Temple II

Here is a portion of a statement I am writing about the Temple dresses...

TEMPLE I and TEMPLE II are fibre works involving two modified dresses. Though appearing to be relatively normal from far away, both dresses actually have had all of their horizontally-running threads (save for very few) removed. Through the act of removing these threads, the dress is in fact only half a dress- destroyed and stripped of it’s function yet remaining completely intact.

These works were inspired by the book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. The novel involves a young stuttering acolyte who becomes obsessed with the beauty of the Golden Temple where he is apprenticing to become a priest. Enraptured by the temple’s perfection and filled with self-loathing, the acolyte sets the temple on fire in a desperate attempt to free himself from the bonds of the structures magnificence, which serves as a monument to his own imperfection.

The TEMPLE dresses relate the themes of Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion- obsession and fetish, ritual and body image- to the contemporary female experience. The act of removing each horizontal thread by hand parallels repetitive (and often painful) beauty rituals such as plucking, waxing and hair-brushing. The intentional preservation of the vertical threads cheekily suggest the old adage about vertical stripes being slimming, while also evoking self-harm scars and long fair hair.

Local Calls For Submission

Call for Submission:
Alleyjaunt
Deadline: May 1, 2007.

ALLEYJAUNT is Toronto's alternative, urban, community arts event. Through the transformation of garages and alleys into exhibition spaces, ALLEYJAUNT gives exposure to local artists, encourages public interaction with art, integrates contemporary art into public space, and reaches out to a diverse community of all ages within the Trinity Bellwoods Park neighbourhood setting.

ALLEYJAUNT invites artists and collectives to submit proposals for 2007. We are soliciting proposals for garage exhibitions as well as proposals for installations, performances and other works that animate the park and alleyway spaces. ALLEYJAUNT supports experimentation and collaboration within contemporary art, and we are open to diverse media and practices.

We are seeking projects that touch upon one or several of these criteria:

• Projects designed for a specific site (garage, alley, park, etc.)
• Projects that connect the diverse community that uses the garage and alley spaces
• Projects that provide critical reflection on the nature of urban experience
• Artistic interventions that captures the flux, chance and accident of everyday life.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the critical merit of the overall theme/concept, the adherence to ALLEYJAUNT'S mandate, and the feasibility of the project
The 5th annual ALLEYJAUNT will be held on August 11 & 12, 2007

Submission Requirements
CV & Bio
Description of proposed work, including space required
5 - 8 images of representative work in jpg format)
Please send all written & visual material on a CD
Include SASE if you want support material returned

Please send submissions to:
ALLEY JAUNT
17 Bank Street
Toronto, ON

M6K 1R4

Queries: info@alleyjaunt.com www.alleyjaunt.com


Call for Submission:
BIG little fibre FIBRE
at the Gladstone Hotel

The Gladstone Hotel invites artists working in fibre-related media to submit proposals for installations and wall-hung works for the Gladstone's second annual show of textile-based art.

BIG little fibre FIBRE, will look at assumptions about fibre and size, and fibre and applications. Artists are invited to explore and explode the assumptions and expectations that come with the medium and to submit works at the extremes of size and format - the very large and the very small from the outer reaches of the realm of fibre.

BIG little fibre FIBRE will run from Thursday October 11 2007 to Sunday November 25 2007. The wall-hung works will be shown on the third and fourth floors of the hotel for the full run of the show, and, to launch the show with a bang, the second floor will be dedicated to extreme scale installations for the first four days - 11 to 14 October 2007.

For more information: www.gladstonehotel.com/callsforinterest.html

Chris Mitchell, Marketing, Communications, and Exhibitions
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON
M6J 1J6
416-531-4635 Ext. 7105
chrism@gladstonehotel.com

Teenage Lust

Here are some excerpts from a zine I finished a few weeks ago called Teenage Lust (after the MC5 song). It is, as I wrote in the zine's introduction, my tribute to "the youth of what I refer to as the 'dirty 70s.'" Teenage Lust is available for sale through me for $3 each. For more information, drop me a line at cleanteen@hotmail.com.

Call For Submissions- She Said Boom! Window Space

Call for Submissions
She Said Boom! Window Space

She Said Boom! Window Space is a street-level, in-store, 24-hour window gallery seeking art for bi-monthly exhibitions. We are looking for engaging, contemporary sculpture/installation, video/new media and two-dimentional work for consideration. To apply, email us a short proposal, an updated CV, bio and 3-5 jpgs of recent work. For more information, contact Tara Bursey at ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com.

She Said Boom! Window Space
372 College Street, Toronto.
ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com

This weekend at the Toronto Art Expo!

I will be showing some work in the Toronto School of Art booth at this year's Toronto Art Expo, from March 15-18.
Both my Fidget multiples (pictured) and Compulsion Soap multiples will be on display and for sale. For more TAE information, consult their website: http://torontoartexpo.com/

Toronto Art Expo
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
North Building, Halls A and B
March 15 – 18, 2007

SHOW HOURS
Thurs 11am-10:30pm
Fri 11am-10pm
Sat 10am-10pm
Sun 10am-7pm

ADMISSION
Adults $10
Seniors $6
Students $6
Children under 12 free

Shapetionary in the Parkdale Liberty

The Shape of Things as they Are:
Margaret Flood's visual dictionary projectis drawing her to some interesting places.

