couple people want the same pin,” Murphy said.
He was nearly arrested at the 2004 Summer Games in Greece when he was accused of selling pins without a permit. He’s also had pins stolen off his scarf. Some people deal in counterfeit pins.
A 40-year-old Vancouver trader agreed to talk to The News Tribune only if identified by his online pin-trading handle, Rabbit-Horse.
“There is massive gossip and drama in pin trading,” Rabbit-Horse said. “It’s worse than high school.”
Somehow I think it's the quotes in this story that are gold. Sweat! Fistfights! Worse than high school! Dark sides! Sore necks! Bludgeoned seal activism! Made my day, I tell you. And on top of that, it just makes me happy to think about pin-demonium. I have no clue why.
Image of the official Vancouver 2010 pin album from 2010VanFan
Monday, February 15, 2010
Olympic Flames: Vid of Isabelle Hayeur's Fire with Fire in Vancouver
Was looking at Vancouver writer Peter Darbyshire's Cancult.ca blog this morning and came across this great video of Isabelle Hayeur's Olympic installation, Fire with Fire:
The video was originally posted by Youtuber Kris Krug, and gives a great sense of how the installation works in person (prior to this, I had only seen stills and concept sketches). For more information about the work, which was commissioned by the Olympics but attempts to be critical about its impacts and intentions, visit Hayeur's website.