Hamilton Supercrawl 2013

Hooked Ontario coat of arms chair pad.  Really nice!

Dancing shoes.

Last year, I gushed about Supercrawl after taking in the full event from the comfort of the tent where I was helping as part of the Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.  Supercrawl this year was a whirlwind-- we had guests from Toronto who came to take in the event with us.  By the time we had a leisurely chat and a few drinks on our front porch, Saturday afternoon had turned into Saturday night and we were tossed into the shark tank that is the grand finale of the mammoth annual event that includes art installations, food trucks galore and several A-list musical acts.

We made a big mistake taking our time, because Supercrawl is not something you can really take in in two hours on the final night.  We found ourselves wandering in to Christ's Church Anglican Cathedral on James Street to catch our breaths.  Being from Toronto, huge street fairs with food and cheap vendors (Supercrawl certainly had its share of these this year) are a dime a dozen.  Rarer experiences are those you get in a historic building where you can share in a sense of quiet wonder with a large group of similarly awestruck folks amid the chaos of the outside world.

sophia bartholomew at Gallery 1313

Next week, an artist named sophia bartholomew is turning Gallery 1313's window box into a food dehydrator...!

sophia bartholomew
EPLE SLANG
Gallery 1313 Window Box
October 2013

Gallery 1313’s window box is west-facing and receives direct sunlight. Taking the gallery’s particular physical conditions as a starting point, EPLE SLANG will transform the gallery into a solar dehydrator for the duration of the exhibition.  While video and new media are popularly thought of as durational mediums, this work explores how ‘static’ physical materials might also be experienced as something durational – moving and changing over time.  The window box transgresses the distinction between interior and exterior space, complicating understandings of self and of city – it offers us that possibility, it asks us that question.

sophia bartholomew is an artist currently based out of Fredericton, New Brunswick.  Creating contexts through the use of installation, performance, and language, her projects aim to enact situations of moderate discomfort and generative moments of not knowing.  Recent projects include installations for The New Gallery (Calgary), ROOM 321 (Banff), Topdown Bottomup (Vancouver) and The Crying Room (Vancouver), with upcoming projects for Roadside Attractions (Toronto) and Third Space (Saint John).  

There are so many reasons for my general absence-- relocating, family matters and more.  However, even without these factors, I've been pretty occupied with longer-term curatorial and research projects as of late to the point where more frequent posting has become kinda difficult.  There's some really exciting stuff coming down the pipeline in November and February '14 that I will post about sooner or later....!

Colleen McCarten and Shannon Lea Doyle at Gallery 1313

I organized the following window installation of work by OCAD's Material Art and Design 2013 medal winner, Colleen McCarten which opens tomorrow.  Pop by the gallery between 7-10 pm to check it out, as well as the other exhibitions opening in Gallery 1313's main space, cell and process galleries.  As always, I will write an exhibition text to accompany the installation, which can be scooped up at the gallery.

Colleen McCarten
FABRICATE
Gallery 1313 Window Box
September 2013

Colleen McCarten’s installation Knit Wire is part of a larger body of work titled Fabricate, a multi-media textile exploration that investigates the intersection of textiles and assumed value. Across a variety of media, this project employs a recurring technique of line and repetition to signify the basic components of textile construction. Through decontextualized representations of textiles, this exploration asks:  Does changing the material, scale, or technique alter the value of the piece?  If so, is it a sexist devaluation of a medium, or merely about the ability to understand the time and effort put into another process?

Colleen McCarten is a textile artist and designer based out of Toronto. She recently obtained a BDes from OCAD University, where she was awarded a medal recognizing her thesis work in Material Art and Design. Prior to attending OCAD, Colleen studied Horticulture at Niagara College and received a Diploma in Fashion Design from George Brown College.

Sadly, with all the whirlwind activity pertaining to both the Fear of Punk//Fear of Art show and our recent move, I didn't have a chance to post here about the last exhibition in Gallery 1313's vitrine.  Shannon Lea Doyle has a few things with Colleen McC-- she is also an OCAD medal winner and her work shares an interest in textile-related techniques.  Here is a photo of her ethereal installation, Somehow Connected, which came down a couple of days ago and looked incredible in the late afternoon sun.

Fear of Punk//Fear of Art

It has been a very long time since I posted anything here...!

So much to catch up on over the next little while, but I'll start with this-- Fear of Punk//Fear of Art came and went this summer, and it was both a blast and a huge success.  Thanks to all of the amazing exhibitors, to my partner in crime Benbis, James Binnie and Communication Art Gallery, Jesjit and Zine Dream, the bands that played our benefit show at the 460 (Hassler, Absolut and Spearhead) and all our friends for the support!

For more photos of the installation and opening night, take a look here.  And look here for a great feature on the exhibition that was posted on Broken Pencil's blog a week before the show opened.  We'll be following this exhibition up with a catalogue that will also serve as the first issue of an ongoing zine, so stay tuned for more info on that in the coming weeks...