Toronto’s often called the “World Within a City” – but with a unique new project, there’s a Parkdale artist who might have gone one notch better.

Given the huge international response to her Shapetionary, a collaborative, artistic dictionary-type project, Maple Grove Ave. resident Margaret Flood seems to be creating a “World Within a Book” – or a world within her mailbox, at least.

The Shapetionary project began in September 2006, when Flood – intrigued by the idea of creating a shape-driven compendium of language – extracted 9,500 concrete nouns from her kitchen-shelf dictionary.

After advertising for participating illustrators on Internet artist message boards, Flood received responses from 900 artists worldwide, including ones from Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Tasmania, Indonesia, Austria, Turkey, Hungary, France, South Africa, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Russia and Jerusalem.

Having farmed out words for illustration at 6 to 12 per person, she has received roughly 2,000 drawings back so far, with newly interested artists forced to go on a waiting list.

Though she’s only steps from artsy Queen West, the Shapetionary project has opened Flood’s eyes – and connected her to – other flourishing artists’ conclaves far and wide.

“I had one email from Tasmania,” Flood says, “And then in a couple of weeks I got a lot, maybe 15 or 20 more. I’m realizing in a very concrete way that there’s a contemporary art scene in Tasmania, or Lisbon or Poland.”

While Flood was eager to accumulate drawings for the project, there were some she couldn’t accept: “When something was illustrated in a political manner – like a garbage pail with Toronto shoved in it – it’s kind of funny but not what I’m looking for.”

Certain requests Flood received were also curious.

“Some people asked for depressing words to illustrate, while others asked for ones starting with the same letter as their name, others for food, and some even for ones that nobody else wanted.”

Interestingly, Flood says that the Shapetionary project, which has a collaborative, dispersed nature rather unlike her previous sculptural installation works, was unintentionally driven by Toronto’s skyrocketing real estate market.

“I think this project is partly a response to a lack of affordable studio space,” Flood says, “It’s a byproduct of needing a project I could do in my home. I didn’t want to nail stuff to the walls [as would be necessary in painting, sculpture or installation] and freak out my landlord.”

“I love our neighbourhood,” says Flood, who grew up in Vancouver, has lived in Hamilton and Halifax, and moved to Toronto and Parkdale a year-and-a-half ago with her partner. “But to be an artist in this city is difficult.”

Like many Parkdale artists, Flood has a day job; luckily for her, it’s one that’s compatible with her other work.

“I’m a crisis worker with a mental health centre,” Flood explains, “I’m lucky to have a job I find interesting and fulfilling and that pays me decently. Not all artists have that.”

Overnight 12-hour shifts on the job also gained Flood some quiet time to move the project forward.

“At first I kept thinking, how can I get all the concrete nouns out of the dictionary without actually reading it? Can I do it by computer or something?”

Since she couldn’t find a way to do that, her dictionary reading took up about a month of time on the night shift, in the bath, in bed and on transit.

In the end, though, Flood says the time invested is worth it. Her dream for the project is to have a book published.

“It’s daunting to organize all the drawings by shape, but it would be really exciting,” Flood says. “And I’d love to have a big party for all who participated.”

While it’s doubtful that all of Flood’s Shapetionary contributors could make it to Maple Grove Ave. for the party, one thing’s for sure: those who did, no matter where they’re from, would probably feel right at home in Toronto.

Leah Sandals, March 2007

Sex Pots II in Eye Weekly

From Eye Weekly, March 1, 2007:

Eye Candy
By David Balzer

Sex Pots II

Prime Gallery's “Sex Pots II” group show may have some superficial strikes against it – it opened on Valentine's Day with a correspondingly gimmicky theme (craft and sex!) and a gratingly punny title – but the work is strong, and the intrinsic affiliations between the show's predominating ceramic medium and its, um, massage justify the theme. Ceramics having a palpable engagement with the body both in production (think Ghost, if you must) and when finished, as accessories, utensils and, of course, sex toys (though, despite the preponderance of phalluses here, there's nary a ceramic dildo to be found). Unsurprisingly, then, eating provides some of the most effective, entertaining forays: Robin Tieu has made an extra-priapic pestle to go with an unusually small mortar; Mimi Cabri has made Fauvist Love Cups; and Andrée Wejsmann, who contributes one of the show's non-ceramic pieces, has made cookie cutters in the shape of bunnies fucking. LE Gallery's Julie Moon trumps all, however, with a luscious, fun and utterly creepy sculpture that has nothing to do with cooking or dinnerware per se, but looks as if it might take a bite out of you: a floral patterned piece of porcelain in a blobby U-shape, with distended ends capped off by little, toothy, red-lipped mouths. Testicles dentatae, anyone?

“SEX POTS II” RUNS TO MARCH 24. WED-SAT 11AM-5PM. PRIME GALLERY, 52 MCCAUL. 416-593-5750. WWW.PRIMEGALLERY.CA.

Shary Boyle + Ilavska Exhibitions

The following are shows on now in Toronto that I'm really excited about seeing...

