2 Tumblrs

I think are perfect. Should I be getting a Tumblr or something?

http://youareatoy.tumblr.com/

http://brokennecksfeatherweights.tumblr.com/

TPW: Photorama

I went to TPW's Photorama for my first time and I can't say enough good things about it. First, on the non-art side of things, Union catered it (hello Elk Sliders!). On those more relevant things, the exhibition was a well-curated and really interesting selection of local, old and new guard. Brent and I argued over what we liked best, but in the end took home Danielle Greer's fluffy pink explosion with matching flowers (above), one of Edward Burtynsky's (BP) Oil Spill photographs, and a photograph of a cat blanketed in a variety of plush furs (we haven't picked it up yet and can't find an image online- will post later). My only regret was that we didn't pick up Alex Kisilevich's matronly cousin-it. The image is really on trend with young photographers who are revisiting traditional portraiture, but abandoning the portrait. The absence of the face, be it through obscuring, masking or erasing it altogether, disembodies the subject making it appear almost empty, less real. More on this later (ie: Robyn Cumming and Derek Liddington).

Boyle Boyle Toil & Trouble

I wanted to start the review by saying despite all the vomit and regurgitation, Boyle's Flesh and Blood was a breath of fresh air.... but chickened out. Read the full review of the AGO exhibition here: http://woman.ca/concert-and-show-reviews/3397-shary-boyles-flesh-and-blood

Alex Fischer at O'Born Closing Soon

The exhibition, titled "Smarter Today," closes December 4th and I really recommend seeing it before it's done. The accompanying statement describes the work as futuristic landscapes- which brings to mind the very different work of the Kanye-endorsed Alex McLeod. What stood out, were the ideas of collage/compilation/absorption/assemblage. The statement continues: The subjects and characters of Smarter Today are reflections on the syncretism that created them. Their exterior identities have been extricated to include all of their precursors. They are heterogeneous and intermingled with their environments, yet maintain their subjectivity in the face of a post-structuralist world.

I like anything that reminds me of Bladerunner and conjures notions of futurism, but Fischer's work isn't so much a sci-fi version a la Jetsons, but rather a beautiful, albeit despairing, rendering that is less dependent on technology-like, graphic details and in favour of something more subdued.

Too much Winnipeg

Is there such a thing?

Big ups to prairie-boy Daniel Barrow for winning the very-big Sobey Art Award.

J'ai rêvé New York

New York is booked for beginning of December. MoMA has some goodies: Abstract Expressionist New York (I'm excited for this, but Pollock's always at MoMa no?); On to Pop (ditto, and right on the heels of the big Lichtenstein sale!), and two photo shows- one all female. That show, aptly titled Pictures By Women: A History of Modern Photography, is one I'm particularly excited about since, for one, I've been working more and more with photography and two, my research background has a lot to do with my interests in feminist theory. (Image above is from the exhibited slide installation by Lisa Oppenheim).

What I'm really excited to see though from this exhibition is the inimitable Yoko Ono and George Maciunas' Fluxus bum wallpaper known as Bottoms (1973). The repeated still making up the wallpaper was taken from Yoko Ono's film (from '67), featuring close up bums including that of Carolee Schneeman's, of the same name. It's only about 6 min if you feel like watching.


Yoko Ono has been recorded as saying it was really just some sort of collective mooning at the absurd, but the film corresponds to a period in which technology and art were increasingly employed by Fluxartists as a means of exploring the perceptual experience. In her theoretical text on American fluxarts, Hannah Higgins identified the movement’s characteristic explorations of vision through an analysis of three Fluxartworks: John Cavanaugh’s film Flicker (1966), Yoko Ono’s film Eyeblink (1966), and Daniel Spoerri and Francois Dufrene’s retina-piercing spectacles Optique Moderne (1963). Each- as the titles indicate- is concerned with seeing, perception and/or the visual apparatus; however, the films in particular link how we see with how we move and thereby create a multi-sensory experience. Higgins describes how both Cavanaugh’s Flicker and Yoko Ono’s Eyeblink induce the viewer into a blinking frenzy and expose the limitations of both the “visible (what is seen in the world) and the optical (how humans see these things.)” Bottoms, like Eyeblink and from the same period, really focuses on the tension between the role of the camera and the ways in which we see. While it doesn't produce that same bananas-blinking, the way in which the subjects walk/move away from the camera's viewpoint challenges its typical function to frame the subject and structure space- things that became typical of structural film (I don't think Yoko's part of Sitney's thing, but I think there are a few similarities that can be teased out). Below is an image of a version of Optique Moderne, not quite as good, but by Daniel Spoerri from the same period...

