A Touch of Sinemania launch this Saturday!

I am thrilled to announce the launch of my pal (Doug Wright Award Nominee) Sophie Cossette's brand new comic! The launch is THIS SATURDAY at Babel Books and Music. Come by to get a copy of your very own and to join the festivities. It should be tons of fun!

Here's a note from Sophie's hubby Phil about the launch...

Hi there! On Saturday, Sept. 27th between 7 and 9 PM at Babel Books and Music, a brand spankin' new comic book will be launched: A Touch of Sinemania, written and illustrated by Sophie Cossette!

This ain't no typical graphic novel; A Touch of Sinemania is a collection of comics and cartoons bound to delight both comix and movie lovers! 84 pages paying twisted humorous tribute to some of the most eccentric and visionary filmmakers in movie history! It's guaranteed you won't ever watch these directors' pictures quite the same way again after reading A Touch of Sinemania! Sophie and I would be delighted if you make it to our launch party on the 27th. Come and get A Touch of Sinemania for yourself, hang out, peruse the other fine books and records Babel has to offer,listen to some terrific tunes, and sling back a beer or two. (This party is BYOB, by the way, 'cause we're basically too broke to supply refreshments:) Babel Books and Music is located on 123 Ossington Avenue (between Dundas West and Queen). The fun begins at 7:00 PM next Saturday night!

We hope to see you there!

A Touch of Sinemania
by Sophie Cossette

Comic Launch Party
Saturday, September 27th. 7-9pm
at Babel Books and Music
123 Ossington Avenue
Toronto

Toronto Zine Library at Ladyfest 2008

From the Toronto Zine Library website...come and take part!...

Danielle and Tara of the TZL Collective will be facilitating a workshop titled Zinemaking for Social Change at this year's Ladyfest Toronto! In this open-format workshop/discussion, we will talk about the history of zinemaking within countercultural movements from the 1920 to the present, methods of making and distributing zines and pamphlets as well as the Toronto Zine Library and it's activities.

Ladyfest 2008 Workshop Venue:
St. Stephen's In-the Fields Church
103 Bellevue Avenue at College Street
North of Kensington Market
Toronto

From Ladyfest Toronto's website:
"Ladyfest Toronto is a four-day arts, culture and music festival. We are a non-profit, grassroots, do-it-yourself collective who seek to promote urban feminism. We work from a framework that is pro-feminist, trans-inclusive, pro-diversity and anti-oppressive. We seek to build community among Toronto's feminist businesses, artists, activists and academic community. We believe that art is a powerful form of resistance and hope to incite dialogue about contemporary feminist issues in our city. We will be providing a venue for women to express themselves and showcase their work free of sexism, classism, racism, and homophobia; as well as other forms of oppression.

We believe that politics can be fun and hope to facilitate political action and create tools for feminist networking at our annual event. We will proudly showcase the talent and actions of both local and international women. Ultimately, we hope Ladyfest Toronoto inspires women everywhere to organize themselves and create similar spaces that allow women's creative works to be seen and heard, as other Ladyfests have for us."

For more information:
http://www.ladyfesttoronto.ca/
http://www.sitekreator.com/zinelibrary
http://torontozinelibrary.blogspot.com

Interview: Fiona Smyth

The following is an interview I did with Toronto artist, illustrator, comic artist, and all-round art renaissance lady, Fiona Smyth for the latest issue of the Toronto Zine Library Resource Zine...

Over the years, you have done comic strips for free newspapers, murals and public works, illustration, and have shown your work in commercial galleries. How do you balance all the aspects of your (diverse!) practice, specifically the "work for love" with the "work for money?" Do you view each part of your practice as separate, or as one whole?
It's not a conscious effort to balance the different work. There is a sliding scale budget wise for "who is asking for what". Hopefully moneyed gigs keep everything else afloat. I apply for art grants every year. Also in the last couple of years I've been teaching at OCAD and selling paint at Home Depot. Regular money that isn't reliant on my art and personal expression has been hugely liberating. I would say everything informs the work in the end, all my experiences.

Do you consider yourself engaged in "zine culture?" I know you have contributed to at least a few zines...what was the extent of your involvement with zines and zine-making in the past? Have you done any self-publishing recently?
I do feel engaged even if I don't have a table at Canzine every year. I used to do zines to go with my art shows as early as 1986 and I just did one for my last solo show The Virtuous at Spin Gallery (with a screen printed cover by Michael Comeau) in 2007. In the past I contributed to Babble, Trash Compactor, Fabulous Babes, The Social Drinker, Heavy Girl Press, Maow Maow. More recently, I’ve contributed to Paper Rodeo, Regal Beast, Milk and Wodka, and Elevator.

What sorts of things inspire your work?
Film (Zhang Yimou, Hayao Miyazaki), comics (Idiotland, Kramer's Ergot, Rudy), comediennes (Sarah Silverman, Amy Sedaris) and travel, when I can afford it. And so much more, like crappily painted store signage and thrift store "art".