Shary Boyle- Wonderlust
Jessica Bradley Art + Projects
1450 Dundas Street West
February 3rd-March 3rd, 2007

This exhibtion brings together several groups of drawings and paintings, including works on paper from Boyle's Porcelain Fantasy series, large watercolours and new portrait paintings with colourful abstract patterning. The exhibtion also includes three extraordinary small sculptures conceived as part of the artist's drawing practice.
Over the past decade Shary Boyle has developed a multi-faceted practice that includes her renowned drawings, paintings, sculpture and unique performances. In 2006 she created multiple “live drawing projections” for events at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and for international tours with musicians Will Oldham, Doug Paisley and Christine Fellows. In 2006 Shary Boyle's lace-draped porcelain figures were featured in a solo exhibition at the Power Plant, written about in Art Papers and were the focus of a cover article in Canadian Art magazine. Beginning in March 2007, Shary Boyle will be on a six-month residency in London, England, awarded by the Canada Council's International Studio Program.

Ilavska: The Arts and Crafts of Grandmother
Sonja Ahlers, Lydia Klenck, Stephen Appleby-Barr, Kozue Kitchens, Tania Sanhueza, Melinda Josie, Noel Middleton and Trudie Cheng
Magic Pony
694 Queen Street West
February 23rd-March 18th

Magic Pony is pleased to present Ilavska, a celebration of the lost arts and crafts of Grandmother. Featuring installation, textile design, painting, collage and soft-sculpture, this exhibition showcases a diverse group of contemporary multi-disciplinary artists and designers who will take viewers on a captivating visit to Grandma’s.

Ilavksa was inspired by a pilgrimage into Eastern Europe to visit Grandma. In times of subsistence living under communist rule, women created beautiful objects and environments out of limited resources. Crochet, knitting, embroidery and textiles were executed with painstaking and time-consuming care, and became treasured objects in the home. As both feminine and feminist practice, these subversive gestures represented women’s skills, pleasures and desires; as each stitch became a record of richly-lived experiences and histories.

Ilavska explores a new generation of artists who integrate a deep appreciation for the craft tradition and aesthetic into modern techniques and styles; an approach which reveals scepticism toward today’s instantly-gratifying, disposable culture. As a re-valuing and re-imagining of historically feminine pursuits, the artwork of Ilavksa evokes a weighty sense of time, memory and nostalgia. Seamlessly juxtaposing artwork with found antique furniture, objects and decoration, the exhibit blurs past and present tense, and collapses the distinctions between “art,” “craft” and “design.”

Including Sonja Ahlers, Lydia Klenck, Stephen Appleby-Barr, Kozue Kitchens, Tania Sanhueza, Melinda Josie, Noel Middleton and Trudie Cheng, Ilavska will premiere at the Come Up To My Room designer showcase held at the Gladstone Hotel from February 23-25. The exhibition will then continue in expanded form at Magic Pony from February 26-March 18, 2007.

Pictured: Shary Boyle- Spring (2005)

www.sharyboyle.com
www.magic-pony.com
www.jessicabradleyartprojects.com

Toronto Zine Library in The Brock Press

The Zine Scene: Small Press Means (Big) Business
REBECCA LAZARENKO

Past decades may not have stood for low budget paperbacks masquerading as high art, but these days, small press publications are well known, widely read and an economically sound solution to starting a revolution - or simply getting one's voice heard.
"Zines are self-produced print publications, mostly photocopied and hand-assembled," said Tara Bursey, a volunteer collective member at the Toronto Zine Library. "Their roots lie in Dada publications of the early 1900s, science-fiction fan magazines of the '30s and Beat chapbooks of the '50s and '60s."
Zines were a large part of the punk rock movement in the '70s and '80s, gaining notoriety in the early-to-mid '90s as a part of the grunge/punk revival. These days, zines are a participatory cultural art form with a dedicated following and an unmatched reputation of inciting societal and institutional change.
Zine fairs, such as Canzine and Cut N' Paste Toronto, as well as the Brampton Indie Arts festival and various small press conventions across the country have opened up to the idea of these rough and ready creations as a valid literary art form.
"Some of my favourite zines from our collection are more art-focused," said Bursey. "[They] involve hand-touches such as silk-screened covers, sketchbook excerpts and reproductions of drawings."
Patrick Mooney, another collective member, relates to the somewhat radical roots in which zine subculture was first instated.
"Some of my favourite zines include Cometbus, America? and Doris," said Mooney.
Aaron Elliot, creator of Cometbus, is a lyricist, drummer, self-proclaimed poet and "punk anthropologist" who produces his seminal punk rock zine out of pure passion. Despite the Internet invasion and blogging overload, Elliot has created a name for himself through his and other hardcopy publications for which he has written - including Absolutely Zippo and Tales of Blarg.
Although print publications are slowly falling to the wayside in a world of electronic communication, Bursey suggests the sometimes-painstaking creativity involved with small print press is part of the appeal and authenticity, whereas virtually anyone can create a Web site. She lists her favourites in terms of true artistry rather than out-there ideals.
"A few that come to mind are zines by Michael Comeau - a Toronto printmaker, and a zine called Thumbprint Biographies by his wife, Tara Azzopardi," said Bursey. "Both contain drawn and silk-screened elements."
"We recently acquired a zine called Old Weird America, in which the author recounts things that happened to her in her hometown of Detroit. All the stories are rather dark, and involve the poverty and extreme social conditions that some parts of Michigan are known for."
The cost of making a bi-monthly zine of a couple hundred copies is approximately $100, give or take the corners one cuts; however, the expression of self is priceless and, as the Toronto Zine collective suggests, worth the effort it entails.
"I would say that the most important thing," said Mooney, "is to just do it."
The Toronto Zine Library is located at the Tranzac club in Toronto. If you happen to be in Toronto, the collective encourages volunteers to work throughout the weekdays or 1-3 p.m. on Sundays.

