Lindsay Zier-Vogel- Annie Oakley: Git Yer Gun

Annie Oakley: Get Yer Gun
Lindsay Zier-Vogel

September 1-30, 2007.
She Said Boom! Window Space
372 College Street
Toronto

Annie Oakley: Git Yer Gun is a paper and soft-sculpture installation based on an original poem written by the artist about the famed cowgirl, Annie Oakley. This installation reintroduces the historical figure of Annie Oakley into a contemporary context, highlighting the juxtaposition of Oakley’s the traditionally masculine world of guns and the Wild West, with a conservative femininity. The installation focuses on Annie Oakley as both subject and object, with a sewn paper quilt, two soft sculpture Annie Oakley dolls and various objects: the cigarettes Oakley shot out of the Prince of Prussia’s lips, feathers from the quails she shot as a sharp shooting child, the playing cards she could split in two with a bullet and the sewing supplies she would use to make her own clothes.

Lindsay Zier-Vogel is a writer, choreographer, book-maker and arts educator. She has recently graduated from the University of Toronto’s MA program in Creative Writing and is currently finishing her first novel. Her hand-bound book arts have been featured in a solo show at TYPE Books Gallery, OCAD Book Arts fair, Virus Art Gallery + objectorium. She is the founding editor and designer of Puddle Press, an independent publishing company, focused on art and text based limited edition publications. Zier-Vogel is interested in the intimate and invested relationship between reader and book and author/creator. Using new and experimental binding techniques and employing interactive, minimalist design, Zier-Vogel has created over a thousand paper creations. These include traditional hardcover books, soft cover books bound with hemp, books in sewn mull cloth envelopes, typewritten books, hand written books, books out of Erlenmeyer flasks, books on playing cards, books bound with wood sticks and copper, accordion style books that have been sold across Canada. She and collaborator Rhya Tamasauskas have engaged in The Love Letter Project I-III, a yearly guerilla art project involving the anonymous distribution of one-of-a-kind paper and fabric collage love letters. Her work can be found at: www.puddlepress.com

For more information, contact:
Tara Bursey
She Said Boom! Window Space
ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com

Toronto Zine Library- Selections

Some photos of the installation at She Said Boom! Window Space. It's up for another week and a bit, so go and check it out while you still can.

Wing Studies

Zines/Bookworks at Freedom Clothing Collective

I dropped off some more zines and bookworks at Freedom Clothing Collective last week...new titles now available include Tea Bag (2004), Cahier (2005), Plastic Nurses and Science Freaks (2005) and brand spanking new Pulp Cover Notebooks (pictured with spokescat, Exene), hand bound with real vintage pulp fiction covers! Stop by the shop and check them out!

Also, a solo show at Freedom may be in the works of original art I've created for zines, as well as altered books/art in book format. Stay tuned for more details...

Freedom Clothing
939 Bloor Street West
(west of Ossington)
Toronto www.freedomclothingcollective.com

Toronto Zine Library- Selections at She Said Boom! Window Space

Toronto Zine Library
Selections

August 1-31, 2007.
She Said Boom! Window Space
372 College Street
Toronto

This exhibition showcases highlights from the Toronto Zine Library’s collection. Included are zines from the 80s to the present, ranging from literary and art-based zines to political/feminist/queer zines to punk rock fanzines. These selections- though only a mere glimpse into the past and present of “underground publishing”- illustrate the rich history of subversive thought, graphic art and free expression associated with
the zine medium.

The Toronto Zine Library is a reading room and lending library run by a collective of zine-readers, zine-makers and librarians striving to make zines more accessible in Toronto. They believe that zines are an important medium of communication, and that they should be cherished, protected and promoted. The TZL aims to do this through not only a public collection of more than 1200 catalogued pieces, but also by conducting talks and workshops at the library and abroad, as well as by holding related events that promote zines as a method of open communication. The Toronto Zine Library is currently based out of the
second floor of the Tranzac Club.

The Toronto Zine Library Collective is Suzanne Sutherland, Patrick Mooney and Tara Bursey. For more information on the Toronto Zine Library and its collective, consult the Toronto Zine Library website: http://www.sitekreator.com/zinelibrary

For more information, contact:
Tara Bursey
She Said Boom! Window Space
ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com

Pictured: Pig Paper #14 by Gary Pig (1982)

Upcoming Exhibitions

It's going to be a SUPER busy next month or so preparing for these shows! Stay tuned to the blog for more details about each of them...