If I had to describe the girls/women you draw in one word, it would probably be POWERFUL. Is it (or was it ever) your intention to depict "empowered" women?
It's definitely my intention but it was born out of a subconscious compulsion. I realized over the years I was trying to empower myself and these images of women and girls were all aspects of myself. The work is really autobiographical and definitely feminist.

What are your thoughts on the idea of art-making (or zine-making for that matter) as a tool for self-empowerment? Or the empowerment of others?
Art-making is empowering all-round. And the fact that you can create a zine with little money and send it out and across the world is huge. It's great that the work can be out in the world and not languishing in an art gallery.

Do you consider your work for an adult audience exclusively? I ask because your drawings (and paintings) are so bold, inviting, and often playful. I could see children really responding to your work despite your interest in adult themes and sometimes racy subject matter...
Yes, my work is for an adult audience but its funny because a lot of illustration work I've done has been kid and tween age stuff. I guess my cartooniness and bright colours lend it to that material. More recent artwork has been a lot darker in colour and content, there's no question it's for adults. (In some of the more violent work, Child-like figures are imperiled).

Who are some of your favourite artists, local and otherwise?
I have huge ever-changing lists. Here is a teeny list (and I know I'm leaving folks out, sorry): Allyson Mitchell, Shary Boyle, Julie Voyce, Maurice Vellekoop, Michael Comeau, Marc Bell and the Psychedoolic crew, Vesna Mostovac, Lorenz Peter, GB Jones…these are all past and current zinesters. Ed Pien, Fastwurms, Casey McGlynn, Sandra Meigs. Farther away: Kara Walker, Jim Drain, Raymond Pettibon, Matthew Barney, Taiyo Matsumoto, Chiho Aoshima.

*****

For more on Fiona, check out her website.

Zine Dream 1

I will have a table at the Zine Dream 1 multiples and small press fair this weekend at the TRANZAC. The Toronto Zine Library will also be open upstairs for exploration and lounging purposes. Be sure to come out and check out all the incredible stuff!!!

ZINE DREAM 1
small press art fair, featuring over 40 local artists and zinesters!
+ All 3 rooms of the rooms of the Tranzac, with music and
performances all day! + Toronto Zine Library Open House,
come hang out and read zines! + there will be a bake sale!!

SUN AUG 24 08 - TRANZAC, 292 Brunswick Ave. 12 to 6 pm

+ with music by
-Peace Loving (from Jamaica Plain, MA - http://www.myspace.com/peachloving)
-Doctor Matthew Dunn
-$100 lite (Ian & Simone - http://www.myspace.com/1hundreddollars)

-DJS Longhorn Grille + Orenda

+ performances by
-Lou Calabro
-Stephanie Wilkie
-Chris Locke

PWYC

contact laura (lauramclaura at gmail) or jesjit (jesjit at gmail) for more info

Toronto Zine Library Upcoming Events

From the TZL Website:

Erick Lyle (aka Iggy Scam), long-time creator of seminal San Francisco zine SCAM will be reading from his new book On the Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City. Also reading will be Jeff Miller, creator of Montreal's Ghost Pine zine, and locals Joey Comeau and Cathy Crowe. This event will be hosted by This Ain't the Rosedale Library, and will be co-sponsored by the Toronto Zine Library. An exciting appearance by two accomplished zine-makers...don't miss this!

Tuesday, August 19th. 6pm
This Ain't the Rosedale Library
86 Nassau Street, west of Augusta Avenue
Kensington Market, Toronto

AND Please join us for Zine Dream 1, an enormous zine fair which will fill the entire TRANZAC Club! The fair will feature tablers, workshops, DJs and surprises galore! The Toronto Zine Library will be taking part, opening our doors as a lounge/reading room where collective members will be present to answer questions, sell memberships, and show you around the collection!

Sunday, August 24th. 12-6pm
at the TRANZAC Club
292 Brunswick Avenue, south of Bloor
Toronto

The Portable Library Project

The Portable Library Project is a project involving the creation of small works exploring ideas surrounding archiving, journaling, libraries, ephemera, and incorporating an art practice into everyday life.

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

This project will culminate in a web-based archive, an exhibition, as well as the inclusion of each Portable Library into a local alternative library for viewing and circulation.

Send all expressions of interest (with a bit about yourself and 1-2 jpgs of recent work) and questions to Tara at cleanteen@hotmail.com

Luke You at the Toronto Zine Library

Please join us for a talk with special guest Luke You of Melbourne, Australia, brought to you by the Toronto Zine Library Collective.

Luke You makes a free weekly paper zine called 'You'. He has published a copy every week since November 2001. The zine usually takes the form of an anonymous hand written letter sealed with staples in a paper bag. The zine is produced in the city Luke You lives in - Melbourne, Australia. Luke has been publishing zines anonymously in Melbourne since 1994.

Luke is also one of the coordinators and one of the founding members of the Melbourne zine store Sticky. Sticky is dedicated to promoting and distributing zines and artist-books and has been getting the zines to the kids since April 2001. His talk will cover his involvement in the Australian zine scene, his own zine 'You" as well as his involvement in the Melbourne zine store Sticky. This is the final gig in his zine world tour which took in Melbourne, Chicago, Bloomington and Toronto.