The Brock Press, February 6, 2007.

Sex Pots II at Prime Gallery

I'll be showing two of my garlic works at Prime Gallery's annual (I think?) Valentine's event, Sex Pots II. The show will feature several pieces of erotic material-art works: fine ceramics, jewellry, glass and mixed media pieces will all be featured. It should be a fine show...if you can't make it out to the opening on the afternoon of the 17th, try to pop by Prime before the show ends in late March


Sex Pots II
A group exhibition of erotica and sensual works in a mix of mediums.
February 14 to March 24, 2007
Vernissage: Saturday, February 17, 2007. 1-3pm
Prime Gallery
52 McCaul Street
Toronto

Following the success of Sex Pots 2005, PRIME is pleased to present Sex Pots II, the inspiration for which began with Paul Mathieu's Sex Pots: Eroticism in Ceramics and through our director's burning desire to heat things up in February. This exhibition features erotic works in photography, painting, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery, and mixed media. As an invitational show, we expect an eclectic examination of sexuality, eroticism, and sensuality. Come warm your cockles.

Representations of erotica are as old as the Neolithic, going back 15,000 years, as early as the ceramic tradition itself, including the modelling and firing of symbols of fertility; and then again a mere 10,000 years ago, with the advent of pottery. This fascination with all things sexual continued throughout the Greek and Roman civilizations, in the near and far East, in Africa and South America, and continues to flourish today after the so-called (possibly short-lived) sexual revolution of the mid-20^th century.

PRIME is pleased to be able to mount an exhibition of contemporary works in various mediums depicting the full range of erotic representation. We'll see works by Tara Bursey (Mixed Media: garlic skins), Mimi Cabri (ceramics), Mary Delmage (oil on canvas), Jeremy Drummond (silkscreen on tile), Beth Godfrey (jewellery), Julia Harris (oil on canvas), Carol Louie (jewellery), Alexandra McCurdy (mixed media), Jennifer McGregor (oil on canvas), Julie Moon, Alwyn O'Brien, Matthias Ostermann (all ceramics), Mimi Schulman (jewellery), Jurgen Sommerer (ceramics), Robin Tieu (mixed media and ceramics), Magda Trzaski (mixed media), Annie Tung (jewellery), Andrée Wejsmann (mixed media), Susan Wilde (oil on canvas), and Vanessa Yanow (glass).

As Paul Mathieu, one of the exhibition's previous contributors, wrote in his book Sex Pots (A & C Black, London, 2003): "Among many ironies of sexual desire now is the ever more present visualization of the naked male body, the availability of flesh and the constant erotisation of masculinity by commerce and popular culture in a society that still largely remains paternalistic, heterosexual and heterosexist – something not seen to that extent since Classical Antiquity."

http://www.primegallery.ca

New Flyer

I just finished this flyer for a friend who is putting on a show in Montreal. The image is drawn from a Vietnam War-era photograph. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out...a pretty timely concept, doncha think?

MAKE A ZINE! at the Toronto Zine Library

Make A Zine!: A Workshop for Beginners
Brought to you by the Toronto Zine Library

Sunday, February 4th at 1pm
At the TRANZAC
292 Brunswick Avenue, south of Bloor.

Please join us for Make a Zine!: A Workshop for Beginners hosted by the TZL Collective at the Toronto Zine Library. Topics covered will include a short history of zines, what they are and why we make them, as well as the future of zines. Our hands-on workshop will address varieties of approach, genre, construction and distribution. Our collective members will also talk about their personal histories with zines, the library itself, and will provide workshop attendees with a question and answer period, as well as one-on-one feedback and assistance regarding making a zine of their own. All are welcome; the workshop is free of charge.

The Toronto Zine Library is run by a collective of zine readers, zine makers and librarians who are looking to make zines more accessible in Toronto. We believe that zines are still an important medium of communication, and that they should be cherished, protected, and promoted. Our aim to do this through our public collection of zines, conducting related workshops at our physical library and abroad, and by holding events that promote zines as a method of open communication and free expression.

For more information, please contact us at torontozinelibrary@hotmail.com
Or consult our new website and online catalogue: http://www.sitekreator.com/zinelibrary

From Russia With Love

A dear friend of mine- Morag Schonken- recently sent me a review she wrote of my From Russia With Love installation as a part of her mentorship program at MAWA. I've included it here in it's entirety...thanks for the ego boost, Morag!


FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Tara Bursey
Fly Gallery
October 1^st-31^st, 2006

A small brown package arrived in my mailbox. I flipped through the catalogue that I found inside: Anna, 22, Burnaul, Russia; Irina, 21, Nikolaev, Ukraine; Yulia, 20, Frankfurt, Germany. Twenty-five to choose from and this was just the tip of the iceberg. Seventy-two Russian “mail order brides” are featured in Tara Bursey’s latest Installation “From Russia with Love” at Fly Gallery in Toronto.

Bursey once again challenges the depersonalization and objectification of women. By drawing portraits of the women found on mail order bride websites, Bursey is giving a face and voice to these otherwise silent photographs. Activating the women through her drawings allows the viewer to see the human behind the photographs, and not just another object in a catalog.

In fact the parallels between experiencing Bursey’s installation and the process of finding a bride online are worth considering as the similarities are striking. In searching for a bride one navigates the website looking for women that matched desired criteria. The next step in finding a bride is to order a catalog. For a large annual fee a catalog is mailed right to your door. Similarly when I first saw Tara’s show on her website the experience was much like shopping online for a bride. I searched the site taking each woman in, gathering as much information as I could.

Fly Gallery is appropriately a store front window on Queen Street. Bursey has lined the walls with the portraits, and assembled 25 of them into a bookwork also displayed in the window. They are on display for your shopping convenience and for the cost of a few dollars you too can own a copy of the bookwork. (It can also be mailed to you.) Whether buying Bursey’s artist book or subscribing to a commercial wife-finding service, you are acquiring a catalogue which includes pertinent facts and a physical likeness of each woman. Both formats although strikingly similar, portray these women in vastly different lights.

The use of medium to portray women seems to have a big impact on the way the viewer sees them. The photographs online objectify the women. They are objects to be acquired by men and for other women they can bring up a feeling of hostility. However when Bursey transforms them into pen and ink portraits they become real: they could be your best friend, your sister. Hostility is replaced with compassion and curiosity. In this way Bursey continues her “Ongoing investigation of repetition, and it's potential to depersonalize and desensitize within both institutions and domestic realms.” Again she succeeds in giving a personal identity back to these women.

This same transformation is seen in the works of Ghada Amer, who takes playboy photographs of women and transforms them into embroidered patterns repeated over and over again. In Amer’s case, the repetition works to deemphasize the pleasure the image is meant to give the male viewer and instead emphasizes the femininity of the women by the use of embroidery. Both the work of Amer and Bursey challenge ideas surrounding the ideal and idealized female forms.

I have taken Bursey’s bookwork out of its brown package, searched through the pages and put it back in its package numerous times. It strikes me that all these women are younger than I am (26). I wonder how someone can choose a bride this way and hope for a wife and a partner. I’d have a hard time choosing one of these women to be a pen pal. But mail-order wife selection is done everyday and there is a growing market for it. What truly brings these women to place themselves in a catalog?

Weird Flower

I made this last week.

By Hand: The Use of Craft In Contemporary Art

For Christmas, I recieved a hefty gift certificate from David Mirvish Books in Toronto, with which I purchased By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art. It was a great find, and I would recommend it to anyone who works with or is interested in the use of craft-type techniques (knitting, sewing, bookbinding, hand-printing) within a fine art context. The book is beautifully designed, and features profiles and images of the work of international artists, both established (most notably Kiki Smith) and emerging. The books format- alloting 2-3 pages per artist- makes for a light yet addicting read...I read the entire book in one lazy afternoon.

From Amazon.com:

In a response to the sleek forms and perfect angles of most late twentieth century design objects, many of today's artists and designers are returning to handmade work such as hand lettering, hand drawing, and hand sewing. By Hand features an international collection of the most noteworthy artists and shows their work in detailed photography and insightful texts. From books to pillows to T-shirts to toys, the pieces in this volume define an alternative view of contemporary design. Personal craft is emphasized over perfection and the personality of the artist is put forth as a key element of the finished product. From Kiki Smith's lovingly etched birds to Barb Hunt's knitted land mines to dynamo-ville's one-of-a-kind puppets to Evil Twin's hand-stitched publications, today's art revels in the care and consideration of craft.

Check out http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/byhand.html for a peek at some of By Hand's images.

Bayonettes EP

Last night I went to the Bayonettes EP release show at Rancho Relaxo. I did the cover art for the new record, included above. The concept for the cover stemmed from an Out of Vogue (my DJ night from December 2005-October 2006, now defunct) flyer I did using the same hanging figures stolen from the cover of The Sonics Boom record. It was a lot of people's favourite Out of Vogue flyer - mine included - so when asked to do the Bayonettes second album cover, I recycled the idea so (way) more people could see the image I originally made for the (very) limited-run poster.

The Bayonettes are a four-piece punk/hardcore band from Toronto in the vein of early California punk bands such as the Avengers, the Flesh Eaters and the Bags. For more information on them, check out their somewhat outdated website, www.thebayonettes.com, or the label's website, www.derangedrecords.com

The Shapetionary

Here is a really neat project that I stumbled across a few weeks ago on an Instant Coffee mail-out. I am submitting some work for the Shaptionary, and Margaret needs as many helping hands as she can get. This undertaking is gigantic, so if you draw- even just a little bit- contact her and pitch in!