August 2007 Get the Picture! at the Gladstone Hotel (Art auction to benefit Toronto Distress Centres)
September 2007 Elemental Connections at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery (Curated by Arlene Gehring)
October 2007 Shadow Box Exhibition and Auction at the Textile Museum of Canada

Julian Calleros- Bugs In My Mind

Be sure to check out this month's exhibition at She Said Boom! Window Space...

Bugs in My Mind
Sculpture by
Julian Calleros

July 1-31, 2007
She Said Boom Window Space
372 College Street
Toronto

From Artists Statement:
My personal evolution, how I relate and interact with people, is the motive for the creation of my artwork and the importance of communicating my thoughts. Through the years I have overcome many challenges, which have affected the way I work with materials. The concepts behind my artwork reflect socio-political issues, and reflect raw personal perspectives. My artwork represents bridges between cultures, languages and ideas, as well as the feelings of belonging and displacement.

Julian Calleros is a Toronto-based artist who works encompasses painting, papier-mâché/sculpture, video and photography. He is originally from Guadalajara,
Mexico.

Bookworks/Zines now available at Freedom Clothing

As of last Friday, my zines/bookworks became available exclusively through a boutique/studio space called Freedom Clothing in Toronto. From Russia with Love, Teenage Lust and my Record Cover Notebooks are there on sale now, and other titles will be available there within coming weeks.

Freedom Clothing is run by the Freedom Clothing Collective, a group of fine young designers. The shop is gorgeous, and sells a variety of wearables and readables, from new and reworked vintage clothing to accesories, handmade jewellry, zines and artist's multiples. They also have rotating art exhibitions every month or so. From their website:

The core values of the collective are freedom of expression and freedom to responsible consumption. We feel that clothing should be expressive, intelligent and accessible. In an industry often seen as being frivolous and pretentious, Freedom Clothing offers an alternative way to make, sell & buy fashion. As young business owners we hope to foster both accessibility to local artists as well as bridge the gap between fashion and building community relationships. By supporting us, the community helps to recycle what would normally end up in landfills while funding creative and socially conscious production methods. We integrate recycled fabrics with new materials in our designs to promote an environmentally conscious way of purchasing and wearing clothing.

Freedom Clothing
939 Bloor Street West
(1 Block West of Ossington)
Toronto
www.freedomclothingcollective.com

From Russia With Love

I took these pictures one evening about a week ago.

From Russia With Love

I found this photo of the Russia installation on a photo-blog called pause by Drew Thomas Levy. What a great picture! The following caption accompanied the photo...

'from russia with love'
Toronto, ON | June 2007

I was walking along College Street east of Bathurst this morning, when I noticed this display in the window of 'She Said Boom,' a used book and record shop on the north side of Kensington Market. The piece, by a Toronto artist named Tara Bursey, is entitled 'From Russia with Love' and features 54 portraits of Russian 'mail-order brides' drawn from photographs found by the artist on internet websites. The portraits caught my eye, and only in part because they reminded me of Walker Evan's photograph (pictured below) 'Penny Picture Display, Savannah, Georgia, 1936.'

http://pause.my-expressions.com

Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach in Border Crossings Magazine

Check out the latest issue of Border Crossings Magazine for an in-depth article about Iris Haussler's Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach by Andrea Carson. The article discusses the installation itself, Iris' previous work, and other examples of public/performative/"hyper-real" installation over the past 60 years.

www.bordercrossingsmag.com
www.hauessler.ca

Response at Propeller Centre for the Arts

Keep an eye out for TEMPLE II (detail pictured above) in Response at Propeller next week! The show should be amazing...please try to make it out!

Response
Propeller Centre for Visual Arts
in the Main Gallery
June 6 - 17, 2007
Reception: Saturday June 9, 2-5 pm

Artists Include: Tara Bursey, Stephanie Cormier, Dan Dodds, Tyler Hilton, Seungyun Im, Martha Jeblonski-Jones, Donna Kwasnicki, John Lismer, Lucinda Luvaas, Amanda MacDonald, Jo Anne Maikawa, Ann Marino, Frances Patella, Tina Oehmsen-Clark, Kayli Rodgers, Tammy Salzl, Keijo Tapananien and Kara Williams.

We are surrounded by artistic gestures in a multitude of media. Art forms weave in and out of our everyday experiences. We are conditioned by them, although the processes which form them are often a mystery. How do we understand our perception of these media? How do we comprehend their messages whether overt or subliminal?