Sunday, July 6th, 2008.
1:30pm

Toronto Zine Library at the TRANZAC
292 Brunswick Avenue
2nd Floor Rehersal Hall
Toronto, Canada

For more information, contact:
torontozinelibrary@hotmail.com

WWS Coverage in MONDOmagazine

Here's an online article I found about the World Washi Summit that featured little write-ups of both events I participated in. The forth-mentioned origami shoes at TSA and crocheted washi scarf at the OCC are both mine. And congrats to my friend Yoko for getting a really nice mention in the piece...

Craftflash: Awash in Washi

World Washi Summit
June 7-15, 2008
35 locations in and around Toronto

By Amy Borkwood

How many ways can you possibly manipulate Washi — through folding, gluing, dyeing, painting, cutting, printing, sewing, etc. — in order to create something absolutely new? This is what the World Washi Summit seemed to be asking of its artists throughout this one-week exhibition of Washi (the Japanese word for traditional papers, made by hand for over 1400 years, from renewable, indigenous plants). Galleries (and restaurants, retail stores, and more) all across the city dedicated their spaces to the exploration of this traditional paper, featuring new and experienced artists, all working within the medium of Washi.

The hand-making and traditional uses of Washi — and this is applicable to fine craft and handmade goods in general — have drastically reduced with the use of machines in traditionally handmade goods and materials. The purpose of the summit is to draw attention to the traditional roles of Washi, through showcasing the creative possibilities of this medium.

The potentials of Washi seem limitless: at the Toronto School of Art exhibition, there was an exact replica of a newspaper, intricately hand-lettered and hand-drawn, next to an installation of origami shoes, spread along the entire gallery floor, which ended at a podium full of shakeable folded boxes (seeds and bells sounding inside). My favourite piece at this gallery was Yoko Nomura’s “Yozakura (Cherry Blossom in the Night),” which was really a study of the Washi itself: loosely layered sheets of Washi, made with Washi-petals inside the paper as well as on the floor directly in front of the piece, as if the petals had been falling slowly from within the paper over the course of the exhibition.

My boyfriend and I subwayed and trammed down to Propeller gallery, just to find that the show didn’t officially open until the next day — only to be let in for an early showing by a (wonderful) woman working in the gallery. Though the gallery wasn’t completely ready to be viewed — there were papers and rulers along the floor, notes on the walls about the placement of each piece — the work that we saw was stunning. One piece by Teri Donovan stood out: black-ink prints of houses on off-white Washi, with hand-embroidered root systems trailing from each house.

After Propeller we headed to the Ontario Craft Council gallery, where 13 artists had been working over the June 7/8 weekend to create gorgeous, innovative Washi works. Within two days, the artists collaborated or worked individually to craft mobiles, “paper cups” (glass cups overflowing with torn Washi), jewellery (a necklace made of large, egg-like sculptured Washi), multiple collages, and even a scarf knit from Washi and shredded office paper. The OCC exhibition, all crafted within the two-day deadline, is now being auctioned off to the public. Go to the OCC show if only to see the knit-paper scarf. Honestly, how is that possible?

***

Original article can be found here.

Washi Lockdown and Auction at the OCC

So the Washi Lockdown is over and done with! It was pretty intense, but a really awesome experience. It was a real luxury being able to make work for 24 hours (almost) straight, with 12 (incredible) artists and craftspeople.

I didn't make it out to the auction, but I'm thrilled that two of my three pieces sold, and that the event was a great success for the OCC. My sincere thanks go out to Katherine McKellar, Janna Hiemstra, and the rest of the Ontario Crafts Council for organizing a really incredible event, as well as to all of my fellow participating artists.

For those of you interested in taking a look at the goings-on last weekend, check out the official OCC Washi Lockdown Blog, which lists the results of the auction, and features exclusive photographs of the two-day event: http://occwashilockdown2008.blogspot.com

AND...tomorrow is the last day of the World Washi Summit! Make use of the day and be sure to go out and see as may of the fine WWS exhibitions around the city as possible!

http://www.worldwashisummit.com

Pictured: Tara Bursey, Web, knotted washi and straight pins (2008)

Washi Lockdown and Auction at the OCC

Ontario Crafts Council Washi Lockdown & Auction
Washi Lockdown June 7th and 8th, 9am - 9 pm
Washi Auction Party June 11th, 6:30 - 9:00 pm
Ontario Crafts Council Gallery, 990 Queen Street West, Toronto

14 craftspeople + 1 gallery space x 2 days = infinite possibilities

Throw in all the washi paper they can handle and you get the Washi Lockdown & Auction in support of the Ontario Crafts Council In partnership with the World Washi Summit and the Japanese Paper Place, the Ontario Crafts Council is pleased to present the Washi Lockdown & Auction. Developed as a means to engage both our membership and the public in a new and exciting way, the Washi Lockdown was inspired by both the creative potential and beauty of washi paper and the pioneering efforts of the Emma Lake International Collaboration.

