Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Q&A with Kelly Richardson out in today's National Post


Dali meets The Day After Tomorrow in the surreal, CGI-laden films of Canadian artist Kelly Richardson. And many in the art and film worlds are taking notice. Tomorrow, excerpts from Richardson's latest work, The Erudition, screen at Sundance's kickoff fundraiser, An Artist at the Table. Last week, the full three-screen version of Erudition also opened for a two-month run in Lethbridge, with smaller versions showing in Toronto and Halifax.

Amid all this activity, Richardson is also just about to start a residency at Artpace in San Antonio, so I felt very thankful that she was able to squeeze in some time to chat with me over the phone about her work this weekend. She says on Twitter that "I could have been more eloquent but exhaustion had kicked in." Nonetheless, I take all responsibility for any lack of eloquence in the condensed Q&A that resulted, which is out on today's National Post. An excerpt:

Q You show mostly in art galleries. What's it like to be recognized at Sundance?

A It's great, and still a little unbelievable. I suspect Sundance has a very different crowd than might go to contemporary art galleries. It's nice to have that crossover to a wider audience.

Q What has the impact of mainstream movies been on your art?

A Massive. In the past seven years, the special effects in disaster films have really influenced me. It's not so much the storylines, but the money shots that I'm seduced by --like in The Day After Tomorrow where there's the great flood and then it freezes over, shown in all these epic landscape shots. Increasingly, I'm influenced by science-fiction movies, too. I love their ability to take you into a possible future; in that way, they provide a rare vehicle for seeing your present environment with a measure of hindsight. I guess Avatar would be a good one to reference now. The Lord of the Rings is another obvious pick.


You can read the rest of the Q&A here.

One thing I failed to squeeze in (among many) was that Richardson often spends months learning new software for each piece she produces. The only formal course she has taken in digital filmmaking and effects was a course on Final Cut Pro in Toronto in "1999 or 2000." That's a lot of self-teaching, folks.

Richardson also told me (and it may be no surprise to those who work with effects, but it was to me) that it can take months for the effects in her films to render--meaning, push the button and let the computer do its processing work time. I'm such a hardware naif!

If you want to see Erudition in person (and, ahem, haven't got a ticket for a sold-out Sundance funder) excerpts are up to January 31 at Birch Libralato in Toronto and April 26 at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, with the big, real deal on view at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery to March 6.

(Still from Kelly Richardson's The Erudition from the SAAG)

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Monday, January 17, 2011

Wanna Talk Art Writing? Articulations Workshop in Ottawa February 19


Wanna talk art writing? In Ottawa? In February? You're in luck! I'm leading an Articulation workshop at the Ottawa Art Gallery on February 19. Here's the details:

Leah Sandals Articulation Workshop
Ottawa Art Gallery
Saturday 19 February 2011
10 am to 4 pm
(Workshop in English)

Deadline for registration: 11 February 2011

This practical seminar will lead participants through activities on a few aspects of professional art writing: generating raw material, identifying potential publications and story formats, pitching story ideas, freelancing, and self-editing. The increasing options in self-publishing will also be discussed, and time will be reserved for participant questions and input.

$40 per workshop ($32 for students and OAG members)

For registration and information:
Marie-Camille Lalande
613-233-8699, ext. 228
mclalande@ottawaartgallery.ca


Later in the season there's sessions with Marie-Eve Charron and Barry Ace, both worthy outings too. And another interesting tidbit: the gallery is planning a move in the next few years.

(Ottawa map image from the Ottawa Art Gallery - conveniently located a short walk from the Parliament buildings! A Canada-loving joe like me still gets excited about such things.)

