Canzine 2013

15 years after my very first appearance at Canzine (I tabled with my zine distro when I was 16 at the first ever Canzine held at the long-defunct Club Shanghai on Spadina in '98!), I'll be at Canzine hawking my wares for the first time in several years this Sunday.  Canzine is holding a Symposium on the Saturday before the big Sunday fair, which looks great. What will I be selling this year?  This is a mystery even to me at this point, but I promise there will be some new goodies up for grabs.  Hope to see ya'll there!

Canzine Toronto 2013
Sunday, October 20, 1-7pm
918 Bathurst Centre
(North of Bathurst Subway Station)
Toronto

Colleen McCarten and Shannon Lea Doyle at Gallery 1313

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

Colleen McCarten
FABRICATE
Gallery 1313 Window Box
September 2013

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

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

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

Some Thoughts on Grassroots Archives

Photo scooped from the PUBLIC>ACTION Facebook page.

A couple weeks ago, I attended an open discussion about archiving printed matter at OCAD University, as part of the month-long Public Action residency at their Student Gallery organized by Professor and print-y artist Shannon Gerard and masters student Mary Tremonte.  The roundtable was facilitated by Maggie Flynn, an interdisciplinary artist.  I am happy that Maggie thought to invite me (despite the fact that we had never met!).  It is crazy how much I miss out on, in large part because I'm not on Facebook and don't get the memo about a lot of events around town.

A bluurb about the discussion presented the following questions:

Leave aside for a moment the images of dusty boxes and stacks of paper that cling to the word “archive”. For this discussion we'll think about archiving as any act that preserves accumulated knowledge and collective memory. How can the process of archiving past or present social movements give direction or even instruction for future action? Can collected information serve as a conduit for action? How do we keep track of movement and change in the communities we are a part of? How can processes of archiving reflect the values of the activity being documented?

Up until recently, I worked at a (wonderful) museum.  I also helped run a zine library for over two years, am a longtime record collector, and do some independent curating.  Recently, I served as a consultant with a historical society as to how they could best display and care for their collection of ethnic costumes, photos and printed matter-- my first post-school independent work as a curator/museum professional.  I am only now realizing how much I am 'at home' in archival processes and practices and truly enjoy and am excited by the prospect of a making a life of this kind of work.

Chucking around ideas and experiences of archiving, particularly within the context of activism and grassroots activity made me think hard about the work I've done, specifically the successes and failures of the projects I've been involved with.  I thought I'd unpack some of my thoughts on this in light of this roundtable talk, as well as some of the ideas and points made by others during the discussion.

The Virtues of Autonomy?:  This is a topic I struggle with a lot and it is something I brought up almost immediately during the discussion.  The word 'archive' immediately brings about ideas of authority and institutionalization.  What does it mean to archive independently, outside of the confines of the institution? Alternately, what sort of freedoms or advantages (ie: financial, a built-in audience) do academic and civic/municipal national archives afford archival projects, and those doing the archiving?

I have often claimed that something that makes the Toronto Zine Library (where I was a volunteer librarian/collective member for just over two formative years in their history) special and sets them apart is that, unlike many zine libraries (especially locally), it exists outside of the umbrella of an educational institution.  While this may set them apart, could this be fairly referred to as a strength?  The TZL was (is still, I think) dynamic in that all volunteers had very different backgrounds and experiences, and existed within a broader local community instead of an insular institution.  However, it was severely hindered by a profound lack of money when I was a volunteer.  At the OCAD discussion, I admitted that the TZL had $100 stolen from the library once, and the impact was pretty devastating.  To most organizations, $100 is chump change.  The fact that $100 could either be considered admirable-- that we were able to make a small amount of money stretch-- or pretty damn sad.  If we had more money or put more effort into securing funding (private or from a funding body), we could have reached more people, and likely done more with the collection and the space.

But am I being lazy/uncritical by assuming that 'autonomous' archives are more virtuous than institutional ones?  How can institutional archives be maximized in terms of their reach?  In what small ways can they be liberated?  Does it matter?  How can grassroots archives be more sustainable and perhaps more ambitious?  Again, does this matter?

Processes of Archiving as 'Emotional':  This can apply to anyone who collects or has experienced attachments to souvenirs or keepsakes.  This also makes me think of the meaning of the word curate-- it means "to care," after all.

Learning About vs. Learning From Archives:  One OCAD educator present at the discussion brought up this important point that resonated with me.  We learn about all sorts of archiving projects, but how often do we learn from archives-- the material that is archived, and other people's experiences of archiving?  (If I misinterpreted his point, someone please enlighten me...I'm sure there is much more that can be said about this...)