This weekend, June 7th and 8th, 14 craftspeople in all media from across Ontario will be locked into the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery together for 2 days. Pushing the boundaries of traditional craft practice they will create a series of one-of-a-kind collaborations incorporating washi paper that will be auctioned off the evening of June 11th. Stop by the gallery and peer through peep holes cut into washi paper covering the front window of the gallery.

Don't miss a rare opportunity to bid on truly unique collaboratively hand-made objects.

The Washi Lockdown brings together emerging, mid career and senior craftspeople, including Tanya Norman, Brad Copping, Marc Egan, Yusun Ha, Tiana Roebuck, Jess Riva Cooper, Tara Bursey, Andrew Curle, Emma Gerard, Joel Dunkley, Patrick Collins, Julie Laschuk, Kathleen Doody and Lubo Brezina. The live auction on June 11th, 6:30 - 9:00 pm, is your chance to get your hands on the one of a kind pieces of craft created during this unusual event. 100% of funds raised will go to support the Council’s programming and exhibitions schedule. All work created will be on display in advance of the auction at the OCC Gallery June 9th and10th.

For more information about the OCC and the Washi Lockdown & Auction contact Katherine McKellar at 416-925-4222 ext.222 or kmckellar@craft.on.ca. To learn more about the World Washi Summit and the vast creative potential and importance of washi paper please visit www.worldwashisummit.com.

Shary Boyle- Otherworld Uprising at DM Books

I will be excitedly attending the launch for Shary Boyle's long awaited monograph Otherworld Uprising this Sunday at David Mirvish Books. Shary will be signing books from 2-4 pm. The book will include a selection of Shary's more recent work, from her incredible Lace Figures series (see above) to her polymer clay sculpture, drawing and painting.

From Jessica Bradley Art + Projects website:

Shary Boyle’s extraordinary book Otherworld Uprising, arrives mid-April. Published by Conundrum Press, Montreal, in collaboration with the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, this full-colour volume includes over 100 illustrations, an introduction by Art Gallery of Ontario assistant curator Ben Portis and essays by National Gallery of Canada curator of contemporary art Josée Drouin Brisebois and award-winning fiction writer Sheila Heti. The artist will sign books at David Mirvish Books on Art, 596 Markham Street, Sunday May 25th.

For more of Shary's work, check out her website:
http://www.sharyboyle.com

Robert Rauschenberg R.I.P.

"A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist should stick to one medium or style. He pushed, prodded and sometimes reconceived all the mediums in which he worked."

Robert Rauschenberg, American Artist, Dies at 82:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/arts/design/14rauschenberg.html?_
r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Building on the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell and others, he helped obscure the lines between painting and sculpture, painting and photography, photography and printmaking, sculpture and photography, sculpture and dance, sculpture and technology, technology and performance art — not to mention between art and life.

World Washi Summit

I'll be participating in at least one of the scheduled events of the first ever World Washi Summit. Galleries across Toronto and vicinity will be showcasing the work of artists working with Japanese paper as a way of honouring and celebrating washi and it's makers. Galleries such as Edward Day, Loop, Lonsdale Gallery, *new* gallery and several others, and numerous artists will be participating in the festivities. Keep your eyes peeled for printed schedules in associated galleries and stores, or check out the official WWS website (at the bottom of this entry) for all the details...

World Washi Summit
Art comes alive on Japanese paper
June 7-15, 2008
Toronto & Vicinity

What is washi? Washi is the Japanese word that refers to the traditional papers, made by hand from indigenous renewable plant fibres, which have been continuously produced and refined in Japan for 1400 years. With modernization, the future of this craft is endangered.

Why the Summit? For centuries, washi has been indispensable to daily life in Japan and each of the hundreds of types and sizes of Japanese paper has had a very specific use. Pure white paper for sliding shoji doors, persimmon-dyed paper as floor mats, lustrous gampi for court calligraphy: the special qualities of washi have been continuously employed to make life both more convenient and more aesthetically pleasing for the citizens of Japan.

Over time, speeded up during the 20th century, most of the many traditional uses of washi have lost their relevance and the papermaking industry has been decimated. At the turn of the 19th century there were some 80,000 families making paper by hand. Today there are roughly 320 individuals who carry on the tradition.

Though the domestic use of many types of washi has been drastically reduced, the discovery of the papers and their potential by creative people around the world has given new hope for the continuance of the craft. This has inspired whole new genres of art. Because of its special qualities - great wet and dry strength, translucence, malleability and absorbency, washi is experiencing rebirth in the hands of open-minded artists everywhere who are interested in “new” materials that expand their creative expression.

