Introducing: Critical Superbeast

I am resurrecting this blog with the announcement of Critical Superbeast, a blog of art criticism put together by a collective of artists, writers and administrators in Hamilton, Ontario. Stay tuned for my post about Trisha Leigh Lavoie's exhibition at hundreddollargallery The Comfort Bureau next week.

http://criticalsuperbeast.tumblr.com/

About Critical Superbeast:

Critical Superbeast is a collaborative art writing and publishing project seeking to actively de-stigmatize the act of being critical. While firmly rooted in a sense of place, content is not strictly focused on the Hamilton area. Contributors are encouraged to take a broad geographic view, to constellate cultural production in Hamilton within a greater contemporary context, and to challenge the opposition of centre versus periphery in arts discourse. 

Image: Suzy Lake, 322 Beaubien, Dorothy Evers-Marx 1910-13, 2014 (printed in 2016)

Alexandra Brownell's Sweet Fibre at Needlework

At the beginning of this year, I had the awesome opportunity to visit a 3rd year textiles seminar class at Sheridan College as a guest curator thanks to friend and colleague Thea Haines, an instructor in their department of Crafts and Design.  I gave a talk about my work as an independent curator with a deep love and appreciation for textiles.  I also helped design and present an assignment to students where they were to prepare a submissions package for a call that I wrote around the theme of cotton.  All the students in the class were asked to think critically about cotton-- as a raw material, the history and politics of its production, and its qualities as a textile-- towards proposing an installation that they would create in the window of fantastic Hamilton textile shop, Needlework.

After all submissions were received and graded by Thea, Liz and Kate from Needlework and myself got together to jury the submissions.  Though so many submissions were thoughtful and worthy, we eventually decided on a proposal by the talented Alexandra Brownell who, inspired by archival photos at the Hamilton Local History Archives, created a nostalgic and whimsical tapestry that paid tribute to the carefree quality of cotton, outdoor fairs and the pleasure of summertime. I supported Alex through the process of planning her installation and writing an artist's statement, which was a great experience!

Sweet Fibre went up a few weeks ago, and is up for another week or two.  Spin around to check it out before it's too late! And congrats to Alex on a wonderful first solo show!

Call for Submissions: Repair Centre

New project alert!  Check out the following call for submissions and throw something my way if you're interested!

*****

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Repair Centre
at the Peter McKendrick Community Gallery
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street, Toronto
Curated by Tara Bursey and sponsored by the Wychwood Barns Community Association

Repair Centre invites artists to submit art and project proposals that explore the politics, pragmatics, poetics and aesthetics of repair. This exhibition will take place at the Peter McKendrick Community Gallery in July of 2015.

Drawing on the past function of the Wychwood Barns TTC streetcar repair barns, Repair Centre will examine the function and principles of repair to restore, renew, maintain and heal. This call for submissions invites artists to consider artistic acts of repair as a means of engaging issues related to (but not limited to) architecture, ecology, the material world, DIY, labour, skilling and deskilling, the aesthetics of repair, human relationships, performativity and the borderlands between art and life. This exhibition proposes repair as an opportunity for re-invention, re-incarnation and an experience beyond a simple means to an end.

Please send the following materials for consideration:
-- A project proposal of new work, or a statement about previous work you are submitting for consideration (one page maximum, pdf format)
-- 3-5 jpgs of previous work (72dpi; 1024 x 768 pixels) or web links to video or audio
-- A corresponding image list (pdf format)
-- An updated CV and Bio (pdf format)
-- Contact information

Please send proposals to tara@tarabursey.com by July 15th, 2014. Please label all email submissions as REPAIR CENTRE SUB in the subject line.

Recap: Justseeds in Hamilton

 

Yours truly at top right, DJ Carla Coma at bottom right

Last March, I organized two exhibitions of the work of Justseeds Artist's Cooperative at Homegrown Hamilton (This is an Emergency!) and Hammer City Records (Celebrate Women's Herstory) in honour of International Women's Day.  What started out as an idea for one exhibition soon sprawled into two, along with a couple of amazing community partnerships with SACHA and Centre3 for Print and Media Art.  At the opening party, four lady DJs (including myself and Justseeds' DJ Mary 'Mack' Tremonte) spun records to the point that revelers needed to be kicked out because they didn't want the party to stop.  The opening was seriously one of the funnest nights I've had in Hamilton since moving here just under a year ago and I'm still reeling from all the wonderful feedback about the two shows and the sheer awesomeness of them.