Julian Schnabel - Iron Man

I haven't seen the Julian Schnabel exhibition at the AGO (maybe yet? I don't know)... but I've read a few recent reviews on this particular show and a few older reviews/profiles of the oft-pyjama-clad artist. Most feature words like over-hyped, obnoxious or tasteless, but, in my humble opinion, the good reviews are even more cringe-inducing. I don't know why, but I hate when art writers base their reviews on the imaginary ability of an artwork to produce "raw and brutal emotions." If you're going to get in the Schnabel-corner, at least lend it a little theoretical credence. I mean, is something art if a critic hasn't (properly) written about it?

(Take this with a grain of salt, I haven't visited the show but have seen his work; also this has nothing to do with his film-making. I don't care about that for the purpose (haha) of this post.)

Schnabel is kind of like Iron Man. Not the superhero, but rather his artwork is like the blockbuster movie. It's glossy, big-budget, bloated and rather meaningless. To be honest though, I liked Iron Man; it was good vacuous fun and Robert Downey Jr. is a charmer in the role of the millionaire, weapon-maker. Did I give the film much thought after the credits started? Nope. And I think the same could be said of Schnabel's ginormous blah-paintings. I kind of like checking them out, I like that they make me think of this wonderfully decadent and vapid period in art history (the 80s).... but the giant canvases seem more well-suited for the studio set belonging to the artist from 'A Perfect Murder' that Gwyneth Paltrow cheats on her Wall St. hubby with.

I really hope between this and the Tut show the AGO brings in something more well, substantial (and I mean this is non-economical terms). It's uplifting to think that this will almost certainly be found in the upcoming Jack Chambers show, at once significant and subtle. Can't wait!!

Toronto International Art Fair

It's over! Like a nightmare, I saw Damien Hirst's everywhere and don't remember much else. Better blog posts to come...

It's bad that I like Hirst's 'All You Need is Love' (above) right?

Cabin Fever in Winnipeg

Coming from the sprawling and icy prairies, I've always had a particular affinity for Northrop Frye's analysis of the Canadian psyche, or as he named it, 'the garrison mentality.' Frye's whole thing depended on his chilling description of our geography- flat, open landscapes and a frightening climate. This was some sixties madness (he wrote it in '65), but has stuck ever since with everyone from Atwood to Coupland elaborating on it. And it's true, no? There's this pervasive boredom felt in the prairies, which I'll argue is extra-Canadiana... but it has a silver-lining. A symptom of this boredom is this incredible cultural and artsy side. Winnipeg, I think, is like a secret fort of imagination.

Anyways- this was an all-too-wordy introduction to my post on Platform Gallery's current exhibition, 'Cabin Fever.' Curated by JJ Kegan McFadden, the statement reads: The prairies offer a paradox of being isolated by its so-called land-locked geography and climate of extremes, yet its denizens are recognized for their creative productivity. What is it about being isolated that stirs creativity among us? Further into the statement, my favourite little section suggests that the exhibited artists offer suggestions, even exit strategies to deal with this stir-craziness. I love that, exit strategies.

I know participating photographer Zoe Jaremus here in Toronto (the gallery I work for reps her), and I knew I loved her Strange & Awkward Conversations pieces immediately (above). It's the exit strategies in it. The females display this domestic ennui, this absolute fucking boredom and are slumped over and defeated in their daily, banal duties.

Seriously, those in Wpg should see this show, and tell me about it. It also includes Terence Koh and Jon Sasaki. You can read the show concept on the iCi website too: http://ici-exhibitions.org/index.php/ci/twocp/cabin_fever - so Winnipeg.