Goals of the Summit

• to draw attention to the vast creative potential of washi
• to underline its practicality and sustainability – for 1400 years - in a vulnerable world
• to encourage the perseverant papermakers in rural Japan, to show them how artists worldwide are inspired by their paper
• to honour artists from around the world who are discovering and using its unique characteristics in excepti

Overview

The World Washi Summit will be an international gathering of Japanese papermakers who make washi, those who distribute it, artists who produce art with it, curators who exhibit it and the art-buying public who are eager to learn more about it. Scheduled for June 7-15 2008 in Toronto, Canada, Summit events will honour quality craftsmanship, sustainability and artists’ creativity in Toronto and around the world.

For more specific information, please visit the official World Washi Summit website:

http://www.worldwashisummit.com/index.html

Pleasure-Purpose at the OCC Gallery

I will be participating in the following exhibition, Pleasure-Purpose, this month at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery. Read on for more details...

Pleasure-Purpose
May 8-June 6, 2008.
Curated by Janna Hiemstra
at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
990 Queen Street West
Toronto
Opening Reception: May 8th, 5:30-8:30pm

Featuring contributing artists: Alain Belanger, Ann Mortimer, Anne Barros, Carolyn Scandiffio, Janna Burford, Keith Campbell, Kevin MacLean, Lily Yung, Maciej Dyszkiewicz, Michael Fortune, Peggy Mersereau, Roger Wood and Tara Bursey.

From Curatorial Statement:

"Craft is a slippery entity. Occupying multiple spaces, it is able to take full advantage of its flexible margins to play with materials, techniques and its creative rationale. Craft can delight, comfort, confront and satisfy in more ways than one.

At the same time, attempts to pin craft down often result in defined categories of materials, processes and uses. A common approach situates craft somewhere between art and industry - a place where craft objects are not quite required to accommodate the contemplative relation between form and content, but rather operate as either decorative or functional pieces.

Within this framework, craft is often associated with a creative skill developed in terms of specific materials like ceramic, fibre, glass, metal and wood. These skills and materials further include the notion of the ‘handmade’, which carries with it implications regarding craft processes and purposes such as originality and authenticity, locality as well as anti-industrialism. As an aesthetic discipline rooted in the arts and craft movement of 19^th century Europe, in turn influenced by the industrial revolution, these implications are not surprising.

However, along with many other things in creative culture, borders have been crossed, and lines blurred. Contemporary craft easily negotiates the territories between functional, ornamental, sculptural and conceptual genres. One indication of this is the capricious category of ‘mixed media’ where materials converge, new materials like plastic are used, and found objects make an appearance. Craft can also be found across the cultural map in museums, galleries, schools, magazines, and the fashion industry; and is made, used, displayed, contemplated and discussed by a large and diverse mix of people.

In response to this seemingly amorphous area of making, PLEASURE-PURPOSE is an attempt to navigate craft and question its contemporary role; leaving space for the work to speak for itself, and allowing contradictions between different approaches to surface. With an array of multidisciplinary work by both emerging and professional craftspeople, different objectives and uses are contrasted to challenge boundaries and create discussion concerning the pleasure we find in craft and what we perceive its purpose to be. For all intents and purposes, craft is a unique embodiment of creative expression that needs to be explored."

Shred Scarf

I am in the middle of crocheting a paper scarf (an odd project for spring...this past winter has scarred me, obviously...) made out of the same shredded documents as the Insecurity Blanket. Here are some details of it...more to come later.

TZL Spring Open House

Come on out for our first annual TZL Spring Open House! Learn more about our collective activities and our collection, take time to read some of our fantastic materials, and find out about becoming a member with borrowing privledges. At the Open House, TZL-ers will be present to give tours of the collection and the library's other special features as well as answer any questions about what we do. There will also be a surprise Musical Guest, we'll be screening episodes of Our Hero as well as a short film about the Anchor Archive zine library in Halifax, and there will be snacks and drinks galore! Come out and show your support!

With Love,
Suzanne, Patrick and Tara
TZL Collective

Toronto Zine Library
Spring Open House
Wednesday, April 30th, 6-9pm

TRANZAC Club
Second Floor Rehearsal Hall
292 Brunswick Avenue
South of Bloor Street

Insecurity Blanket

A few photos from the three hour-or-so performance that took place in the Insecurity Blanket installation, 12.04.08. The show is up until tomorrow morning, so if you haven't seen it yet, shake a leg and get over there today at some point...

Elemental Connections at FCP Gallery

The Elemental Connections reception is this Thursday evening. Not sure that I'll be able to make it (I'm graduating and my "thesis exhibition" of sorts is that same night!), but that doesn't mean you shouldn't...

Elemental Connections:
An Exhibition of Sustainable Craft

March 3rd-April 25th, 2008.
Reception: April 17th, 5-7pm, FCP Gallery.

ELEMENTAL CONNECTIONS is an exhibition which addresses sustainability through material, process, and honoring the earth and the environment. Coming from the hands of artists from across Canada, you will find water, seashore, mountains, forest, prairie, farm, town, home and person. FCP Gallery presents this exhibition in partnership with the Ontario Crafts Council to celebrate the contemporary importance of craft, March 3 to April 25.