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Awards-Season Art Reviews from the Weekend Post


Didja see the Golden Globes last night? I did a wee bit, until the boring speechifying changed my mind. Nevertheless, this beginning of the film awards season made me think recently of the "marquee shows" at some Toronto galleries. I reviewed three in this weekend's National Post: Maharaja at the AGO, Abel Abdessemed at Onsite [at] OCAD and Tim Burton at the TIFF Lightbox. An excerpt:

Maharaja at the Art Gallery of Ontario
317 Dundas St. W., to April 3
With Maharaja, the AGO has finally managed to do a historical exhibition right. Sure, King Tut and Drama & Desire also had lots of stunning objects. But those past shows lacked sufficient interpretive material — texts, videos, etc. — to provide stories and contexts for the objects on view. Whether it’s thanks to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which organized Maharaja, or thanks to the AGO itself, this exhibition suffers no such downfall. It’s a delight to see these finely crafted paintings, ornaments and furnishings, and it’s also a delight to learn about the time and place they represent. We discover, for instance, that 1700s court paintings weren’t displayed on walls; rather, they were viewed in private portfolios. Similarly, a long painting of a procession (one of many great parade scenes in Maharaja) is annotated to pinpoint various faiths and classes of 18th-century India. All this, of course, may seem mere detail. But as the many finely cut gemstones in this exhibition evince, attention to detail (and not just to sparkle) is what makes a real jewel.


You can read the other two reviews here.

(Jawan Singh of Mewar Hunting Boar, 1835, via the National Post)

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Toronto Biennial Report & Plan Released At Last


Further to my whiny December post about the extreme lateness of a Toronto Biennial forum report overdue to the public from MOCCA and the Power Plant, I received notice today that a summary report is now available as a PDF at http://www.thepowerplant.org/News/Report_FORUM_17April2010.pdf.

Penned by Power Plant director Gregory Burke, Power Plant curator Jon Davies, independent critic/forum moderator Peggy Gale and MOCCA director David Liss the summary concludes:

Based on the interest and enthusiasm of many participants at the [April Toronto Biennial] Forum, we recommend that we move forward with developing options for staging a recurring international contemporary art event in Toronto and that options should:

1. consider the intricacies of the current funding situations in Toronto, Ontario and Canada, and questions of who the audiences are for such an event.

2. recognize both the specificity of Toronto and its specific communities, histories and cultural legacies.

3. recognize the leadership, capacity and diversity of the contemporary art infrastructure in Toronto and the role of artists and artist-run culture in creating Toronto’s rich cultural landscape and history.

4. reinforce that the event must be ideas driven and must put forward a distinctive argument on contemporary art production both in Canada and internationally.

The core leadership group will continue consulting with the art community and aims to present a number of options to an open meeting in Spring 2011 for response.


I'll look forward to seeing what form this spring meeting about "moving forward" takes. Also, this summary excludes a lot of the day's discussion. If you want a full description of the day’s events, one is promised to be available by email from Robin Boyko at rboyko@harbourfrontcentre.com.

(Note-taking image via Mahalo.com)

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Cross-Country Winter Arts Preview @ the National Post



This weekend, the National Post published a cross-country winter arts preview covering books, music, TV, movies and art. I supplied the latter picks. Here's a few of my picks that were in print but aren't up at the Post's site:

Nuit Blanche and Art Souterrain in Montreal
Though it’s widely regarded as a good-times town, Montreal’s more hardy than party in holding its annual all-night arts fest during frigid February. Ferris wheels and fireworks not enough to lure you outdoors? That’s okay; the arctic wind’s blow is softened by lots of indoor activities, notably Art Souterrain, an exhibition that launches on Nuit (February 26) and takes over the downtown’s many underground tunnels, malls and metro stations until March 13. This year features an all-Nuit screenprinting workshop, photos by Isabelle Hayeur and more. Watch for the full Nuit schedule available early next month at http://montrealenlumiere.com—with fingers crossed for a redo of last year’s Opera Karaoke!