This unique show offers an opportunity for visual artists to respond to another art medium of their choice. Propeller throws open its doors to invite everyone to view visual responses to literature, film, video, performance, prayer, music or other form. The challenge was to translate the salient messages received from the medium of choice into a medium of the Visual Arts -- a dedicated image that illuminates and unlocks the perceived meaning of the vehicle of inspiration.

The schedule coincides with the Luminato Festival of Toronto (http://www.luminato.ca), this show will be a celebration of art in general and the specific perceptions of visual artists.

Watch web site for additional details about performances.

Propeller Centre for Visual Arts
984 Queen Street West,
Toronto, ON, M6J 1H1
Hours: Wed-Sat 12-6, Sun 12-5
Tel: 416.504.7142
Email: gallery@propellerctr.com
Web: http://www.propellerctr.com

From Russia With Love

From Russia with Love
Drawing/Installation
By Tara Bursey

June 1-30, 2007.
She Said Boom! Window Space
372 College Street
Toronto

Bookwork multiples are available exclusively through the mail for $5 each for the length of the exhibition only. Address orders to From Russia with Love: 301-110 Tyndall Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6K 2E2.

From Russia with Love is an installation featuring 54 portraits of Russian “mail order brides” drawn from photographs on internet sites. The installation is an extension of the artist’s previous work exploring serial portraiture- yearbook photos, WWII military portraits- and the idea of portraits of this nature serving as “human catalogues.” Using the laborious act of drawing each woman’s likeness by hand, the piece attempts to subvert the idea of these women being catalogued, while alluding to their commodification through their presentation within a storefront installation and bookwork “catalogue” multiple.

Tara Bursey is a recent graduate of the Toronto School of Art’s diploma program, and a former student at Ontario College of Art and Design. An artist whose practice encompasses sculpture and installation as well as drawing, printmaking and craft, Tara’s work is characterized by its ethereal quality, and an often obsessive use of repetition, pattern and delicate sculptural materials such as eggshells, garlic skin, found garments and paper. During her studies at the Toronto School of Art, Tara was the recipient of TSA’s Barbara Barrett Scholarship (2004) and Matthew David Stein Scholarship (2005). In the past two years, she has exhibited extensively throughout the city in such diverse venues as Open Studio, MOCCA, Eastern Front Gallery, Fly Gallery, and Propeller Centre for the Arts. In addition to her work as a fine artist, Tara also operates actively within Toronto’s independent music and small-press communities as a DJ, illustrator, designer, writer, and is currently a core member of the Toronto Zine Library collective. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, contact:
Tara Bursey
She Said Boom! Window Space
ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com

Heather Saunders- It's A Girl!

Here are some details of the installation taken last night. More to come within the next couple of days!

Toronto Zine Library in Broken Pencil!

We're in their latest issue...check it out!

Zine Libraries: Alternative Learning Centres with Couches
MICHELLE KAY

Visiting a zine library isn't like going to a conventional library. You don't have to speak in hushed voices, you can bring in a hot beverage, sit on comfy couches, peruse independent, hard-to-find publications and meet other zine enthusiasts. Toronto's Zine Library is housed in the Tiki Roon at the TRANZAC, a community organization that promotes the arts, theatre and music. The Tiki Room is not large or fancy, but it serves the purpose of providing a cozy place for people to gather and read zines or listen to readings. Most zine libraries are more than just archives with dusty boxes but also act as meeting areas, hosting events, talks and workshops where artists, writers, activists, media critics and others can congregate to share ideas.

However, if you're already visiting the Toronto Reference Library, why not check out the zine library there? Broken Pencil donates there zines to provide the bulk of this collection. While the focus is on the Toronto zine scene, you will find other Canadian and international zines such as Montreal's Fish Piss. The zines are neatly arranged in folders and are stored alphabetically by title. They currently have about 700 zines, and if you need a break from your studies, it's conveniently located on the 4th floor of the library for your perusal.

According to Montreal's Bibliograph/e co-founder Anna Leventhal, "By having a place where zines are broadly accessable to the general public, there is a chance of maybe breaking down some of the barriers between media producers and media consumers." It serves as a kind of "nexus for people who are interested in alternative media, original writing and weird art." The Toronto Zine Library Collective's Tara Bursey likens zine libraries to political infoshops in that they "provide people with a venue for free information exchange and learning without interference or moderation. Both are places that could be considered alternative learning centres or 'free schools.'"