FCP Gallery
First Canadian Place
East of Adelaide Street entrance
Between York and Bay
www.fcpfirst.com

Elemental Connections: An Exhibition of Sustainable Craft was originally mounted at the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery September 27 - November 12, 2007.

Image: Alger pa Finner by Elemental Connections artist Catharine Paleczny, porcelain, 2006

Shannon Gerard + Katie Kehoe

Two really great looking shows, as seen on Akimbo today:

KATIE KEHOE
Form Poetry

TYPE Books Gallery invites you to the debut of Form Poetry, an exhibition of drawings by Toronto based artist Katie Kehoe. Each piece exhibits one word hand written over and over in various layers of graphite producing a multidimensional geometric or oblique form.

The meticulous nature of this work engages viewers and sparks curiosities. Form Poetry reduces complex forms and phrases to the bare minimum. Kehoe selects words that people use repeatedly everyday such as 'and' or 'yes', making the artwork more accessible. The forms she draws to write within range from fundamental geometric forms to organic and oblique natural forms. Using words as a mode of expression and structural tool, Kehoe creates text based post-minimal contemporary art.

Katie Kehoe is an interdisciplinary Toronto based artist who values interactive art as the most provocative art form and creates performance, installation and visual art. She is a recent graduate of the Canadian Film Center Media Lab's Interactive Art and Entertainment Program (formerly Habitat) and an apprentice of Joan Jonas, New York based pioneer of Performance Art. Her work has been presented in various festivals and galleries across Canada and in Toronto. Notably in Drawing 2008: 9th Annual Juried Drawing Exhibition, John B. Aird Gallery; [TEXT] curated by Gary Michael Dault, Propeller Centre for the Arts; Free Fall Festival (2006), a national festival of experimental performance, The Theatre Centre; and Sound Travels: Sign Waves (2005), an annual installation series, New Adventures in Sound Art.

Form Poetry runs at TYPE Books Gallery, April 3 to 27, 2008. Located at 883 Queen St. West, Toronto.

Media Contact: Shelley Banks 416.886.1848 / formpoetry@gmail.com

PLAYING DOCTOR
SHANNON GERARD

The installation PLAYING DOCTOR brings together various components of Shannon Gerard’s multimedia project, BOOBS & DINKS: Early Detection Kits.

Many dozens of crocheted plush breasts and penises contain small lumps that can be found by following illustrated instructions in accompanying booklets.

A short PSA style film features models in life-sized crocheted strap-ons who demonstrate self-examination. The strap-ons hang beside the projection for those viewers who wish to dress up and follow along.

A series of screenprints highlights moments of play, tenderness and expectation as models both demonstrate and experience self-examination of their “bathing suit areas.”

An autobiographical comic book, HUNG no.3; Lonely Tylenol, chronicles a cancer scare Gerard had last year when her partner found a lima-bean sized lump in his testicle.

The softness and humour of PLAYING DOCTOR aims to eliminate some of the fear surrounding self-exam of one’s own precious privates. The nature of this project changes as viewers experience it. At first the kits seem like cute and hilarious toys (tee hee, boobs and dinks!) but then as people play with them, read the booklets and find the lumps, the experience shifts. Even though the plush multiples contain a sinister possibility—garden pebbles stand in for possibly malignant tumors—interacting with the project is a strangely calming practice. PLAYING DOCTOR tries to touch people's fears and human underbellies through the ultra feminized, "soft" form of crochet, through playful interactive video and performance, and through the revelation of the artist’s personal experience. Broadly, the project initiates conversations about our bodies and confronts the idea of human frailty.

Partial proceeds from the sale of the BOOBS & DINKS: Early Detection Kits are donated to the Ontario charity Cottage Dreams (www.cottagedreams.org) which connects recovering cancer patients with donated cottage spaces in Haliburton and the Muskokas.

Additional information and images can be found at www.shannongerard.org

PLAYING DOCTOR runs:
April 3 to 26, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 3, 7pm to 9pm

Open Studio
George Gilmour Members’ Gallery
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 104
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

Tel/Fax: 416-504-8238
office@openstudio.on.ca
www.openstudio.on.ca

Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 12pm to 5pm

Media Contact:
Shannon Gerard
416 593 5306
shannon@shannongerard.org

Insecurity Blanket Exhibition

Insecurity Blanket
Tara Bursey

April 1-15th, 2008.
Fly Gallery
1172 Queen Street West
Toronto

Insecurity Blanket is a sculpture-based installation in which the focal point is a blanket woven from shredded office documents. Juxtaposing the chaos of a randomized pattern with the order of a precise weave, the work explores ideas surrounding personal security, labour, repetition and technology.

