View on Canadian Art (3 unread)

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  Thomas Hirschorn: Information Overload at the Power Plant

  Posted: 7-April-2011, 8:39pm CEST by markt

  My experience with Thomas Hirschorn?s work is that it?s often about overkill. And It calls attention to the fake-ness of things, as if to suggest that what we assume is solid isn?t in fact all that stable. It?s just held together with tape, or made from cardboard.
  

  

  
  
  
  Thomas Hirschorn, Das Auge, at the Vienna Secession, 2008. Images: artnews.org
  

  

  
  
  
  Thomas Hirschorn, Das Auge, at the Power Plant, Toronto 2011. Images: artsynch.ca
  
  He has said, ?I?m interested in the ?too much,? doing too much, giving too much, putting too much of an effort into something. Wastefulness as a tool or weapon.?
  
  I would describe his installation, Das Auge at Toronto?s Power Plant, as altogether too much. It seems as if Hirschorn is trying to incite the feeling one gets of being bombarded by too many advertisements, protests, commodities, soundbites, messages etc.
  
  My favorite part of the installation, which occupies the entire large gallery space at the Power Plant, was the viewing platform, from which viewers can overlook the whole bloody mess, which takes as its main theme the seal hunt and the protesters who so vehemently rally against it.
  
  He?s going for a kind of emptiness. He wants the viewer to feel the void within all the cacophony. And, to a certain extent we do. But it must be hard, as an artist, to balance that without actually making artwork that is empty and tiresome.
  
  Hirschhorn was quoted in Frieze magazine as saying ?Art doesn?t give satisfaction. Art poses problems. Art gives questions. Art inflicts sadness.?
  
  
  

  

  
  Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, The Phantom Truck, 2007. Image: thepowerplant.org
  
  Whether Hirschorn makes the balance work is a moot point, though when you consider the entire exhibition, whose most interesting gesture was by curator Gregory Burke in pairing Hirschorn?s installation with a video and sculpture by Chicago-based Spanish artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, at the other side of the gallery.
  
  In the front room was Always After (The Glass House), a video of broken glass accumulated after the windows of the Mies van der Rohe-designed Illinois Institute of Technology?s Crown Hall were smashed. The glass is being swept up by someone with a broom. In the back room, in almost total darkness was Phantom Truck (2007), an enormous, full-scale model of a truck, imagined by the artist as one that was carrying the elusive ?weapons of mass destruction? as described by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
  
  Visitors are invited to circle the entire truck touching it, even using it as a guide in the darkness. The work engages the imagination in a way that is unusual for contemporary art, aided by the sense of touch and the potency of the video of shattered glass.
  
  Together with Das Auge, it neatly presented two perspectives on today: Information overload and lack of information.

  
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  ATTN: Historical & Critical Studies Students. View on Canadian Art is recruiting contributors

  Posted: 5-April-2011, 4:14pm CEST by markt

  Historical and Critical Studies was interested in getting the following distributed to NSCAD students. Below is a copy of the original email:
  
  I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself - I'm a Toronto-based art writer and publisher of View on Canadian Art (VoCA), a blog on contemporary art in Canada.
  
  I am presently in the process of expanding VoCA into an in-depth, cross-Canada online magazine on the visual arts.
  
  VoCA will be recruiting regular contributors from cities across Canada, and I?d like to know whom to speak with about about the possibility of involving students at NSCAD.
  
  In return for contributing to VoCA, students will receive a by-line, online bio and significant national and international exposure. Additionally, VoCA will archive articles indefinitely online.
  
  Writing on contemporary art gives students a chance to broaden their outlook, develop a critical mindset vis a vis their own work (and that of others) and to become immersed in their local art community.
  
  Please see [www.viewoncanadianart.blogspot.com] for more information. The full VoCA website is presently in beta ? it should be up and running in the next few months.
  
  Best,
  
  Andrea Carson
  Please read VocA:
  http://www.viewoncanadianart.blogspot.com/

  
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  Slutwalk Toronto & the Third Wave

  Posted: 5-April-2011, 4:24pm CEST by markt

  

  I was fascinated by yesterday?s Slutwalk that took place in Toronto, and sorry that I wasn?t able to attend.
  
  Slutwalk in Toronto yesterday. Image: scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.com
  
  The walk attracted around 1,000 people and was arranged in part as a protest against comments by police Constable Michael Sanguninetti who, while speaking to students at York Unviersity, said ?Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.?
  