Halifax's Anchor Archive is found in Sarah Evans' and Sonia Edworthy's living room in a detatched house in North Halifax on Roberts Street. Evans states, "The purpose of the Anchor Archive- and I would guess most zine libraries- is to share zines, often a hidden and inaccessible type of publication, with anyone who is interested." Anchor Archive also organizes zine fairs and since 2006, has been running artist/writer/zinemaker-in-residence programs where residents move into the backyard shed- which is cleaned out to hold a bed and a desk- for a few weeks or a month and work on projects, holding office hours during the library's open hours. They are a great opportunity for collaboration and allow for out-of-towners as well as local folks a chance to work on a project while using the resources of Anchor Archive. Past residents include Dennis Hale, Sarah Mangle, Jeff Miller and Sara Spike, and Iris Porter.

Zine libraries are mostly volunteer-run, recieving little funding except when supporters and organizers decide to pay for expenses out of their own pockets. They are truely labours of love. Says Evans, "Halifax has a real shortage of public spaces that are community-run, art-based, and when we moved in here, we decided that a zine library would be a good focal point for starting something. There was always a lot of interest in zine fairs or workshops we were organizing."
Broken Pencil #35

Toronto Zine Library at the London Indie Media Fair

This Saturday, the Toronto Zine Library will be tabling at the 2nd annual London Indie Media Fair. The fair will feature Indie/DIY groups tabling their wares as well as a number of fantastic workshops. The Toronto Zine Library table will feature our physical catalogue, highlights from our collection, the TZL zine and pins for sale as well as many other goodies and surprises. If you are in the London area, please come down and say hi to us!



London Indie Media Fair
Saturday, May 12th, 2007
12-4:30pm
at the London Public Library,
Central Branch
251 Dundas Street
London, Ontario

Compulsion Soap

Here's a picture I took recently of my Compulsion Soap multiples. They are a year and a half old, and for some reason, I've never taken decent pictures of them until now. Over 150 of these hand-carved soaps exist...they were one of the first of my multiple works that dealt with the theme of "domestic anxiety," which I have addressed numerous times through numerous multiple works since...

Heather Saunders- It's A Girl!

I'm very proud to present the inaugural exhibition at She Said Boom! Window Space for the month of May...please be sure to pass by and take a look!

Heather Saunders
It’s a Girl!

May 1^st-31^st, 2007
She Said Boom! Window Space
372 College Street
Toronto

Caught in a state of flux, these abstractions of cocoons are both breaking free and being further bound by layers of stitching and layers of fabric. They are made from girls’ baby clothes, women’s lingerie, and hybrids of the two, in an attempt to emphasize their shared signifiers, such as colour, sensual fabrics and floral imagery. The newest additions to the series incorporate girls’ baby clothes that contain text, as an exploration of the messages of socialization imposed, ironically, on a preliterate group.

Heather Saunders has a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Art History from Sheridan College and the University of Toronto. At the University of Toronto, she is completing a Masters in Library and Information Studies and will be starting a Masters in History of Art this fall. She is a former director of White Water Gallery (North Bay, Ontario) and the current publisher of FUSE magazine. (Toronto, Ontario).

For more information, contact:
Tara Bursey
She Said Boom! Window Space
ssbwindowspace@hotmail.com

Michael Comeau at the Toronto Zine Library

The Toronto Zine Library is holding their second in-library event on April 29th, and it should be a fantastic one. Try to make it out!

The Toronto Zine Library presents:
A talk with guest speaker
Michael Comeau

Sunday, April 29th, 1:30pm
at the TRANZAC
292 Brunswick Avenue, south of Bloor.
Toronto

Please join us for a talk with special guest zine-maker Michael Comeau hosted by the TZL Collective at the Toronto Zine Library. In his talk, Michael will talk about his personal history with zines, and how his involvement with zine culture has informed his work as a professional artist and screenprinter.

Michael Comeau is a Toronto-based printmaker and poster artist , and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. In addition to his work as an artist, he has been a zine-maker for many years and was formerly the director of Cut'N'Paste zine fair as well as the Penny Arcade Print Shoppe and Gallery in Kensington Market. His recent projects include a solo show, Excretion Escapades, at Magic Pony and the curation of Regal Beast, a series of art anthologies.

The Toronto Zine Library is run by a collective of zine readers, zine makers and librarians who are commited to making zines more accessible in Toronto. We believe that zines are still an important method of communication that should be cherished, protected and promoted. Our aim is 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 communtication and free expression.

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

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?