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 and craft, Tara’s work is characterized by its use of delicate sculptural materials such as garlic skin, hair and paper. In the past two years, she has exhibited extensively throughout the city in a diverse range of venues, from storefront window installations and telephone poles to the Textile Museum of Canada, the Ontario Crafts Council, as well as in group exhibitions in Halifax and Copenhagen. Tara’s most recent projects include acting as Curator of She Said Boom! Window Space, and working as one-third of the Toronto Zine Library Collective. 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 and writer. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

For more information contact:
Stephanie Cormier or Nancy Oakes
Administrative Assistants,
Toronto School of Art
(416) 504-7910

TZL at the London Indie Media Fair

The Toronto Zine Library will be tabling for a second year in a row at the 3rd Annual London Indie Media Fair. This year's festivities will include tables with indie makers and publishers from London and beyond, as well as workshops and guest talks. Last years fair was tons of fun, with really incredible tables of zines, crafts and art, as well as London organizations such as the Forest City Gallery, artists from the Community Outreach Gallery and Dave of seminal London 80s-90s garage-punk fanzine What Wave. We are beyond thrilled to be going back as guests this year. If you're in the London area, don't miss out!

The 3rd Annual London Indie Media Fair
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
At the London Public Library, Central Branch
281 Dundas Street
London, Ontario

ERI:3 Exhibition at Eyelevel Gallery

I'll be in this exhibition at Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax, which opens next week. I wish I was going! Over 100 artists are exhibiting in what will be a massive show of zines, multiples and bookworks. It should be amazing...

http://www.eyelevelgallery.ca

Upcoming Exhibitions

March 3- April 25, 2008.
Elemental Connections: An Exhibition of Sustainable Craft, FCP Gallery, 100 King St. West, Toronto, Ontario

March 13-April 30, 2008.
Eyelevel Re-Shelving Initiative: 3, Eyelevel Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia

April 1-15, 2008.
Insecurity Blanket (solo), Fly Gallery, 1172 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario

Pictured: Wing Study- Brewer's Sparrow (2007)

Cheap Date Pins

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by Becky of The Sweetie Pie Press to be a part of her ongoing Artist Commissioned Pin project. Because I had just finished a rather epic poster illustration for a friend, I killed two birds with one stone by donating select aspects of the illustration- 6 portraits drawn from a university yearbook from 1962- to make up a pin set titled "Cheap Dates." Thanks for doing these, Becky...they look SO great. If anyone is interested in purchasing a set, check out Becky's Etsy store, look for The Sweetie Pie Press at local craft fairs and events, or ask me, as I'll have some sets of my own to sell real soon...

http://sweetiepiepress.blogspot.com
http://www.sweetiepiepress.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=710

Becky also tagged me in her blog, meaning I have to list 7 random facts about myself on MY blog, so here it goes...

1. I can't swim or whistle.
2. I have horrible teeth. HORRIBLE. I've had 4 root canals (3 in the past three years) and have also had two teeth break on me in this time. What is wrong with me, you ask? I swear, I'm not a disgusting person with a really bad lifestyle or anything...maybe it's just bad British (via NFLD) genes. Either that or the year and a bit I spent managing a candy store. Ugh....
3. I've lived in 6 places in my entire life- two in Scarborough, three in Parkdale, and I'm currently near Trinity Bellwoods Park. I am a total house-mouse, and rarely travel. I've been to Switzerland, New York, Niagara Falls, Florida, St. Lucia, and the Bahamas. That's about it...and that all happened between the ages of 7 and 17.
4. Things I generally don't like: dogs, babies, actors, the TV, carrots, people who think they're above social skills, and the telephone.
5. I play organ in a band.
6. Right now, I am in the middle of reading Kobo Abe's "The Woman in the Dunes." I want to read Charles Schulz' biography next...
7. If I wasn't an artist, I would probably be a music writer.

Zines + Bookworks Exhibition

Zines + Bookworks
Tara Bursey

Opens February 15^th, 2008
Freedom Clothing
939 Bloor Street West
Toronto

Soiree:
Friday, February 15^th
8-11pm

Tara Bursey has been making zines for over ten years. She is also a visual artist whose diverse practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing, multiples and craft. Tara’s sculpture and installation work in particular is characterized by an often obsessive use of repetition, pattern and delicate materials such as eggshells, onion skin and paper. In the past two years, Tara has exhibited extensively in a broad range of venues, from storefront installations and telephone poles to the Ontario Crafts Council Gallery and the Textile Museum of Canada. Her most recent projects include From Russia with Love- a storefront window installation, acting as Curator of She Said Boom! Window Space, and working as one-third of the Toronto Zine Library Collective. In addition to her work as a fine artist, Tara operates actively within Toronto’s independent music and small press communities as a writer, illustrator and designer whose commissions have included countless event posters, album cover/sleeve art and merchandise design. She currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

For more information, contact:
cleanteen@hotmail.com

Elemental Connections + Making Matters Symposium

From R.A.U. Feels' Owen Sound Art Review
http://raufeels.blogspot.com

The following is the second instalment of a three-part recount of the symposium Making Matters: Sustainability and Craft Practices held at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery January 19, 2003.

Arlene Gehring, "Elemental Connections"

Independent Canadian curator and writer Arlene Gehring focused her attention on a recent exhibition she curated at the Ontario Crafts Council. Mounted between September 27 and November 12 2007, Elemental Connections: An Exhibition of Sustainable Craft brought together artists and craftspeople from across the country whose work makes use of naturally-occurring, handmade and, in one sense or another, renewable materials. A comprehensive list of the artists that took part in the exhibition appears below.