  Women were outraged, and rightly so. It is an outrageous suggestion that women should bear the full responsibility in a case where sexual assault occurs. Even if she is dressing ?like a slut?, surely the man must take responsibility for his own actions. I mean it?s hard to believe that Sanguinetti was actually serious.
  
  

  

  With women brandishing placards that read ?Slut Pride? among other things, Slutwalk also has a refreshing third-wave feminist ring to it. Third wave feminism, comes after first and second wave, and is more focused on expression and acceptance of cultural, ethnic and sexual orientation than the previous two. At the same time, the third wave seems to have less of the defiance, the passion, the causes that first and second wave feminists stood for.
  
  Les Fermieres Obsedees in performance. Image: idata.over-blog.com
  
  So Slutwalk was a great expression of passion by the women who took part. And it seems to be talking off, with upcoming Slutwalks across Canada in Sackville, Yellowknife, Ottawa, Vancouver and Hamilton. And in the States in Boston and Dallas.
  
  I wonder if the organizers could harness the power of Slutwalk to generate some fire under women?s issues in the current Canadian federal election? I bet Michael Ignatieff would take some time to listen?
  
  Speaking of feminism, one of my recent discoveries is the Quebec collective Les Fermieres Obsedees, a Quebec art collective made up of two artists, Annie Baillargeon and Eugenie Cliché.
  
  

  

  Les Fermieres Obsedees in performance. Image: lieu-ressource-ornicart.over-blog.com
  
  They seek to create, in their um, unconventional performances, an effect that speaks to the mass standardization and lethargy of contemporary society. The group, always in uniform - but never pretty - create cross-disciplinary performances that are a clash of dance, theatre, music and visual art.
  
  I hope they come to Toronto soon?.

  
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  TONIGHT: Love, More Love at Mercer Union, Toronto

  Posted: 20-December-2007, 3:49pm CET by Andrea Carson

  Love, More Love is the annual Mercer Union members exhibition..
  
  ..where all works are sold for $100 on a first-come first-served basis.
  
  The show features photographs, paintings, drawings, bookworks, multiples and sculptural works. Participating artists include:
  
  Dean Baldwin, Christine Baigent, Katie Bethune-Leamen, Diane Borsato, Krista Buecking, Corinne Carlson, Trudie Cheng, Taku Dazai, Michel de Broin, Janis Demkiw, Dave Dyment, Kenneth Goldsmith, Anitra Hamilton, Kristan Horton, Tracey Horvath, Beth Howe, Patrick Howlett, Jen Hutton, Instant Coffee, Kelly Jazvac, Kristiina Lahde, Corwyn Lund, Arnaud Maggs, Michael Maranda, Kelly Mark, John Massey, Stephen McLeod, Olia Mishchenko, Janet Morton, Suzanne Nacha, John O'Regan, Roula Parthniou, Kerri Reid, Kevin Rodgers, Kalina Rutledge, Jon Sasaki, Chris Shepherd, Allison Smith, Derek Sullivan, Zin Taylor, Christy Thompson, Carolyn Tripp, Rob Waters, Stephen Wicks, and many more.
  
  For details on how the sale functions please visit the Mercer Union blog
  HERE
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  2 Articles: Beauty in Art & Seven Tips for Art Collectors

  Posted: 21-December-2007, 6:17pm CET by Andrea Carson

  From this...
  
  
  Michelangelo Buarotti, Pieta, 1498/9-1500. Image: wikimedia.org
  
  ...to this?
  
  
  Andres Serrano, Piss Christ, 1987. Image: answers.com
  
  1. Does beauty still belong in art?
  
  Read what Carol Stickland from the Christian Science Monitor has to say, right HERE.
  
  
  2. Seven tips for beginning art collectors, courtesty of Artinfo:
  
  Read more HERE
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  VoCA says Happy Christmas & Happy Holidays

  Posted: 24-December-2007, 11:55pm CET by Andrea Carson

  In the spirit of reflection over a year gone by so quickly...and despite our recognition of the overall futility of 'Best Of' lists, we have nonetheless gone ahead with VoCA's Best of 2007, in the hopes that it may provide for some spirited discussion over the holidays:
  
  BEST OF 2007
  
  
  Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Corpus, c. 1650 Image: cbc.ca
  
  1. Bernini's Corpus, donated by collector Murray Frum to the AGO, Toronto
  
  2. The Aeroplan Grange Prize for contemporary photography announcement at the AGO, Toronto
  
  3. The Invisible Landscape revealing our place in the world, MOCCA, Toronto
  
  4. The opening of DHC Art Foundation, Montreal
  
  5. Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre, National Gallery, Ottawa and touring
  