Call For Submissions:
Help Create the Shapetionary!
What is the Shapetionary? It’s a visual index of objects.

It started from looking at the dictionary and wondering why some words are illustrated and others aren’t, then thinking it would be interesting to illustrate the whole dictionary, or all the object nouns...then organize them by shape.

So I extracted all, or most (aprox 9500), of the object nouns, now I am setting out to get them illustrated by as many different people as possible. I am interested in our subjective/collective understandings of objects. So far over 550 people are participating, I estimate that between 1200-1500 drawers are needed.

That’s a brief description. So, if you are interested in illustrating some words, email velvetbicycle and you will receive a list of 6-8 words, along with complete instructions.
All participants will be acknowledged.

Questions and comments can be directed to:

Margaret Flood
velvetbicycle@hotmail.com

Ghost 1

Here are a few pictures of a project I have been working on involving the systematic fraying of an entire dress. I am almost done the first, and I will be moving on to a second one within the next few days...

Sadly, I spent much of the past month sick with a horrid virus that totally knocked me out. The worst symptom I experienced while sick was a near constant fatigue, which caused me to do little more than read in bed when not at work. I haven't done much in the way of art-related work for the past month, so hopefully I can get things moving at a more normal pace within the upcoming weeks. I've had a few ideas for new projects within the last week or so, so stay tuned for related posts/photos...

Toronto Zine Library website

For the past few weeks, I have been working hard on a new and improved website for the Toronto Zine Library, and it is pretty much complete! The website houses the library's comprehensive on-line catalogue, which will
eventually include thorough descriptions of all of our titles. Keep checking in, as the catalogue is an ongoing project for us that will be updated regularily.

From the website:
The Toronto ZIne Library is a run by a collective of zine makers, zine readers and librarians who are looking to make zines more accessable in Toronto. We believe that zines are still an important medium of communication and should be cherished, protected and promoted. Our aim is to do this through our public collection of zines, conducting workshops at our physical library and abroad, and by holding events that promote zines as a method of open communcation and free expression.

Find the website at: http://www.sitekreator.com/zinelibrary

Today in the Globe and Mail...

Their mission: Keeping the Zine Alive

A new library is collecting the photocopied artifacts of do-it-yourself publishing

TABASSUM SIDDIQUI

Special to The Globe and Mail

Remember zines? The handmade, photocopied artifacts turned anyone with a particular interest or story to tell into a do-it-yourself publisher. A couple of young Torontonians are hoping people do recall zines fondly -- and not just as curios. They've collected more than 500 of them from the past decade or so and are housing the collection at the Tranzac Club, a somewhat dingy but warm clubhouse in the Annex.

The Toronto Zine Library is the brainchild of Suzanne Sutherland, 19, a University of Toronto book and media-studies student who missed the lively zine culture of her high-school days. She wants to draw attention back to the immediacy of zine publishing, even as other zine fans have moved on to blogging or to other do-it-yourself art forms. The scene has "moved away from focusing strictly on zines to getting very craft-heavy, with things like buttons or handmade books and such," Ms. Sutherland says.

Last fall, Ms. Sutherland posted on a local online indie-rock message board, stillepost.ca, looking for volunteers to help with the project and donate zines. Patrick Mooney, a 26-year-old librarian at the CBC, jumped at the idea. "I'd gone to library school to be a librarian and had always wanted to do something like that," Mr. Mooney says, "so I was really excited when Suzanne posted about the possibility."

This past October, Ms. Sutherland, Mr. Mooney and about half a dozen other volunteers moved their Toronto Zine Library, which numbered about 300 titles, into the Tranzac. (Originally a club for expatriate Australians and New Zealanders, it's now a de facto cultural centre for the Annex.) Their collection, which includes everything from tiny, ragged hand-drawn comic books to slightly more professional-looking full-colour works, isn't much to look at on the surface (a ragtag bunch of stapled sheafs of paper housed in little linen racks), but is impressive in its depth and reach. There's a wide variety of zines from the past 10 years or so organized by genre: lit zines, fanzines, comic zines, political zines, zines about sex, cultural and social issues.

"Zines have been a vital part of publishing and subcultural history for a long time," says Tara Bursey, 24, an artist and freelance illustrator who has been involved in local zine culture for the past decade and recently came aboard to help out with the library. Ms. Bursey donated about 150 zines she had collected over the years to the library, bringing its total to around 500.

Ms. Sutherland estimates that 60 per cent of the zines in the collection are Canadian, with most of those being local titles, while Ms. Bursey's donation of punk and feminist zines has upped the American quotient.

Ms. Sutherland, Mr. Mooney and Ms. Bursey are all active zinesters themselves -- Ms. Sutherland makes little "novelettes" of her short stories; Mr. Mooney's are also literature-based, while Ms. Bursey worked on the feminist/punk fanzine Poseur Girl for eight years ("a lifetime in the zine world") and now puts out art-based zines. The three are the Toronto Zine Library's main staffers, keeping the collection in order and answering questions at the Tranzac on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m. They're mildly critical of other zine-related initiatives in the city, like the Toronto Public Library's collection at the Toronto Reference Library: It's difficult to access and not well curated, Mr. Mooney says.