Thomas Hirshhorn & Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle at the Power Plant, Toronto
On March 12, the Power Plant opens a newly renovated space and (hallelujah!) revamped website. Its main draw, though, is its concurrent North American premiere of Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s The Eye, a 3,600-square-foot installation that features Hirschhorn’s characteristic mix of philosophical ideas and flimsy materials. (The premise: an eye that can only see red. Yes, colour photocopies and stuffed animals are involved.) Spanish-born, Chicago-based artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle also brings the brainpower with reproductions of the supposed “mobile biological weapons labs” that Colin Powell invoked prior to the US invasion of Iraq. Originally produced for Documenta 12, Manglano-Ovalle’s ersatz trailer will be featured alongside Hirschhorn until May.

Online Art for Anytime and Anywhere
Eat your heart out Mark Zuckerberg! Several Canadian artists and arts orgs are determined to use the web for higher creative ends. Leading worthwhile winter browses are geek-tech videos by Toronto’s Jeremy Bailey (http://jeremybailey.net/), who’s performancing at Tate Britain on February 18. Melanie Gilligan (born in T.O., based in the UK) has earned a stratospheric rise of late with her socially conscious dramas http://www.popularunrest.org/ and http://www.crisisinthecreditsystem.org.uk/. Don’t miss Alberta’s Cedar Tavern Singers, who sweetly sing and dance about art history at www.thephonorealistes.com. And for variety, try AGO’s Art of the Day Tumblr (http://artgalleryofontario.tumblr.com/) as well as the Canuck-created curated video site Ryeberg (http://ryeberg.com).


For my other Canadian winter art picks--including Brian Jungen's surprising change (or at least inversion) of tune at Catriona Jeffries and other BC highlights--read on here.

(Video of Jeremy Bailey performing public sculpture in Kiev, Ukraine from Youtube. If you want to get the background on this project, check out another of his videos here.)

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Why the AGO and the ROM are starting to look alike: Out in today's Star


Some people I think feel it's a little tightassish to be calling some exhibitions "a ROM-appropriate show" and others "an AGO-appropriate show." But I know that I felt confused at first when I saw the AGO showcasing King Tut and the ROM showing stuff like Shanghai Kaleidoscope soon after their respective reopenings. They seemed to be crossing over into each others' traditional territory, basically.

Recently, the Toronto Star asked me to take a closer look at the way these "crossovers" have developed. The results are out in today's paper. An excerpt:

[U of T museum studies professor Lynne] Teather identifies three factors on the local level that have caused mandates to overlap at the city’s top museums: the museum directors’ priorities; increasing desires to connect with Toronto’s diverse communities; and daunting post-reno financial constraints.

Conversations with AGO and ROM reps bear out Teather’s observations — with some interesting twists.

Francisco Alvarez, managing director of the ROM’s Institute for Contemporary Culture, says William Thorsell’s recent tenure as CEO beefed up the ICC — and, by extension, the museum’s shows of contemporary art.

“Thorsell thought that with a very contemporary architecture (Daniel Libeskind’s Crystal) we were promising considerations of contemporary issues,” Alvarez explains. Although the ICC was born in 1989, it was only in 2007 that it earned a dedicated staffer, space and board. The result, Alvarez argues, are art exhibitions that have an anthropological edge, with the Perjovschi show pointing to Romanian history and the Anatsui exhibition being supplemented by a panel on Africa’s natural resources.

Elizabeth Smith, executive director of curatorial affairs at the AGO, says its big, surcharged exhibitions aim “to vary the program with the idea of reaching as broad an audience as possible. In the case of Maharaja, the idea was to appeal to the South Asian community as well as a more mainstream public.” Smith notes smaller, general-admission AGO exhibitions have different criteria, like in-house curator preferences and collections. For example, the recent survey of artist Julian Schnabel emerged from AGO curator David Moos’ interests.