  6. Huang Yong Ping?s controversial show, House of Oracles, at the VAG, Vancouver
  
  7. Rirkrit Tiravanija?s exhibition, residency and talk ? just his presence at OCAD, Toronto
  
  8. Visualeyez festival of performance art in Edmonton
  
  9. Altogether, Daniel Cockburn?s choreographed performance at AGYU, Toronto
  
  10. Isabelle Hayeur and Eric Raymond, Tunnel Vision at TSV, Toronto
  
  
  Isabelle Hayeur & Eric Raymond, Tunnel Vision, 2007. Image: trinitysqarevideo.com
  
  11. Rainer Eisch?s installation, Nous serons-nous jamais rencontrés? at Quartier Ephemere, Montreal
  
  12. Omer Fast?s Dogville at Plug in ICA, Winnipeg
  
  13. The ViVA prize being awarded to Luanne Martineau, Vancouver
  
  14. Shary Boyle?s exquisite figurines at the Power Plant, Toronto
  
  15. Predators and Prey at Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto
  
  
  Luanne Martineau, Figure, 2006. Image: cbc.ca
  
  
  MOST EXCITING OF 2007
  
  1. BGL, artist collective, Quebec
  
  2. The Arbour Lake School, artist collective, Calgary
  
  3. Michel de Broin, artist, Montreal
  
  4. Elizabeth McIntosh, artist, Vancouver
  
  5. Mark Lewis, artist, London UK
  
  6. Luis Jacob, artist, Toronto
  
  7. Kelly Mark, artist, Toronto
  
  8. Adad Hannah, artist, Montreal
  
  9. David Altmejd, artist, Brooklyn/London
  
  10. Wil Kucey, director, Le Gallery, Toronto
  
  11. Sarah Anne Johnson, artist, Winnipeg
  
  12. Jason Gringler, artist, New York
  
  13. Louise Dery, curator at UQAM, Montreal
  
  14. Fred Herzog, artist, Vancouver
  
  15. Tim Lee, artist, Vancouver
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  One to watch: Robert Waters

  Posted: 1-January-2008, 5:56pm CET by Andrea Carson

  VoCA wishes you a very Happy New Year!
  
  While we were sunning ourselves in beautiful Costa Rica, Bill Clarke, writer, collector and FoV (Friend of VoCA) caught up with Toronto artist Robert Waters in Mexico City, where Waters currently resides.
  
  Since receiving his BFA, with honors, from York University in 1998, Waters' work has been exhibited in Spain, Mexico and Canada.
  
  Waters' drawings are influenced by his interest in collage. In his best-known work, Waters begins with brown packing tape and uses it as a background for portraits and life drawings drawn with thick black line using permanent marker. Waters adds highlights to his figures by cutting away areas of the tape, revealing the paper beneath.
  
  
  
  Robert Waters, Beauty and the Beast, 2007. Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  
  Robert Waters, Beauty and the Beast, 2007. Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  
  The following chat took place over pastor tacos and glasses of mescal:
  
  BC: So, how is Mexico City treating you?
  
  RW: It?s hard to complain.
  
  BC: Is living here influencing your work?
  
  RW: It definitely is. Mexico is a remarkably vibrant culture. There is a general creativity borne of necessity here. You often see materials used for purposes other than their original intent. For example, there?s a construction site not far from where I live, and old oil drums have been joined together to make garbage chutes and buckets have been modified to make strands of lampshades. I like to use materials in a similar way. Also, Catholicism is a very visual culture, and Mexico is almost 90 percent Catholic. A big part of that is blood, gore, violence and death, which is much different from my protestant upbringing!
  
  BC: Jesus has appeared frequently in your work lately. Is this because images of Jesus are everywhere in Mexico City?
  
  RW: I had some ideas for Jesus-related projects before moving here, but I have been inspired in many different ways. I?m interested in exploring the physical body and its transcendence, and Jesus is Western culture?s primary example of both. I?ve also been interested in exploring artistic ideas of copying and how ideas are interpreted and retransmitted. Taking ideas from someone else and interpreting as your own. There is a vast history of Jesus being depicted in art, so the subject is a broad enough for me to combine the present with the past. It?s a way of working within an artistic tradition, but also to comment on it in a contemporary context.
  
  
  Robert Waters, Willem Dafoe (from The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988), 2007.
  Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  
  Robert Waters, Enrique Rambal Jr. (from El Martir del Calvario, 1952), 2007.
  Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  BC: What do you think that contemporary context is?
  