Ps: Telling that this show and the FF Canadian show shared some thematic parallels...

Ravi Shukla/ aka Bill Beso

(This image is probably the size of a penny... )

My very good friend Lisa Kehler, who now lives with her family on the East coast, curated an exhibition of Ravi Shukla's illustrations in Winnipeg at the Semai Gallery (run by Takashi Iwasaki who is represented at Le Gallery).

Titled "Bombs & Wombs," Lisa had installed Ravi Shukla's (also known as Bill Beso) very fine, detailed illustrations along the long and skinny hallway which makes up Semai, meaning 'narrow' in Japanese. A perfect space for exhibiting these teensy drawings made up of tiny, metamorphic creatures.

From the exhibition statement: His creations vary from the simplest of figures to the most mystical and fantastic beast-like forms. It is Shukla's use of space within the border of each surface, perhaps best described by Semai Gallery Director Takashi Iwasaki as the "anti-gravitational aspect" that reinforces each drawing's ability to urge the viewer to recall those youthful memories of awesome possibilities. We are unable to decipher the exact orientation of who is climbing and who is falling; or even what is what is up and what is down.

These hybrid, grotesque little beasts are closely related to ideas of transmorphism and are nearly illustrative versions of Odilon Redon's strange beings. One of my past profs had been researching transmorphism in relation to the spiritual. She seamed together these brilliant links between Redon, Galle- namely his tadpole vase and other French symbolists. This, of course, made me love these drawings even more and now I have a wonderful shadowbox installed in my living room!

Love you Mom & Dad

Neil Farber, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2009, 12 x 16", acrylic on panel; as seen the website for Richard Heller Gallery, which is in California... is there anything better than thinking of a Californian buying this from a dealer? Mmm no.

I miss the prairies sometimes

Flash Forward Pick- Numero 3

Peter Ainsworth, Trying to Photograph a Ball so that it is at the Centre of a Picture, after John Baldessari, 1972-73, 2007

Peter Ainsworth was also included in the Paper, Rock, Scissors show at FF. After a quick google search to find out more about him, I learned that he was shortlisted for the Converse/Dazed (as in Digital) 2010 Emerging Artist award. He was interviewed for the site, and was nothing short of eloquent with each answer and actually rather bohemian- for instance, in response to a question about his family, Ainsworth said: My dad was an exhibition designer and has a fantastically light and fluid drawing style, so I have been aware of the production of art since a very early age. My mum is very scholarly and interested in a wide range of subjects. She taught me how to engage with a conceptual appreciation of art. My elder brother works as a project manager for exhibition installations and my sister is a fantastic puppeteer!

FF exhibited the photographs from his 'Art Handling Re-creations:' a clever series with art historical references. Sometimes, despite whether it should or shouldn't be done (an argument over the lack of critical discourse in photography is for another post), I like to insert photography into the art historical canon. Here, Ainsworth chose various (male) modernist, minimalist and conceptual artists as a starting point for his work. Each photograph is named after these referents. In doing so, I'm reminded of Griselda Pollock's article titled 'Avant-Garde Gambits,' that divides the avant-garde into a point of reference, deference and difference (she was into the Manet/Gaugin- 'Olympia'/'Spirit of the Dead' comparison). Ainsworth's series, while maybe not necessarily typically avant-garde, is nicely framed by Pollock's terms.

The ode to Baldessari is so subtle, but one of my favourites (the first image). While I don't know much about Baldessari, I do like that his work is often underscored by mathematical/scientific processes. In '72, the white-haired artist repeatedly threw a ball in the air in an attempt to perfectly record it at the centre of a film frame. You can read somebody who's wayyy more well-versed on the wonderful Baldaessari here.




Peter Ainsworth, Equivalence VII After Carl Andre, 1966, 2007 (above) and Carl Andre, Equivalent VIII, 1966 (below)

The Ghost Who Walks

Good album cover!

