Zine Dream 5

Zine Dream-- the annual zine (among other things) fair-- is happening again in August, but this year it has grown into an impressive three-day event.  Opening night is at the new location of Art Metropole; day two will feature a panel discussion moderated by small press/art/craft queen Shannon Gerard; and the main event takes place on day three-- a zine fair with 50+ vendors, entertainment and more.

I missed ZD last year on account of skipping town for Baltimore, but this year I'll be there with lotsa goodies.  I'll have a few old zines up for grabs as well as these posters and a brand new collaborative zine that I'm hoping will be done by the 12th!  Hope to see y'all there.

Event deets can be found here.

This We Know... at Harbourfront Centre

This We Know... 
An exhibition of recent work by students in the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program at OCAD University

Part of the Planet IndigenUS Festival
At Harbourfront Centre
August 10 – 19, 2012

Works by students in the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University will highlight the diversity and beauty of the artworks they’ve produced this year. Our students’ work is accomplished, critical, experimental and personal, issuing from a place of enquiry and commitment.

The artists in the exhibit are Tara Bursey, Alexa Hatanaka, Cody Kullman, Morena Lopez, Melissa Penney, Janet Romero, Cheyenne Twiner, Georgina Walker, and Isaac Weber, and Glenna Matoush with Robert Houle and the students of Rethinking Abstraction from an Aboriginal Perspective.

The goal of the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program (ABVC), established in 2008, is to foster and disseminate Indigenous culture through art and design to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. The courses emphasize collaboration, innovation and the integration of traditional practices and emerging technologies. ABVC students benefit from an interdisciplinary university environment that blends academic rigour with the experimental freedom of the studio.

The ABVC totem is nigig the otter. The otter represents the spirit of OCAD students with his playfulness, dexterity, inventiveness and curiosity, and inspires the OCAD faculty with his boundless energy and joy. Like an artist the otter dives deep into the depths of the unknown and emerges with a tool upon which to crack open the shell of his imagination. These are the characteristics the Aboriginal Visual Culture Program seeks to emulate.

Please join us for an Artists' talk on Saturday August 11, 2:00PM – 3:00PM, in the Marilyn Brewer Community Space, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Summer Project

Cross-stitch of an iconic album cover.  Lots more to go!

The Encampment

I was lucky to catch The Encampment-- a massive temporary public art piece by artist collaborators (as well as a huge number of contributing artists) Thomas+Guinevere a couple of weeks ago at Fort York.  200 tents were placed on the grounds of Fort York-- site of The War of 1812-- which served as individual sites for artistic interventions.  The project's handout explained that each tent installation was inspired by real individuals living in the Canadas during the war.  As compelling as some of the tent installations were, for me the real power in the installation was the sight of the 200 tents together on a historic site against the backdrop of the changing city.

Though the tents were (for me) a thoroughly engaging evocation of Canada's history, I can't help but also see them a bittersweet metaphor for my own vague alienation and feelings of displacement in the city I was born in as it changes more everyday.