It's been a while since the show closed, and I've been meaning to post here to thank everyone one more time for making this happen.  Thanks first to Mary Tremonte (Toronto-based Justseeds member) without whom the shows would not have happened. Thanks to Mike of Homegrown Hamilton and the amazing Leah and Craig of Hammer City Records for providing valuable wall space, enthusiasm and assistance. Thanks to Carla Coma and Donna Lovejoy for providing amazing tunange. Thanks to Erin Crickett and SACHA for teaming up and spreading the word and Ingrid at Centre3 for helping coordinate the artist's talk with Mary and Jesse of Justseeds.  

The Justseeds shows were in part inspired by the shared enthusiasm for print culture that spans across Hamilton cultural scenes, from art to craft to activism to punk rock.  Evidence of this can be found in retail spaces like Mixed Media on James Street to the DIY merch made by Hamilton punk rockers to the incredible community initiatives of Centre3. I'm proud that the Justseeds exhibitions and events in March (and of course the work of Justseeds) brought these things together in a profound way.

I'll be putting together one more show at Hammer City Records this year!  Not sure what it will be yet, but the goal is for it to be as amazing and fun as the Justseeds shows.  We'll see what I can muster up...

This is an Emergency! at Homegrown Hamilton

Tea, Talk and Tell at Needlework

At long last, Pulling Strings' next event is on the horizon.  After an incredible month of guest blog posts about essential textile-related publications, PS is launching it's latest initiative-- a textile book reference library-- with a reading and breakfast event at Needlework.  Textile artists Grant Heaps and Kate Jackson, Hamilton-based craft producer and maker Anna Zygowski and past Director of the TMC and lovely local Jennifer Kaye will talk about their favourite textile books in a casual show-and-tell/roundtable discussion.  There will be time to peruse the brand-new reference library's rich (and growing) collection as well, and we will be serving up tasty homemade scones.  Don't miss it!

Tea, Talk and Tell

A Launch Event for the Pulling Strings Reference Library

at Needlework

174 James Street North

Hamilton

Sunday, April 27th, 11 am - 12:30 pm

The Pulling Strings Reference Library

There's lots of amazing stuff brewing with my textile-based collective, Pulling Strings.  A few weeks ago our newest project, The Pulling Strings Reference Library, had its soft launch at Needlework.  A growing collection of eclectic textile-related publications have been installed in Needlework's window along with a cozy chair for browsing and lounging.  After April, the library will become an ongoing fixture at Needlework as a semi-permanent community reference of textile art, theory and how-to books, zines and catalogues both old and new, weird and wonderful.

There are other great library goings-on happening until the end of April as well.  Every Tuesday and Thursday, our blog will feature reviews of books from the personal collections of some of our textile heroes.  This series kicked off last week with reviews by Robyn Love, Kate Jackson and Grant Heaps with many more lined up (previews of a few of the books that will be featured above!). At the end of April, we'll have a reading event at Needlework where an impressive group of textile enthusiasts will read aloud from their fave textile books.  More details to come soon!

http://pullingstringshamilton.blogspot.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/pullingstringshamilton

Market Value

Last weekend, I was one of nine artists that participated in Market Value, an initiative of the Hamilton Arts Council and the Worker's Arts and Heritage Centre.  For Market Value, artists from a variety of disciplines were invited to make work in public at the (beautiful and light-drenched) Hamilton Farmer's Market for a seven hour shift.  There were paid for their day of "work" at the market with the help of the OAC funding the project received.  The project was part exhibition and part advocacy initiative that puts the hours of work that artists spend producing art in plain view.  My work was performed/made over one day, and five other projects took place over the course of the previous week-- participating artists included Jim Riley, Trevor Copp, (F)NOR (Andrea Carvalho, Svava Juliusson, Donna Akrey and Margaret Flood), Mary Dyja and Laura Bromwich.

I had a lofty idea for a new work to produce for this exhibition that didn't end up happening.  The reason for this is complicated, and though I am very tempted to unpack the saga here, I will not.  Luckily it was not that difficult to change my concept at the 11th hour because making work with food has been my bread and butter (*GONG*) for a number of years now, and dipping back into a older body of food-related work (though not ideal) would be a good fit for a day of performative art-making in the Farmer's Market.

Last summer, I continued my The End body of work by making an installation for Gallery 1313's window box gallery.  This installation, called The End (Seven Samurai) was irreparably damaged by the heat and sun over the course of the exhibition, so I've been meaning to make a framable 2D version of the installation for several months now.  I decided that Market Value was as good a time as any to take this on.  For my market day, I screened Seven Samurai on my laptop while I recreated the end title of the film in dried foods associated with Japanese cuisine-- black sesame seeds and white rice-- a portion of which was purchased at the market.  For those who don't know, Kurosawa's film is about a team of samurai protecting bandits from pillaging the annual harvest of a very poor village in feudal Japan.  I thought that the film and using food as material were both interesting ways to address the issue of food (in)security across history.

 Food for art-making and food for eating over the course of my shift.