Flash Forward Pick- Numero 2

Carlo Van de Roer is one of my absolute favourite 2010 Flash Forward Award recipients. Robyn showed me his work a few weeks ago and I've fantasized about organizing an exhibition in Toronto with his work since then.
The reason I was so excited by these photographs stems from my past research in the 'ghost' photos from the Spiritualist movement at the turn of the century (see a few posts ago...). Van de Roer uses a 1970s Polaroid aura camera invented to record the aura of the subject- something normally only reserved for a psychic.

From Van de Roer's website: The subject is connected directly to the camera by hand-plates that measure biofeedback, which the camera depicts as an aura of color in the Polaroid and translates into a printed diagram and description explaining the camera's interpretation of the subject. It also explains separately, what the the subject is expressing and how they are seen by others, such as the photographer, suggesting the camera bypasses the control of the photographer and subject in making the portrait. This printout, which includes information about the subjects emotions, potential, aspirations, future, etc. is presented to the viewer along with each photograph in a similar manner to a caption.

Besides using such an awesome, new-age, hippie-like device, Van de Roer has chosen some truly stellar artists for subjects like Terence Koh, Tim Barber and Miranda July. Accompanying these images on his website is the mini-description yielded from the camera. Obviously this thing has a stockpile of analyses that it dishes out, but the Scorpio in me totally buys into it.

For Koh: 'People see Terence as willing to work, to gain wealth in terms of educational, cultural or physical attainments.'

For July: 'Everything which is thought and desired must become reality.'

For Barber: 'Creative, artistic... constructive self expression is important to (him).' People see Tim as: '...alive, outgoing, sexual and powerful...working hard...conquest.'

How great would it be to see these alongside some of its Spirit photo precedents? And, I happen to know Winnipeg has one of the best archives outside New York and Germany (how strange is that?)...

Flash Forward Pick- Numero 1

Noemie Goudal's photography was part of the British exhibition Paper, Rock, Scissors curated by Simon Bainbridge and Diane Smyth. This exhibition examines the growing trend in the constructed image in photography. Here, on the one hand, construction refers to the collage-aesthetic in photography; on the other hand, this construction refers to the building process involved in setting up the photograph- as seen in Goudal's waterfall image above.

Goudal's waterfall really reminds me of another favourite- Letha Wilson (below). Wilson's photographs aren't necessarily collaged; rather, her work is a deconstructed/reconstructed installation, and thereby more sculptural than 2-D.

Noel Rodo-Vankeulen

My good friend Sarah described Noel's work as having a hallucinatory post-apocalyptic feel, totally spiritualized- which I love and think perfectly describes the works Robyn and I chose for Where is Here.

Flash Forward Festival 2010

The Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward Festival has begun in Toronto and will run until Sunday, October 10th. With curated exhibitions, including a British, Swiss, American, Canadian and Group show, the festival will also play host to a number of amazing individuals, like Donald Weber, who will be giving free lectures and workshops for the Toronto community.

With Robyn McCallum, I co-curated the Canadian exhibition. Titled "Where is Here," the exhibition is framed by Northrop Frye's theories of the Canadian experience; more specifically, his description of the Canadian psychology against the physicality of the landscape. Robyn and I are the only emerging curators involved in FF, and unlike the other exhibitions, this show is installed outdoors and is probably best described as an exhibition-like installation. The photographs chosen (from artists Dylan Hewlett, Sara Cwynar, Natalie Ferguson, Johan Hallberg-Campbell and Noel Rodo-Vankeulen) are placed right onto the brick facades. Sunday, FF will have its closing party in this space from 3-9 at 20 Mowat Ave.

On that note- I'll be posting my favourite photographs exhibited at the 2010 Flash Forward Festival in the coming days. I've already started scribbling names in my trusty notepad.