  The entire history of the Western world is based on Christianity and that context has been power and, until recently, unquestionable authority. Christianity is at a point where that power is being challenged, especially by science and philosophy. The advancement of scientific thought and methods which require proof, unlike religion that doesn?t require proof, has certainly undermined Christianity. My work is part of the questioning of the historical supremacy of Christianity.
  
  BC: At your recent show at PM Gallery in Toronto, you showed a series of portraits of actors, such as Jeffrey Hunter and Willem Dafoe, in the role of Jesus in movies. How did this come about?
  
  RW: Ultimately I wanted to point out that we know very little about Jesus and that our understanding of him is very subjective. I used red wine, obviously symbolic of Christ?s blood, as the medium to portray different actors in the role of Jesus Christ. I wanted to contrast symbolic meaning with personal interpretation. This series is best seen as a group, illustrating the dichotomy of a single historical figure, Jesus, being played by many different men.
  
  BC: There were also four large paper works entitled What You Can?t See. What were those about?
  
  RW: They all represent Jesus?s loincloths from Renaissance paintings that I?ve only seen in reproductions. I thought the loincloth was an appropriate symbol for that which can?t be known. Primarily I was thinking of faith, but it also represents the denial of sexuality within Christianity. The loincloths are meant to be coverings, but by rendering them in cut paper, their original intent is subverted.
  
  
  Robert Waters, What you can't see (from The Baptism of Christ by Masolino da Pinicale, c. 1435), 2007.
  Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  
  Robert Waters, What you can't see (from The Baptism of Christ by Pierro Della Francesca, c. 1415), 2007.
  Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  BC: You?ll be exhibiting in Spain in February, 2008. Do you know what you are planning to show?
  
  RW: The group exhibition, at Artium in Vitoria, is about site-specific projects. I?ll be making a Man at Computer installation, which is an ongoing series made of strips of packing tape adhered to the wall, with an image cut from the tape to reveal the white museum wall underneath. The image is always a man at his computer, alone at night, and usually undressed. I?ve already got some models lined up in Vitoria.
  
  
  Robert Waters, Man at Computer XVII, 2007. Image: pmgallery.ca
  
  BC: Good luck with that. More mescal?
  
  RW: Si, caballero!...
  
  Robert Waters is represented by PM Gallery, in Toronto. Please click HERE for the gallery website.
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  News: POWER PLANT GOES TO SITE SANTA FE 2008

  Posted: 2-January-2008, 2:46pm CET by Andrea Carson

  
  The Power Plant Art Gallery, Toronto. Image: Xavier Snelgrove
  
  The Power Plant and Toronto artist Scott Lyall selected to participate in the SITE Santa Fe Biennale, June 22 through October 26, 2008.
  
  The Power Plant is the only Canadian institution selected and is the only North American institution outside Santa Fe to be included.
  
  ?We are thrilled that The Power Plant has been selected by Mr. Fung to represent Canada at this prestigious international exhibition,? states Gregory Burke, Director of The Power Plant and one of the 19 curators at SITE Sante Fe.
  
  ?It is an important part of our mandate to advocate for Canadian contemporary art practices on the world stage. I am honoured to be part of this global curatorial team and am excited to be curating Scott Lyall, an emerging Canadian talent who will no doubt take the international art world by storm.?
  
  
  Scott Lyall, an aaliyah, 2006. Image: susanhobbs.com
  
  
  Scott Lyall, an aaliyah, drawing, 2006. Image: susanhobbs.com
  
  Scott Lyall (b.1964) studied Commerce at Queen?s University (Kingston, ON) and Law at the University of Toronto before receiving a Masters Degree from CalArts (Los Angeles) in 1993. Since then he has exhibited in Canada and internationally. Recent exhibitions include We Can Do This Now, a group show at The Power Plant, Toronto, in 2006; When Hangover Becomes Form, a collaboration with Rachel Harrison at Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver and LACE, Los Angeles, 2006; a dancer dances at Miguel Abreu Gallery, New York, 2006; and the little contemporaries at SculptureCenter, New York, in 2007.
  
  Lyall combines drawing, painting, sculpture, and found objects into spare yet complex sculptural environments. An intense period of research and digital image making precedes each project.
  
  He makes his sculptures from everyday materials like particle board and Styrofoam and incorporates minor, ephemeral fragments, as well as mathematically-generated drawings and paintings, into his installations.
  