 The product of five hours of work...!?!?

Photo: Jen Anisef!

It is always a pleasure to show my work, and I was happy to have the chance to exhibit my own work (after a flurry of curatorial activities and projects since moving to Hamilton) in a very public space, and for the first time in my new city.  Feedback is always so interesting and varied and it's a pleasure to learn how open people are to engaging with art and artists-- especially those who do unusual things with unusual materials.

For me, the most challenging part of participating in this exhibition was casting a critical eye on my own practice, and coming to realize that in having someone else advocate for my work, I maybe haven't been the best advocate for my own work.  I was recently a visiting speaker about my other life as an independent curator in a class at Sheridan College, where I emphasized to a cohort of students-- most of which were about 10 years younger than me-- the importance of being re-numerated for their work.  I remarked that in not being mindful of being compensated reasonably (or at all) for their work, they were not only jeopardizing their own economic health, but they would ultimately have a detrimental effect the livelihoods of their fellow artists.  Pretty ironic, as I haven't practiced as I preached for the vast majority of my art career.  The lesson to be learned here for all artists is to continually step away from your art and look at the big picture of a life in art that involves goals, negotiation, economic exchange and critical thinking, both for one's own sake as well as for the sake of other working artists.

I'd like to thank Stephanie Vegh of the Hamilton Arts Council, Andrew Lochhead of the WAHC and my volunteer Ariel Bader-Shamai for all their help on my market day, and through the entire process of developing and carrying out Market Value.  I'll wrap this post with this cartoon that speaks volumes!

For more on Market Value, look here and here and here.

Winterlore

 TH&B Collective, Bay Man

Floyd Elzinga, Silver Cones

Jacqui Oakley and Jamie Lawson, Awakening

 Thea Haines, Blanket Fort

 Tonya Hart, Phantasmagorical Nights

 Kosa Kolektiv

Hitoko Okada, Lotus Lantern

Winterlore was an overwhelming success at the Hamilton Winterfest kick off event yesterday. Thanks to the all the amazing participating artists (Floyd Elzinga, Hitoko Okada, Jacqui Oakley and Jamie Lawson, the TH&B Collective, Thea Haines and Tonya Hart) for making the exhibition what it was. I'd also like to thank Werner Plessl, NJT Productions for the lighting, Jamie and Ryan of the Waterfront Trust, Alex (security guard extraordinaire), Ken Coit, Ben Needham and my friend and collaborator Jen Anisef, Cultural Projects Specialist at the City of Hamilton for being a huge support through the entire process.

Hamilton Winterfest is a city-wide initiative that runs until February 9th.  For more information on what's happening, look here.  Also, the Winterlore-associated exhibition Meryl McMaster: In-Between Worlds runs until the end of March at the AGH Design Annex.  Don't forget to check it out!

Supercrawl 2014 Call for Submissions

Sarah Beck and Shlomi Greenspan, Untitled (It's almost a one liner), 2013. Photo: Harry Gils

Speaking as a Curatorial Committee member of Hamilton Supercrawl, I'd like to present the following PSA.  Hamilton Supercrawl wants YOU to submit proposals of art for this year's event.  Supercrawl is a breathtaking art and music extravaganza-- see below for more information on the festival if you are not familiar.  In addition, if you'd like even more info as well as tips on applying, the Curatorial Committee is holding a free info session tomorrow at the AGH Design Annex for potential applicants. See details about that below as well.

Supercrawl 2014 Call for Artist Submissions
Deadline: January 31, 2014

Supercrawl is a free annual outdoor art and music festival in Hamilton. The Curatorial Committee invites artists working in a wide range of creative disciplines to propose works for installation as part next year's event, taking place on September 12-13, 2014. Supercrawl celebrates the unique mix of arts organizations, cultures, businesses and creative people along James Street North in Hamilton. Last year Supercrawl attracted 100,000 attendees and will continue to grow in scale in 2014. The Committee is interested in seeing proposals in the following media:

Installation art
Sculpture
Video (projection-based is preferred)
Performance art
Public interventions
Storefront window installations
Murals
New media
Dance

Please note that a priority will be placed on that which can be safely seen, performed, or executed outside, and will remain impactful during both the daytime and night hours of the festival. Each project selected will be allocated an artist’s fee and modest budget.