Kiss Kiss Sang Sang

I really do think if I could own any artwork, Joyce Wieland's O Canada would be wayyyy up high on my list. Such a simple concept, so effectively executed. To accompany it of course, I would need her incredible quilt Reason Over Passion. Then I'd stuff the 1971 True Patriot Love catalogue (from her show at the National Gallery) in my dusty bookshelf. That catalogue-a conceptual work of its own- was originally titled The Illustrated Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which Wieland unbound and filled with Canadiana 'things', everything from letters to flowers. Wieland is the only female artist who made it into the art history lectures I attended that incorporated Canadian nationalism into her work. Besides that though, her work has this perfect combination of DIY-aesthetics and craft (particularly the quilting), rooted in feminine history, producing a complexity to the nationalistic work in True Patriot Love.

I recently saw the film !Women Art Revolution by Lynn Hershman Leeson during TIFF. !WAR is a compilation of over 40 years of film taken by Hershman Leeson, an artist herself (image above), and features candid interviews with fellow peers including Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Marcia Tucker, Guerrilla Girls, Miranda July, Mike Kelley, Hannah Wilke (image below) and Yvonne Rainer among others.
The film's focus, which I'm sure is painfully obvious, is the exclusion of females from the art historical canon. The film's bigger picture however tracks the progress, or rather lack thereof, of the feminist movement.

!WAR is fascinating, not only because it contains never-before-seen personal footage or that it's filled with women discussing women (besides Mike Kelley and what could've been Eric Fishl who had been filmed, I found out in the Q&A, but asked that it not be included...), but also because it balanced the oppression of women with some inspiring humour, found in the Guerrilla Girls and the inimitable Marcia Tucker.

Speaking of, some of my favourite moments of the film were when Tucker. Tucker, who held positions with the Whitney and help found the New Museum, maintained an unusual sense of humour in trying times, including having had a lower salary than her male counterparts throughout her career and later being suddenly let go at the Whitney.


The women of !WAR also discussed the untimely passing of Ana Mendieta. Mendieta's work, like much of the work by the artists included in the film, dealt with body politics and gender constructs. Her outdoor installations seemed to have appeared from the artist pressing her entire body into the earth as if to create these superficial graves (image above). Filling them with water, fire, bones and blood, curators have situated her work into Kristeva's (another incredible female figure in art history) matrix of abject theory. Her marriage to sculptor Carl Andre, the events surrounding her death, and the splitting in opinion of the community is like a microcosm of the doc's at large.

The artwork from the women of !WAR wasn't necessarily easy to digest, but it's that there were so few opportunities for public consumption of the work. !WAR thereby provides a fascinating summary of some of the overlooked female artists (not Frida, O'Keefe, Morisot or Cassatt) that punctuated feminist history since the sixties.

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

I haven't seen Blue Valentine yet, but I've been watching the released clip over and over and I just think this heartbreaking, favourite song of mine is absolutely fitting. I hope that, in addition to the Penny & the Quarters song played here, it's included somewhere.

(*This is an old facebook note I did where I grumpily wrote that if I had a blog, I'd blog it.)

I just listened to every version/cover of Bob Dylan's 'It's all over now Baby Blue,' that has been posted on Youtube. I listen to the 'Them' version at least 3 times daily; this is my favourite song and apparently I'm not the only one... it's been covered about a zillion times. Here's my report card for the rest of them (it's such rainy weather- I figured someone would listen to them- and i don't have a blog for this shit.*)

Bob Dylan- A. It's beautiful because it's sooo Dylan. The subtle, shaky and warbling sound of his voice over the simple, repeated chords are perfectly in rhythm with each other. The lyrics are moody and straining, and while he's suggesting someone is leaving and a relationship is dissolving, it's pretty typically Dylan in that I don't really know what he's talking about (where's Michelle Pfeiffer when you need her?) It's not my favourite, sacrilegious i know, but...

THEM- A+. The plunked guitar strings layered by the echoing piano notes are so wonderfully creepy and Van the Man is incredibly heartbreaking. The result is this chilling rendition, where Morrison is nearly competing with the instruments, sounding at once calm and perturbed. It's kind of as if, THEM built on Dylan and complicated the composition ever so slightly. Every fucking time i listen to this, I get this 60s set image where a lithe woman is packing her bags in some small apartment (maybe like Roman 'rape-rape' Polanski's apartment), while Van achingly sings, undecided if she should stay or go.