  
  Scott Lyall, only the beat of a tiring drum/ASP.53930, 200. Image: susanhobbs.com
  
  For the Site SantaFe website, please click HERE
  
  Scott Lyall is represented by the Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto. For gallery website, please click HERE.
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  Ettore Sottsass Riposi In Pace

  Posted: 3-January-2008, 2:15pm CET by Andrea Carson

  
  Ettore Sottsass. Image: nyt.com
  
  VoCA is saddened to hear of the passing of one of our favorite designers, Ettore Sottsass. He was 90 years old. The influential designer, photographer and founder of the Memphis design group had an exceptionally creative mind and outrageous design sensibility.
  
  
  Ettore Sottsass, Carlton shelving unit, 1981. Image: io.tudelft.nl
  
  In 1980 Sottsass formed Memphis with a group of younger avant-garde designers from around the world, including Andrea Branzi, Alessandro Mendini Martine Bedin, and Michele De Lucchi. With the aim to revive Radical Design, and breaking the rules of the slick minimalism of the 70?s, they produced products that featured plastic and laminate surfaces, kitsch geometric patterns and bright colors. Memphis captured the attention of the mass media, and dominated the early 1980?s design scene. Sottsass parted with the group in 1985 to concentrate on Sottsass Associati, his Milan based architecture and design practice.
  
  
  Ettore Sottssas, Valentine, portable typewriter, 1969. Item in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: bdonline.co.uk
  
  He was born in Innsbruck in 1917. His father, Ettore Sottsass Senior, was an architect. He studied architecture at Turin University and later worked for his father. In the late 1950?s he became a consultant to the electronics division of Olivetti. He created a series of technically innovative products ? including the first Italian computer, the Elea 9003, and the bright red plastic 1970 Valentine typewriter.
  
  Read the New York Times article HERE.
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  VoCA Recommends...Rick Leong at Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Dave Dyment at MKG 127 & Jason Gringler at Angell Gallery, Toronto

  Posted: 3-January-2008, 3:22pm CET by Andrea Carson

  1. Wonderland, paintings by Rick Leong at Parisian Laundry, Montreal.
  
  January 11 - February 23, 2008
  
  
  Rick Leong, The Wandering Rain, 2006. Image: parisianlaundry.com
  
  Rick Leong obtained his BFA (with honors) from the University of Victoria and his MFA from Concordia University in 2007.
  
  A third generation Chinese-Canadian, Rick?s beautiful and delicate large-scale landscapes are explorations of Eastern and Western painting traditions. Contrasts and similarities morph into unique imaginary places filling the painted plane with elements of tradition, culture, style, technique, fantasy and reality.
  
  
  Rick Leong, Fall, 2006. Image: parisianlaundry.com
  
  For the gallery website, please click HERE.
  
  
  2. Room Tone, an exhibition of new work by Toronto artist Dave Dyment, at MKG 127, Toronto.
  
  January 5 - 2 February, 2008
  
  
  Dave Dyment, One Minute of Silence, Time-lapse photograph, 2006. This piece is a document of a recording of one minute of silence from Princess Diana's funeral playing on a turntable, the shutter left open for the duration of the track. Image: davedyment.com.
  
  Room Tone takes its name from the ambient recordings filmmakers use to provide continuous-sounding background.
  Dyment, whose practice often deals with silences and near-silences, shows new works in a variety of media that deal with quiet drones, distortion and feedback.
  
  The exhibition continues the artist?s interest in the minute and the infinite, employing sparse and simple concepts with distinctly poetic undertones.
  
  
  Dave Dyment, White Noise, Silkscreen score & sound recording, 2005. Here, the sheet music from every song on the Beatles double album, commonly refered to as "The White Album", is silkscreened on top of one another. A companion audio piece takes each track and, using time-stretch software, lengthens or shortens them to their common average length (3:06) and plays them back simultaneously, creating a cacophonous roar through which one can make out traces of the original. A kind of time-lapse audio portrait. Image: davedyment.com
  
  Click HERE for more about Dyment's work.
  
  For the gallery website, please click HERE
  
  
  3. Jason Gringler, Various States of Undress, Construction and Repair at Angell Gallery, Toronto.
  
  January 11 - 16 February, 2008
  
  
  Jason Gringler, Me, 2007, acrylic, collage, spray paint on and behind acrylic sheet with mirror and plexi glass.
  Image: angellgallery.com
  
  Dizzying spatial divisions, frenetic urban energy, an industrial palette of silver and black (offset by high-keyed accent colours) continue in Gringler?s abstractions. Shards of mirror reflect the architecture of the space, establishing a connection between the paintings and their site of exhibition.
  
  
  Jason Gringler, Me (New York remix), 2007, acrylic, collage, and spray paint on and behind plexi with mirror.
  Image: angellgallery.com
  
  For more information, please click HERE