Online now and out in print in tomorrow's National Post are my reviews of three politically oriented (though not necessarily G20ish) shows along the Lansdowne corridor: Erin Thurlow & Alex Hubbard @ Mercer Union, ATSA @ Toronto Free and New Shape @ Gallery 1313 An excerpt:
ATSA at Toronto Free Gallery
1277 Bloor St. W., to July 24
As our large security-zone fence indicates, world-conference organizers often assume that protest or disagreement is likely to end in destructive mayhem. But the playful, pointed — and entirely peaceful — work of ATSA, an activist art collective founded in Montreal in 1998, shows otherwise. This survey-cum-storefront for ATSA’s oeuvre documents its many impressive projects and offers retail items so that consumers can get in on the (social) action. For example, photos and videos show the massive ATSA project State of Emergency, an annual cold-weather “festival” in downtown Montreal that provides the homeless with $55,000 in warm clothing, 3,500 meals, 24/7 snacks, sleeping areas and more. A suitcase full of ATSA-made, citizen-issued air-pollution tickets (presented to SUV owners and Montreal City Hall) greets viewers at the door. Finally, cloth bags, wool socks and toques are purchasable as enviro-souvenirs of the group’s philosophy. Due to ATSA’s radical history, this recent foray into marketing and retailing might surprise fans. But that’s really just an extension of the group’s pragmatic and populist approach to progressive causes. Overall, a strangely hopeful and heartwarming show.
Image of ATSA's store from the National Post
Friday, June 18, 2010
At the Galleries: Non-Summit Politics
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A Bit of Better G20 Art News: ADAC Installing at Convention Centre & Deerhurst Resort
No sooner did my G20 fake lake art post go up than I got notice from the Art Dealers' Association of Canada about their plan to install a collection of Canadian art at the political venues for the upcoming G8 and G20 summits: Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. (But not, sadly, that "Experience Canada" pavilion where 3,000+ international media are due to convey Canada's story--or at least its b-roll--to the world.)
A list of works and artists is not yet available, but ADAC manager Johanna Robinson says the works will be installed throughout each venue. Lenders for the project are ADAC members, and the project is curated by William Huffman, Associate Director of Visual and Media Arts at the Toronto Arts Council. A press release says,
the development and installation of the Canadian Collection is being conceptualized as a national exhibition – providing an important Canadian, visual narrative for the numerous visiting international leaders. In exchange for its involvement, ADAC Foundation will receive a financial contribution. These funds will form seed capital for a developing endowment within the Foundation, aimed at providing its membership and individual artists with additional professional and developmental resources.
This is the kind of collaboration that I was talking about in my last post, some kind of joint venture between a professional arts organization and summit organizers that would have been a great idea for the media pavilion.
Overall, I'm relieved to hear about this project. At least it could lead to some quality works getting out there to represent Canada because the people involved generally have many years of art expertise between them.
At the same time, I don't think I'll be able to pass full judgment until the list of works and artists is released—it's not like I love every show ADAC members do, and they're quite a varied bunch in terms of what they exhibit. Also, in an ideal world, this would have been a job for the National Gallery, though I'd suspect getting loan permissions for their works that need specific climate control (ie. non-fake-lake humidity levels) could have been a stumbling block.
So... I'll watch for more detailed information to come out at a related press conference that's slated to happen just before the summits begin. But for now, relative to the information I was dealing with yesterday, this does come as a bit of happy news.
Image of Deerhurst Resort from BlueCMI
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Fake Lake Artist List: Who's Showing At the G20 Media Pavillion?
NOTE: This post deals only with the art situation that was described to me for the G20 media centre. The art situation for G8 and G20 political venues is different, and is described in a more recent post here.
There's been uproar aplenty about the fake lake in the G20's media pavilion--uproar that is certainly well deserved! Yet there's been little discussion of other aspects of the "Experience Canada" pavilion (as it's pegged), like, say, which artists will be representing Canada to the 3,000+ media representatives coming from all over the world.
Yes, that's right, the FAQ for Experience Canada promises "art installations" that will help media access "100s of hours of b-roll material to assist them in story development about Canada".
So who, exactly, are these artists? Mostly Muskokan, as it turns out. Just like the fake lake's chairs. Here's the list I got from a representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade:
Tom Bendtsen - The Ontario artist's Luminato installation—"a towering sculpture of over 15,000 books" currently showing at the Toronto Reference Library—will be moved to Experience Canada after L-fest wraps up. (photo from Bentsen's 2008 Nuit Blanche installation from Fuck, yeah! Books)
Max Streicher - This Toronto artist and former Albertan is known for inflatable sculptures that have been widely shown. Experience Canada will show his Horses. (photo from Flickr user Product of Newfoundland)
Lloyd Walton - A Muskoka landscape and still-life painter, formerly a cinematographer, whose exhibitions include the Canadian International Auto Show and the Canadian Consulate in New York. Yep! (image from Walton's website)
Brenda Wainman Goulet - A Huntsville/Muskoka artist who creates stone and bronze sculptures of trees, otters and canoes. (Image from Goulet's website)
Nathalie Bertin - A Newmarket artist who paints people, chickens, animals, moss flowers and Métis themes.
Ryan Coyne - A Bracebridge/Muskoka craftsperson who makes fine cabinets, chairs and tables out of wood. (Image - the largest I could find, sorry - from Coyne's website)
Vicki Sharp - A Muskoka jewelery designer (mainly beadwork) and painter of meadows, birds, lily pads. (Image from Sharp's website.)