One of the first things Gehring pointed out was the range of approaches artists in the exhibition have to the whole idea of craft. Elemental Connections did not privilege only the aesthetically- or conceptually-innovative. Sure, there were works that blurred the presupposed boundaries between craft and art, either by using recognized craft materials in non-traditional ways or by producing traditional craft objects in unorthodox ways. And many of the contributors clearly thought and made not only outside established traditions of craft production, but some also embraced both suggestive and subversive themes. With the stark and precise presentation sense of a true-blue ornithologist, Tara Bursey (www.tarabursey.blogspot.com) fashions physiologically-correct replicas of actual bird wings using onion skin. The wings at once seem to flutter against the paper they are mounted to, and to stain it. Chantal Gilbert's (www.chantalgilbert.com) Bestioles series, in which she mounts her handmade pocket knives onto armatures resembling insect bodies, merges exquisite craftsmanship with a kind of sci-fi feminist-surrealism to produce irresistibly threatening fetish objects.

But Bursey and Gilbert's contemporary and thematically-driven use of craft methods and materials were not the only approaches witnessed in Elemental Connections. Given the underlying premise of the exhibition - craft demonstrating the knowledgeable interaction between the artist's hand and naturally-occurring and renewable media - there was, for Gehring, no reason to exclude craftspeople working in what she called "older traditions." By older traditions she was referring to those whose work reflects the unsullied application of established techniques - bowl-turning, or weaving for example - toward producing the mostly functional objects commonly associated with those techniques - bowls, baskets, etc. Examples of such works in the exhibition included the turned burl-bowls of Don Stinson and the woven kelp-gourd bowls of Anne Boquist.

However, most of the pieces stood somewhere between the unorthodox and the older traditions, incorporating both. The corn dollies of Daniel Kramer, for example: woven since Antiquity out of the last sheaf at the end of harvest as a way of containing the field's spirit, corn dollies were then ploughed back into the earth the following season to ensure prosperous harvest the following year. Seen today, they resonate as at once a sort of harbinger of potential environmental collapse and also remind us that powerful symbols can come from the most modest of means.

Apart from the craft and art work she introduced, my interest and curiosity was piqued also by a two-part claim Gehring made (which was subsequently reiterated by the symposium's keynote, Eric Nay). Gehring stated that an ideal "common cause" exists among craftspeople to produce objects that are environmentally sustainable. She then went onto say that, at its root, "craft production is inherently about environmental sustainability." I was, at first, confused and incredulous; was she saying that there are no craft methods and materials that are ecologically invasive or detrimental to the biosphere in some way? The very fact that craft materials cannot always be obtained locally, and that some materials and by-products are notoriously toxic seems to cast doubt on this assertion. Or was she simply speaking comparatively, in relation to the world of industrial manufacturing?

What I think Gehring meant when she linked craft necessarily to sustainability was that, considered at its anthropological root, craft knowledge is fundamental, basic, essential: it is a knowledge gained from working with one's own two hands on and with the earth. In other words, it is a knowledge embodied, and therefore a knowledge borne from the body's interaction with the direct and immediate environment. With this sort of knowledge comes a keener sensibility about the value of resources.

At least I think that's what Gehring meant.

This sounds well-and-good, but it also makes me a bit uneasy. Gehring is not simply offering a contingent definition of what craft happens to be; she is making an aesthetic value judgement about what good craft ought to be. Or rather, she is building the ethical obligation to make craft environmentally sustainable into the sensual or aesthetic appreciation of the craft object. Given her understanding of what craft is, any object manufactured in ways, or using materials, which contradict the sustainability clause is simply excluded from the possibility of being good craft. Are we really ready to exclude all objects made using some form of petroleum by-product from the pale? What about inherent toxicity of some of the materials inherent to particular craft traditions? Moreover, would it be possible to draw hard-and-fast lines between things made by hand and those disconnected from the hand? I couldn't help but feel that what Gehring was trying to offer up with Elemental Connections was a radically puritanical understanding of craft. This is not necessarily a negative criticism of either her or the exhibition. The pieces and the curatorial selection of those pieces seemed exquisite. I'm more intrigued than anything that someone has the wherewithal to insist on a necessary connection between the value of something as craft, and the way that something was produced.

Elemental Connections included work by Anne Boquist, Tara Bursey, Karen Cantine, Joanna Close, Paul Gray Diamond, Phyllis Erwin, Mary Fox, Chantal Gilbert, Andrea Graham, Vivienne Jones, Daniel Kramer, Nancy Latchford, Ryan Legassicke, Julie Lockau, Les Manning, Kirk Mceathron, Catherine Paleczny, Bernadette Pratt, Ann Schneider, Don Stinson, Ione Thorkelsson.

Pictured: Tara Bursey, Wing Study- House Sparrow, onion skin and adhesive on paper (2007)