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...