The City of Craft General Store at Canzine 2009

I'll be taking part in the City of Craft Collective-produced room installation, The City of Craft General Store, at Canzine tomorrow! I'm one of twelve artists with goodies included in the "store"...stop by and check it out.

The Info:

This year, City of Craft is teaming up with the good folks at Broken Pencil Magazine to bring a brand new 'art room' to their annual celebration of indie culture, Hotel Canzine. Our room, The City of Craft General Store, will be a one-day jam-packed old-timey shop to delight all your crafty senses.

Sunday, November 1, 2009
1pm - 7pm
The Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. West (Queen just East of Dufferin)
Toronto 
$5 admission comes with a free copy of the Fall issue of Broken Pencil Magazine

The City of Craft General Store features selected works from:

Bespoke Uprising  -  Bettula  -  Tara Bursey  -  Damned Dollies  -  Shannon Gerard  -  Lee Meszaros  - The Misanthrope Specialty Co.  -  Mr. Skona  -  Nightjar Books  - The Pinpals  -  Resurection Fern  - The Sweetie Pie Press

More info and artist links here.

More on this year's City of Craft here.

This Month at Harbourfront Centre

Last Thursday, I went to Harbourfront to check out some of the exhibitions at York Quay Centre.  This months exhibitions are really awesome, all seeming to follow themes surrounding play, make-believe, childhood and narrative.  Do yourself a favour and go and take a long look at some of these shows...such a treat!  Highlights include Play/Ground, curated by Patrick Macaulay, Keyframes by Rose Bianchini and Sarah Lazarovic and Talking to People Is Easy by Alex Kitsilevich.  My mind has been officially blown.

More info here.

Photos, from top:

Rose Bianchini, from Keyframes (2009)

Lyla Rye, Interplay (2007)

Nathalie Quagliotto, Maturity Correlation (2008)

Alex Kitsilevich, Talking to People Is Easy (2008-09)

All photos by me.

Shadow Box Exhibition at the TMC

I am participating in the Textile Museum of Canada's annual Shadow Box Exhibition for the fourth year in a row this year.  Sadly, I missed the reception, but the show is open to the public until October 29th. The little glove above is featured in my shadow box this year!  Go see it!

From the TMC website:

The BMO Financial Group Shadow Box Event is back for its 14th year. The auction features original works by more than 150 Canadian and international artists. With pieces bought right off the wall, the evening is a great chance to get some amazing art at surprisingly sensible prices. 

Artists' Reception and Media Preview:
October 14, 6:30 pm
Exhibition:
Open October 14 to October 29
Auction:
Thursday October 29, 6:30 pm 

Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avenue (Dundas St. W & University Ave., St. Patrick subway)
Toronto, Ontario
M5G 2H5
t. (416) 599-5321
f. (416) 599-2911

http://www.textilemuseum.ca

PLP at Roberts Street Social Centre

Here are some photos from the day of the Portable Library Project opening at Roberts Street Social Centre! Thanks again Sarah Evans of RSSC and Morag Schonken (and Suzy, pictured above!) for helping put on the show. Everything looks super!

The Portable Library Project is on display at Roberts Street (in the Anchor Archive Zine Library) until November 1st.  Their hours of operation are Tuesday from 6-9pm and Sunday from 2-5pm...if you're in Halifax, be sure to check out the show before the end of the month!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos:  Morag Schonken

Portable Library Project in Halifax

Well, it's that time again!  As if taking care of City of Craft installations, volunteering during Nuit Blanche, and schoolwork wasn't enough to deal with this week, The second Portable Library Project show opens next week, at Roberts Street Social Centre in Halifax. Thanks so much to everyone who helped put this show together, specifically Sarah Evans and everyone at Roberts Street for their help and enthusiasm, and my good friend (and PLP artist) Morag Schonken for helping co-ordinate the exhibition.  Stay tuned to the PLP blog for photos of the show and press from Halifax!

*****

The Portable Library Project is a multi-dimensional mail-art/book-making project involving the creation of small works exploring ideas surrounding archiving, journaling, libraries, ephemera, and incorporating an art practice into everyday life. The 18 participating artists span several artistic disciplines, from performance art to fibre-based art; from photo-based art to craft to sculpture and installation.  Artists involved in the project are based across Canada, the US and are from as far away as Seoul, Korea.