Submission Requirements:

Please send via email:
1.     Artist's statement—conceptual statement on the work (150 words maximum)
2.     Practical explanation of the work—i.e. Scale, materials, methods, etc.
3.     Three images/stills/sketches of the proposed work, supported by 3-5 images of previous work relevant to the proposed project (jpeg, max. 72dpi, no larger than 768 x 1024 pixels)
4.     A clip, link or digital copy of any video (10 minutes max), if applicable
5.     Title, year, medium, dimensions for all images
6.     Complete installation plan including details of time needed for installation and removal of work as well as tools, equipment and number of assistants needed
7.     Location suggestion for your work (optional)
8.     A statement as to whether the proposed work has been exhibited before; if it has, please include details as to where and when
9.     CV with mailing address, phone number and email contact information

The Supercrawl Curatorial Committee is open to creatively diverse work that has visual impact and responds to the streetscape of the event. Artists and their work will be identified and publicized as official Supercrawl curatorial selections during the event, on the Supercrawl website and in select media releases. The committee will contact selected artists within six weeks following the deadline.

Artist information meeting: Wednesday January 8, 2014, 7-8 pm, AGH Design Annex, 118 James Street North, Hamilton. The Supercrawl Curatorial Committee will provide information about the event and answer artists’ questions in preparation for their submissions.

Send submissions to supercrawlart@gmail.com
Subject Line: YOUR NAME, SUPERCRAWL  ART
Deadline for submissions is January 31, 2014

About the Supercrawl Curatorial Committee:

The Supercrawl Curatorial Committee presents a wide variety of artistic projects at the annual James Street North Supercrawl. The goal of the committee is to curate public art installations and performances in keeping with Supercrawl's diversity, energy and scale. The committee selects projects by local, national and international artists based on artistic merit, originality, and ability to engage our diverse audience. This committee reports to the Supercrawl Board of Directors. Since 2010, the committee has curated works in a variety of media, including works by BGL, Kelly Mark, Kim Adams, Max Streicher, Elinor Whidden, Shayne Dark, Adam David Brown, Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Gareth Lichty, the McMaster Cybernetic Laptop Orchestra, Chris Shepherd, Shake-N-Make Collective, TH&B, Adad Hannah, EN MASSE, Brandon Vickerd, C.R. Avery and others. Current committee members are Melissa Bennett, Tara Bursey, Amy Kenny, Courtney Lakin, Dane Pederson, Alana Traficante, Stephanie Vegh and Matthew Walker.

www.facebook.com/Supercrawl
https://twitter.com/supercrawl
http://instagram.com/supercrawl
http://supercrawl.tumblr.com/

Fear of Punk//Fear of Art in Hamilton

Fear of Punk//Fear of Art at Hammer City Records came down yesterday!  Huge thanks to Craig, Leah and Brett at the shop for hosting the show.  We had a great time, and are thrilled with the awesome feedback and enthusiasm about the show we received.  Merch (stuff above) by Matthew McGarry, Weird Luke, Dustin McChesney and myself will be available at the shop until the end of this week, after this Friday's Art Crawl.  Christmas gift alert!

We want to mount this show again at least once more in Canada.  If you're interested in Fear of Punk coming to your town or gallery, get in touch!

Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef at Gallery 1313

December's Window Box installation at Gallery 1313 is well-timed considering it was a topic of discussion during Shannon's artist talk at the inaugural Pulling Strings event in Hamilton.  The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef is an ongoing community project originally conceived by four Toronto artsy crafters closely connected to the amazing City of Craft fair (also happening in December just down the street from Gallery 1313!).  Read on for details about this inspiring, growing installation.  The exhibition reception is tomorrow night!  Also, check out the THCR blog for info on how you can contribute your own hyperbolic forms to the reef.

Also, a reminder: only 3 more days to check out the multimedia works of another Gallery 1313 project, Telling: An Audio Survey of Parkdale before the disappear on the 30th.

*****

The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef
Gallery 1313 Window Box
December 2013

Reception: Thursday, November 28th, 7-10pm

The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Reef is a collective project of endless crochet for the city of Toronto. Inspired by the pioneering work in hyperbolic crochet of Dr. Daina Taimina and the artful modelling projects of the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles, the Toronto Reef is just one in a great confluence of reefs worldwide that use craft and community art to address the problems of global warming and plastic oceanic trash. The reef is run and mostly built by Angelune Des Lauriers, Shannon Gerard, Kalpna Patel and Becky Johnson but it remains open to coral contributions from anyone in the city.  The Toronto Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef has been exhibited at City of Craft, Roadside Attractions, Fly Gallery, The Knit Cafe and at White Elephant as part of Hamilton Supercrawl.

http://torontohyperbolicreef.blogspot.ca/








1313 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON. M6K 1L8
Hours: Wed – Sun, 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Phone: 416-536-6778
http://www.g1313.org

Artscape Youngplace

 Heather Nicol

 Debbie Adams in Stairmasters

 Hanging tapestry in the SKETCH Admin Hub

 UnArchive exhibition title wall

 David Adam Brown at the Koffler Gallery

Vacant studio on the 2nd floor

Gorgeous visuals abound at the grand opening of Artscape Youngplace on Tuesday night.