Col Mitchell - A Muskoka artist who bridges cute chickadee paintings and renderings of Heath Leder's Joker, often using crumpled paper. (Image from Mitchell's blog)
Krysia Bower - A Muskoka artist who makes flower cards and prints (Image from Bower's website)
John Delang - A Muskoka woodcarver who does realistic models of waterfowl and other fowl. (Image from Delang's website.)
OK, so with all due respect to anyone who makes a living from creative production, it kind of goes without saying that this is a totally embarrassing megafail on the representing-Canada's-best-artistic-face-to-the-world front. We have tons of artistic talent in this country, talent that is recognized worldwide. Yet, Streicher and Bentsen perhaps aside, that talent overwhelmingly absent from this important international presentation.
Did I really expect any different? No. We are in fake lake territory here. And the media are going to be so strung out on politics they'll hardly be hard up for art.
Nonetheless, there are so many ways this could have been a no-brainer—getting the Sobey finalists to show, for instance, or the winners of the most recent GG awards, or RBC awards, or Grange Prize, or Ontario Crafts Council Awards. (I ain't against craft, far from it—I just think any work presented at the pavilion should be at an agreed-upon standard of quality and originality.) Alternatively, why not ask the National Gallery of Canada (an crown corporation, natch, and planning a biennial of recent acquisitions this fall anyway) to pull some works? Or even reproductions of works? How about asking the commercial galleries that used to get DFAIT grants to go to international art fairs to lend something out?
The pavilion was actually a bit on the right track with that Luminato crossover—let's do a little collaborating, folks!—and the DFAIT rep did clarify that it was "the Summits Management Office" (hardly a curatorial brand name) that made the call on everyone but Streicher and Bendtsen.
Still, whoa. I expected to see a strange field of art crop up, but this takes the cake for an international event.
Also, I have to say even the lack of regional representation is likely upsetting to many Canadians. Muskoka/Toronto=Canada? I don't think so.
Rendering of the fake lake from CBC
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Bringing the Outdoors in on Morrow Ave
The three galleries in the Morrow Ave complex seem to simultaneously be showing some nice, quiet, contemplative works on nature, the cosmos, etc. At Peak, Laura Moore is showing marble sculptures of a pinecone and acorns with USB sticks attached. Chris Cutts has a show of paintings by Daisuke Takeya where the skyline of a city takes up 2% or so of painting's height, then it's just sky for the other 98%. (Closeup, I don't really like the way Takeya paints the sky and find it distracting, but I like his obstinateness on the importance of what we typically disregard and I like his choice of sites: Toronto, the Confederation Bridge, St. John's, Calgary...) At Olga Korper, Reinhard Reitzenstein does a bunch of nature-themed stuff. It's not all my bag, but I really like the cast bronze honeycombs and the circular photographs of rope lava. Go nature! And, er, culture!
Daisuke Takeya's Calgary 2009 from Christopher Cutts Gallery
Monday, June 14, 2010
Yes and yes
A cogent observation from Torontoist's Style Notebook, in which two style bloggers went from the Gladstone's SpeakEasy art networking event to the PowerBall in one evening:
Between the two events there was a lot of push and pull going on in our eventful artistic style notebooks. It’s striking that the people who make art in the city, and the people who make galleries like the Power Plant possible through their financial support, are in such obviously different worlds. One is about art, the other is about money—and an event like Power Ball, as glam and glitzy as it is, is a microcosm of their uneasy, almost unnatural relationship.
Yes and yes. True, even if normal and good in its way.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Fun Show: Hazel Meyer @ OCAD Grad Gallery, Today & Tomorrow
There's a fun show that wraps up tomorrow at OCAD Grad Gallery. If you're up for something doodle-y, social-y, athletic-y, wall-drawing-installation-y and funn-y than I recommend checking it out. It's by Hazel Meyer, and it's called Hyper Hyper, open today and tomorrow 2-6pm. Here's some more (bad cellphone) images:
Thursday, June 10, 2010
When Bouncy Castles = Spiritual Envoys: FriendsWithYou Q&A Out Today in National Post
Can cuteness be a potent creative force? Miami art duo FriendsWithYou — famed for rainbow-plastered playgrounds, parades, toys and animations — certainly thinks so. This week, Friends’ largest-ever project invades the Ontario Legislature grounds with 12-metre-high blimps, massive mushroom totems and grown-up-size bouncy castles. You can find out more about the project's surprising spiritual groundings in my Q&A in today's National Post. An excerpt:
Q: Your art is almost unrelentingly fun. Why?
A: Our installations revolve around the idea that the moment of exuberant, interactive play can generate a sense of euphoria. We’re trying to create instances where art is a higher spiritual ground. We even mimic some of the same things you get going to church — a physically controlled environment, special music and so on. It’s about making people have one of those everlasting super experiences that mark you forever.
Q: Can you really compare your amusement-park installations to churches? They’re pretty far removed from a traditional religious atmosphere.
A: Well, that’s our basic idea — to not make it as dogmatic as a religion, but to still offer really awe-inspiring things. It’s about giving groups of people the opportunity to feel something together. And it’s more open than church — you become the protagonist in the story we’ve built. We’re not putting rules in it, like a religion would; we’re just putting in the huge moment.
Whether you buy the high-mindedness or not, it sure looks like fun. You can find out more about their TO foray on the Luminato website.
Image of a past bouncy castle installation by FriendsWithYou from the National Post