Later, Alvarez mentions that the ROM passed over the Tut show in part because they weren't allowed to add any curatorial material or artifacts for a Toronto showing. That explained a hell of a lot, given that when I went to see Tut at the AGO, I was baffled as to why there was no information on the "artists/artisans" who created these objects, or much information about the materials of the objects, the way they were made, and where they were found--stuff I might expect in a more art-contextualized show. (Or hell, maybe just contextualized show, period.)

While this article naturally only scratches the surface of why these programs have evolved in the way they have, I also appreciated Alvarez and Smith's generosity in speaking to the point of "art vs. artifact--is there any difference anymore?" Their reponses made me consider more than ever is the way cultural context can affect these definitions. When we look at the history of Western "art," there's many objects (sculptures, paintings, what have you) that were created to fulfill a specific purpose--like teach the masses about Catholic-church doctrine, or glorify the papacy or royalty.

And yet, when you ask people what an artifact is, they often say it's an object with a purpose or utility--something distinct from art, which is a "pure" personal expression of the artist. In that case, though, many "treasures of Western art" should be classified as artifacts to my mind, seeing as how they were basically advertising or tools for propaganda (or, to be less dogmatic, "education"). Or, we could say, they were used for religious or "tribal" purposes of their day--not unlike many of the non-European masks, vases and architectural details we see classified elsewhere as "artifacts."

Anyhoo, I know all those divisions are pretty null anyways. As Teather explained, museums tend to use a "specimen" approach these days--where all objects (and even nonobjects) are regarded as tools with which to tell a story or impart information--whether you want to classify that information or story as artistic or not.

(Detail image of El Anatsui's work from the Toronto Star)

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Monday, January 3, 2011

Holiday Catchup: The Shows I'm Looking Forward to in 2011


Happy new year! Just catching up on an item of mine that the Post published over my holidays last week. It's about Toronto shows I'm looking forward to in 2011. An excerpt:

For the Torontopians Some of the most anticipated 2011 shows highlight Toronto talent. Leading the local-pride parade is MOCCA’s This is Paradise, a tribute to the Queen West and Cameron House scenes opening June 23. On February 4, MOCCA also launches a solo exhibition of internationally recognized (but often overlooked) artist Luis Jacob. (Jacob’s book Commerce by Artists will also be released soon by Art Metropole.) Absolutely must-see is a survey of renowned feminist photographer Suzy Lake that opens at the University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC) as part of CONTACT this spring, while the ROM’s CONTACT offering is Edward Burtynsky and his touring, decade-long mega-project on the oil industry. Lots of smaller dealer shows also tempt: Marla Hlady’s sound sculptures opening at Jessica Bradley on Feb. 26; a large installation by An Te Liu at MKG127 starting April 23; up-and-comer Morley Shayuk’s first solo at Paul Petro beginning June 11; and Canadiana-kitscher Maura Doyle’s Petro show starting Oct. 14. On the public-art front, a larger-than-life James Carl sculpture will be installed near the TIFF Lightbox this summer, while Nuit Blanche, happening Oct. 1, has terrific curators tapped: St. Catharines’ Shirley Madill (who organized 2010 smash David Hoffos), the roving Candice Hopkins (known from coast to coast as a fine First Nations curator), and Toronto’s Nicholas Brown (who highlighted new talents at Red Bull 381 Projects). Jon Sasaki at the AGO in April should also be fun.

A few notes: Someone (correctly) pointed out to me over the holidays that Luis Jacob isn't as overlooked municipally as some might opine. I should have noted that Sasaki show is part of the Images fest. Also, one of many items I unfortunately cut for compression along the way is that the Toronto Sculpture Garden is turning 30 this September! They have vaguely promised something big to celebrate, though nothing specific to confirm yet. Still, I look forward to it. It's a pretty great little public art space.

You can read on here for my Canadian-art and international-artist picks confirmed to be in town as well in 2011, and feel free to post comments about anything you're looking forward to seeing.

(Still from UK artist Lindsay Seers' Extramission 6, which will be showing as part of Images in April at Gallery TPW.)

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