So far, their zine library has only had a few fans drop by (though the collection is accessible at the club throughout the week as well). Ms, Sutherland is hoping to spread the word and to hold workshops, particularly for youth, about zine culture and how to make zines.

But does anyone still care? At a time when the Internet has made self-publishing much easier than labouring over bits of paper and a photocopier, interest in making and reading zines has waned in recent years. Even the zine library crew admit that the scene isn't what it used to be. "There aren't even many places left where you can buy zines," Ms. Bursey points out.

During their local heyday in the early 1990s, they were carried by retailers such as the now-defunct Tower Records, but today only a few independent bookstores and music shops offer a handful of titles. While most of the Toronto Zine Library's zines come from donations solicited online, from friends or gathered at zine fairs, Mr. Mooney also continues to buy a few new titles to add to the collection.

Lindsay Gibb, editor of Toronto-based Broken Pencil, a magazine devoted to zine culture, says zines may have gone down since their heyday, but that doesn't mean people aren't still busy cutting and pasting. "There is still more that one can do aesthetically with a zine than they can with a blog," she says. "Blogs don't have the same feeling as zines, so people continue to make zines for some of the same reasons that print magazines aren't switching over to the Web. Some people like to have a physical product to show for their efforts."

And, Ms. Bursey says, "the best thing about zines is that [they're] completely democratic. Anyone can make one, and they're cheap to make and distribute. The scene has sort of petered out, but it's definitely something worth preserving."

"The reason why people make zines doesn't change -- people are always going to feel the need to express themselves by creating something on their own," Ms. Sutherland adds. "I don't think that's an impulse that disappears, whether it's the nineties or 2030. And just as you don't have to be into alternative culture to enjoy comics, it's the same with zines. There's something for everyone."

Find the article on-line here.

Bobby Five Holiday Auction and Exhibition

I'm proud to be participating in Bobby Five's annual Holiday Auction and Exhibition this year. All proceeds from the reception/auction will go to families in need via Parkdale Community Health Centre. Please come out on December 10th to show your support, and bid on amazing work by some of the artists/fine illustrators who have shown at Bobby Five!

Charity Auction and Exhibition
Bobby Five Gallery
Sunday December 10, 2006 from 6pm-9pm

All donations made generously by the artists that have shown at Bobby Five Gallery in the past two years.

The Parkdale Community Health Center has organized a program to help families in need this holiday season and we at Bobby Five would like to help. There are 72 registered families that need assistance over the holidays to ensure that everyone in their family has a warm, safe and happy holiday.

We are inviting anyone and everyone to come participate in the auction, meet the artists and support the local community efforts on Sunday December 10^th from 6-9pm. We will conduct the auction silently, as well as provide a donation box and all proceeds from the bar will be included in our grand total donation to the community center.

We look forward to seeing you there!

http://www.bobbyfive.com

Pictured: Tara Bursey, Garlic Pasties-detail (2006)

Alfred Eisenstadt

A few days ago, I came across a website containing the Life Magazine covers of Alfred Eisenstadt, who has been called both a "20th-century master of the candid photograph" and "the father of photojournalism." Eisenstadt's covers from the 1930's in particular are so striking, many sharing a strong sense of repetition, and a militaristic- yet always dynamic- sense of order. I have included some of my favourites here.

Eisenstadt is best known for his photograph of a kiss between a nurse and a soldier on V-J Day.

OCAD Whodunit? Art Show and Sale

I will be participating in this year's Whodunit? show and sale at OCAD. Go try to find me at one of the public previews! A funny aside...my non-artist boyfriend also has a piece in the show! Hilarious!

Check out the Whodunit? website at:
http://www.ocad.ca/whodunit/whodunit.htm

From the press release:

So you think you know your artists? Test your powers to recognize work by famous and not-so-famous artists at Toronto's most mysterious art sale!

The sale offers hundreds of original works donated by Canadian artists, creative celebrities, OCAD faculty, alumni and students. Every piece measures 5-1/2" x 7-1/2" and each piece is $75. The mystery - who created the art - is solved only after the piece is bought and turned over. Find out why Globe and Mail art critic Sarah Milroy calls it "one of the city's most ingenious visual-art fundraisers".

Work is sold on a first-come-first-served basis. Hint: the best way buyers can ensure they get the work they want is to come to the preview, make a wish list, and arrive early at the sale!

Schedule:

Public Preview Days:

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, November 21, 23, 24, 12 noon to 8 pm

Wednesday, November 22, 12 noon to 6 pm

Preview Evening:

Wednesday, November 22, 6:30 to 10 pm

Includes a silent auction of a special collection of mystery art. Guests can experience martini cocktails in the Bombay Sapphire Blue Lounge and view hundreds of pieces of original art.