Invited artists were sent/delivered an empty cigar box, roughly the size of a hardcover book. Over the course of a week, participants were expected to create a 'book' a day reflective of each person's day-to-day activities and artistic process. Books were ideally made while on the go; boxes were intended to be carried with the participant, where books were to be added and collected each day for seven days.

How do working artists fit artistic production into everyday life?  Challenging oneself to make work outside of a studio setting is one way. One element of The Portable Library Project serves as a challenge to artists to adopt a portable art practice to fit the demands of the life of a working artist, which often entails a job or two in unrelated work environments. The portability of the book format is a natural basis for the project, which also encourages artists to explore and comment on the relationship between the book and the art object.

Participating artists:
Aimee Lee (Seoul, Korea)
Amber Landgraff (Toronto)
Cara Spooner (Toronto)
Daphne Gerou (Toronto)
Debbie Danelley (Winnipeg, MB)
Deborah Margo (Ottawa, ON)
Fiona Bailey (Toronto)
Jen Pilles (Oakville, ON)
Laura Calvi (Halifax, NS)
Laurie Kang (Toronto)
Margaret Flood (Guelph, ON)
Margaret Legue (Forest, ON)
Morag Schonken (Halifax, NS)
Sheila Jonah (Toronto)
Simon Rabyniuk (Toronto)
Stephanie Cormier (Toronto)
Stephanie Vegh (Hamilton, ON)
Sylvia Ziemann (Regina, SK)

October 11th-November 1st, 2009
Opens Sunday, October 11, 2-5pm
Anchor Archive Zine Library
at the Roberts Street Social Centre
5684 Roberts Street
Halifax
http://www.robertsstreet.org/n/
Poster design: Tara Bursey

Bouncing Bride at Nuit Blanche

I will be jumping on a trampoline in my mother's wedding dress on top of an enormous wedding cake for this year's Nuit Blanche. Yup, you read that right.  I am a volunteer assisting with Cathy Gordon's performance project Bouncing Bride: What is Down Must Go Up which takes place tomorrow night at the Music Gallery.

Come and laugh at me from 11-1am!  Better yet, come up on the cake and jump with me!  Here is all the information:

*****

NUIT BLANCHE

SATURDAY OCTOBER 3, 2009

7pm to 7am

ZONE A

The Music Gallery, 197 John Street

Concept & Performance – Cathy Gordon

Cake Design – Laird MacDonald

Wedding DJ – Ulysses Castellanos

BOUNCING BRIDE: What Is Down Must Go Up

Coproduced by The Theatre Centre

Be the bouncing groom to the bouncing bride on your own mini-trampoline atop a ten-foot high wedding cake. Cathy Gordon follows up her last endurance piece ON MY KNEES: a public divorce ceremony, with this light-hearted look at the “bright-side” of divorce.

Projected from within the cake-sculpture will be a series of a hundred positive divorce stories ranging from Canada’s own Maggie & Pierre to personal stories collected for this project. The aim of the work is to expose the untold “happy side” of divorce, which is still regarded negatively in our society.

Request your favourite wedding songs from our very own Wedding DJ, Ulysses Castellanos, and then dance the night away under the stars in the beautiful courtyard of St. George The Martyr’s Church.

Those who wish to venture to the top of the cake, can sign up for a number and then continue dancing while they wait for their turn. Audience members will be allowed one at a time to the top of the cake where they can bounce with the artist (if only for awhile) as her new groom.

Fatigued Nuit Blanchers can also lounge instead - sinking into the cozy “bottom layer” of the cake. Their imprints in the memory-foam with create “waves in the icing” which serves as a physical reminder of their metaphysical traces and the impermanence of all relationships.

Cathy Gordon is a multidisciplinary artist and programmer living and working in Toronto. She co-curates Free Fall, a national festival of contemporary performance produced by The Theatre Centre in partnership with World Stage. Her work deals with the themes of hope, resilience and joy.

http://www.cathygordon.com