Joni Mitchell- C+. I hate to give such a low grade to Joni... especially considering how much I've always loved 'Coyote' and how much I love that feminist chip on her shoulder. Anyhow, this (and I can't figure out the date but it obviously ain't the swinging 60s) sounds like lame suburban-mom music. It reminds me of that scene in Love Actually where Emma Thompson thinks she's getting that necklace from her husband, but instead it's the Joni Mitchell cd, and she goes and cries in her room.

The Byrds- B+. I kind of like this one. I think mainly because something about the chorus sounded like CSNY- and that's just so Winnipeg for me. (Post-note: my dear friend Sarah Small Fry is a big Byrds fan; so sorry Sarah for the mid-grade).

Eric Burdon and the Animals- A-. My dad convinced me to take guitar lessons for two years when I was younger. All the music I listen to now is largely influenced by him. I remember I would go see this long-haired guitar hero wannabe at Frant Park Mall and hang out with him for a few hours strumming both an acoustic and electric guitar. For my final music festival, my teacher had decided to move from 'The Ants Go Marching' to 'House of the Rising Sun.' I was little and had no idea what the song was, but my dad was pretty over the moon when I told him; he sat front row at my festival cheering me on, reliving his hippie glory days when he dropped acid and protested nuclear weapons in his tie-dye. In the end, I won silver, which gives huge points to this version. On top of that, my dad and good friend/first roomate Annick's dad are best friends, and I know this is Grant's favourite band. Thankfully, for all the significance the band has to me, they do not disappoint. This version presents Burdon's powerful voice over these sort of progressive rock, temporal beats producing a slowed down and weighty sound.

Hole- C. This is from Malibu...'nuff said. (In all fairness, this actually isn't all that bad, and this definitely exemplifies Hole's poppy 90s sound, but she's in the company of Dylan and i can't reasonably give her a good grade.)

Bruce Springsteen- C+/ B-. The boss' throaty booming vocals are really amplified at the start. He eventually calms down and sings softly against the soothing and subtle piano. Bruce baby sounds super stoned and about to get down. I can see him slowly unbuttoning his shirt as the guitarist goes into the bridge (and it's a long one, the song is 10 min long.)

Marianne Faithfull- B+. Ooooh Marianne is seductive on this one... again throaty. I imagine she's swaying back and forth with partially opened eyes, as her blond locks fall into her face and behind her shoulders, likely with a drink in hand. All that said- she's surprisingly articulate in her vocals.

Grateful Dead- N/A. There's only a live version that I could find to listen to and it's really only okay. I don't feel like grading it; and also, there's a Bob Dylan/Grateful Dead live version that's clearly from the late 80s and the combination of leather gloves and cut-off shorts is throwing me off (I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing...).

13th floor elevators- A-. The 13th floor elevators remind me of High Fidelity (love) and John Cusack (swooooon). Apparently, this is Bob Dylan's favourite version of the song. It's definitely the more psychedelic and garage-y of the bunch. I'm enjoying it while writing this, but it's lacking that heartbreaking sound that leaves me feeling both elated and melancholic (apparently this is possible.)

Bonus track: Beck's Jackass- A+. Beck is my favourite scientologist, and his mom, Bibbe Hansen is a visual artist related to Warhol, the Fluxus movement and Jack Kerouac, so needless to say, he's unquestionably interesting. Jack-ass gets some steady play in our apt (courtesy of the old days with HUGGS), but b/c i was on Youtube, I listened/watched it on there, and dayum, Beck is just a young 'un and he looks good. This is a brilliant alternative to the original. There's a wonderful emphasis on the vocals as Beck kind of drawls out the lyrics (like when he says 'lazzzeeeee bones.') Upon first listen, the sampled repetition kind of threw me off, but i now think it's perfect.

Feel free to discredit me, opine freely, fly your freak flag and freeze your assets.