Tickets $150

Public Art Sale:

Saturday, November 25, 9 am to 5 pm

Purchasing Preview Evening tickets online: https://secure.ocad.ca/whodunit/

Info: www.ocad.ca | whodunit@ocad.ca | 416-977-6000, ext. 823

New website

For the last few days, I've been working on a personal website. It contains images of most of my sculptural work from the past two years, as well as sections for both my zine/bookworks, and design/illustrative work. Be sure to check it out when you get the chance, and check back in a week or so for more updates!

http://sitekreator.com/tarabursey

November art must-sees...

I've been to five or six fantastic art shows within the past week or so. Here are some recommendations based on this week's rounds...do be sure to check them all out if you get the chance...

Dana Holst- Woebegone
Katharine Mulherin Art Projects, 1086 Queen Street West, Toronto. (416)537-8827
November 3-25, 2006.

An installation of 80 miniature oil paintings collectively titled Memento depicting portraits of tortured family pets, painted on the ivory veneer of discarded Victorian piano keys. From afar the single row of keys pinned to the wall, spanning the gallery circumference will eerily hint at tombstones and misplaced teeth. Up close, with the examination of a magnifying glass, the viewer will feel the pull of each animal's fated orbit, laid bare with lovingly applied brushstrokes.
Dark human acts directed at four legged things. In her latest body of work, Holst looks into the cracks of human socialization, those hiding rage and boredom, greed and egocentricity.

Fray- Millie Chen, June Clark, Hannah Claus, Rachel Echenberg, Doug Guilford, Katharine Rupert-Dazai, Sarah Maloney, Luanne Martineau, Kim Ouellette, Susan Detweiler, David Merritt, Allyson Mitchell, Nadia Myre, Liz Sargent. Curated by Sarah Quinton and Carolyn Bell Farrell.
Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Avenue, Toronto. (416)599-5321
July 13, 2006-January 7, 2007.

Organized by the Textile Museum of Canada and the Koffler Gallery, this major group show features work in a range of media, from sculpture to photography, by nineteen contemporary artists from Canada and the United States. The artists in Fray explore the implications of memory embodied in the design, materials and processes associated with textile traditions. Often dismantling existing objects, they subsequently reweave the constitutive threads to generate new forms of expression and new meanings.

Hand-Face-Body- Louise Lemieux Bérubé, Gontran Brennan, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Kate Busby, Washboard Collective, Ying Gao, Sonia Haberstich, Filiz Klassen, Elana Kochman, Melissa Levin, John Krynick, Teresa Marcy, Hazel Meyer, Dorie Millerson, Allyson Mitchell, Janet Morton, Gordana Olujic Dosic, Vessna Perunovich, Christa Rowley, Lois Schklar, Auriane Sokoloski, Barbara Todd, Andrea Vander Kooij, Joy Walker, Ute Wolff
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto. (416)531-4635
October 13-November 26, 2006.

Playing with the double meanings that "hand", "face" and "body" have in the context of textiles, curators Chris Mitchell and Helena Frei have assembled a diverse group of works whose makers range from established artists with impressive track records to students in the process of refining their focus.

With the intimate, personal overtones of textile, the act of using it as a medium suggests human presence. The participating artists speak of things as disparate as biblical lyrics, cancer and the fate of dryer lint. Whatever the subject, whether addressing issues of body image, sexual preference, intimacy or pornography, the work speaks of the body either explicitly or by inference. The pieces in hand-face-body are made with a gamut of textile techniques that range from cutting-edge to the ancient and labour-intensive. Some of the artists use technologies derived from industry - a multi-head embroidery machine, a computer-controlled loom, a knitting machine. Others work with manual techniques like needle lace, rug hooking, hand knitting and quilting. Still others use found materials - human hair, jigsaw puzzles, dryer lint and abandoned craft projects.

Unholy Alliance: Art+Fashion Meet Again Nick Cave, Lydia K, Clemencia Labin, Kent Monkman, Matthew Vescovo and Viktor & Rolf
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, 952 Queen Street West, Toronto. (416)935-3087
October 5-November 12, 2006.

Sponsored by PUMA Canada and MAC Cosmetics.
Unholy Alliance is part of the Alphabet City Festival 2006: TRASH.

Pictured: Dana Holst, Johnny, 2006.

www.katharinemulherin.com
www.textilemuseum.ca
www.gladstonehotel.com
www.mocca.toronto.on.ca

TMC Shadow Box Exhibition and Auction

BMO Financial Group
Shadow Box
Exhibition
November 8-23, 2006
Artist's Reception and Opening Night
Wednesday, November 8, 2006. 6-8pm.
Silent Auction & Cocktail Party
Thursday November 23, 2006

Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avenue
Toronto, ON
(416) 599-5321

The Shadow Box Event is back for its 11th year. And so are the savory cocktails and scrumptious hors d’oeuvres. Fascinating personalities and memorable conversation.
With Shadow Box artworks from more than 150 supporting artists across the country, there’s something for everyone (and every space). Still-lifes and portraits. Acrylics and mixed media. Pastoral and edgy.
Proceeds support the Textile Museum of Canada’s exhibitions and educational programming.
Space is limited, so reserve your tickets at $125 each by calling 416-599-5321 x2230, right now.

For tickets, call 416-599-5321 x2230
http://www.textilemuseum.ca/shadowbox2006.html