PS: I hope it's not too soon for 'rape-rape'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO5LlwDaa_0 - Dylan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUmmSIMGm-E - Burdon and the Animals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbDksnF-Gnk - Springsteen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phwsVE8ucyA - Hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkIhuiDBYRA - Byrds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKzRjxBHV-k - Marianne Faithfull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp1KdA-97vs&feature=PlayList&p=174E0DD66C4249F5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12
-Beck (on Letterman the lothario)

Readymade-aided

I went by Xpace Gallery on Friday for the opening of Parts of a Hole- an exhibition featuring (new?) work from Sara Cwynar, Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, Jesse B. Harris, Ben Schumacher, Liam Crockard, Georgia Dickie, Hugh Scott-Douglas and Aleksander Hardashnakov.

The artists shown took the concept of the readymade as a starting point for their work. Standouts were Sara Cwynar and Tibi Tibi Neuspiel's collaborative work (enlarged consumer products, like dog food, with cheeky word bubbles scrawled over them in black marker) and Hugh Scott-Douglas' large canvases with subtle printed patterns, likely created from laying the canvas over such banal items as bubble wrap and Bounce paper towel.*

*I wish I could describe these works better. There were no labels accompanying the work and the website's a dead-end (but that's the beauty of readymades, it's really f***ing tough to describe the materials).

Miami Boyz

Nuit Blanche 2010 is almost here. One, maybe-lesser-known, work I'm excited to see this year is Olaf Breuning's "Miami Boys." The three little light guys, outfitted in cheap sunglasses and colourful crocs, will be perched in the Drake General Store's window the duration of the night. Best thing about this piece- no line ups to get in to some stuffy space filled with people struggling to catch a glimpse of an artwork/installation/performance.

More here: http://www.thedrakehotel.ca/events/10112/miami-boys-olaf-breuning

Ectoplasm Barf

During my wonderful undergraduate years, I was privy to my University's other-worldly collection of Spiritualist photographs. Taken by various 'doctors' and 'scientists' in the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century (but mainly around 1840-1890) during seances, the photographs imaged mediums with weird material excreting from their orifices. This white, stringy stuff was more affectionately known as ectoplasm (ghosts). With the popularity of Spiritualism then increasing, more and more 'rational' minds grew interested in debunking the mediums and their ghosts. In order to do so, prior to each seance, male scientists subjected the women to invasive gynecological exams. Somehow the mediums kept their lil' ghosts a secret and the scientists couldn't disprove that the mediums were really mediums. So in an attempt to lend scientific credence to the seances, these women would let cameras be brought in, BUT with one tiny exception....the ghosts, it was believed, would retreat back into the body when exposed to a flash from a camera (awww they were camera-shy).

Maybe this is the foundation of photoshop, or maybe it's early camera magic, but my interest lied in the similarities between seances and an intimate or sexual experience (the dark room, the hand holding, the moaning, the caressing, bow chica bow woww) and the production of ectoplasm to childbirth...which, I guess sort of suggests that women were still bound to the constructed, and idiotic, notions of femininity (irrationality, intuitiveness, submissiveness) despite seeking autonomy in the movement.

The Fake As More refers to the title of one of my favourite assigned readings in any art history class. Written by Cheryl Bernstein, the article is a review of an exhibition by artist Hank Herron, who according to Bernstein, mounted a show that replicated a series of past work by second-generation New York artist Frank Stella.

Arguing that Herron's work is really Stella- plus, Bernstein pushed that the fake really is more. The text itself required a Websters to get through (or rather www.dictionary.com ugh), and upon reading it, I felt I took too much on in the class. Well wasn't I feeling peachy when later I learned that the brilliant author wasn't actually Cheryl Bernstein and that Hank Herron was the name of some old famous baseball player. The real author was Carol Duncan and in developing a convoluted theory wrapped up in complicated language she had created an elaborate hoax that drew attention to issues surrounding art criticism and flipped the community up on its head. There was no Hank Herron (thank God) and apparently Duncan chose the name Cheryl Bernstein to align herself with the Jewish-New York-intellectual scene that dominated the 70s (think Woody Allen whining in Annie Hall)- clever touch!

Well, this blog hardly hopes to reach any Bernsteinian heights, but rather ruffle a few more feathers in the sometimes-stodgy, and inaccessible, art circles of Toronto.