The Digital Black Hole vs. The Crisis of Space:  In this day and age, what is the bigger boogeyman? Personally, I can't decide...

The Pragmatics of Radical and Conventional (?) Archiving:  Facilitator Maggie expressed the desire to unpack how radical archivists can archive their own archiving processes (!).  A good point of discussion for sure. Burnout is a reality in activist circles and in DIY endevors that take up a lot of time, energy and effort.  As people float in and out of a particular project, how is important knowledge preserved?  How can past experiences be learned from?

Archiving as 'A Sort of Dreamtime':  What a beautiful idea.  This relates back to the idea of archiving being 'emotional.'  This reminds me of how laborious, meditative art processes bear fruit, providing one with a dreamtime through which to have free thoughts and make new, unexpected discoveries.  Perhaps the same can be said about the process of archiving?

I would be eager to hear anyone reading this chime in on these matters.  The exciting thing about open discussions is all the enthusiasm, ideas and experiences people have to share.  However, I tend to get hung up on the pragmatics of archiving, and the roadblocks that get between archives and accessibility, sustainability, and their ability to 'function:' a term that is up for debate, for sure.

Symposium Recap

I've been too darn busy with graduation and work to post these photos of the She Said Boom Feminist Zine Symposium, that happened two weekends ago.  The workshop on Saturday, April 27th was definitely a highlight-- an all-day collaborative zine-making session with several talented and brilliant women of all ages. I wanted to thank and acknowledge everyone who took part for their amazing contributions: Emily Cook, Sarah Snyder, Lia Frederiksen, Aviva Cohen, Andrea Manica, J.P. King (honorary woman for the day!), Samantha Miller, Marta Ryczko, Renee Saucier, Lydia Ogwang, Meredith Marty-Dugas and Robyn Marty-Dugas.  And of course big ups to my fellow organizers Erin Oh, Shannon Gerard and Amy Egerdeen.

Thesis Zines

Finished school last week and I'm in a bit of a daze.  My final project-- which I've decided to not post about here in detail because I'm a little sick of it-- culminated in the production of these two publications. One was a collaboration with my mother and one is a reprint of a zine I did in 2011 which contains a transcription of an interview I did with my father.  I'll be posting them both on my Etsy shop for purchase real soon.

My brain is teeming with ideas for new zines.  Thrilled to finally have the time to follow through with them!

New York, New York

A few weeks ago, I threw caution to the wind and went to New York for the NY Art Book Fair at MOMA P.S.1.  What a great time!  I was gone for only 2.5 days (and spent almost as much time on the bus as I did in New York), but it was a whirlwind of awesome.  Much better than my last trip to Manhattan-- a mandatory day trip from Baltimore that equalled 8 hours on the bus and 5 hours in the city...?!  Boy, was that frustrating.

We covered a lot of ground in less than two days, spending much of both days at the fair in Queens, staying overnight in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (bed and nightlife delivered by the fabulous Elsner), and hanging out a little bit in Manhattan.  As great as the book fair was-- with tons of art publishing houses as well as a zine tent, beer, music and more-- the main attraction for me was a talk by Gee Vaucher (below), the artist behind all the iconic Crass record art.   She talked for an hour about her art practice, punk and self publishing.  I even worked up the courage to ask a (rather doofusy) question about how punk strategies of communication and resistance (collage, wheatpaste, etc.) have been co-opted by mainstream advertising/capitalist ventures.  I was a little starstruck, I admit-- she's an art hero of mine, for sure.  For more on Gee's amazing work, click here.

The NY Art Book Fair was a pretty inspiring event.  There was lots of overlap between art, music and publishing there (even Malcolm Mooney, the first singer of CAN and an amazing artist in his own right, performed-- I missed it!) which made me feel more at home than I've felt at an art event in a really long time.  I even ran into a fellow ziney Torontoite.  Here's to blowing off school and travelling!  Up the art book punx!

New Zines

Eat to the Beat: A Rock'n'Roll Cookzine

"Food and music are two of the most primal pleasures on earth! It’s a wonder that their paths don’t cross more often than they do-- exceptions being pasta sauce made by ex-Ramones, punk sommeliers and the song titles of bubblegum pop bands, of course…and that guy behind the desk at the record store with the pizza sauce dripping down his chin…

Community recipe collections in the form of cookbooks are not new. I embarked on this project because so many of my friends in “rock”-- whether they be musicians, DJs, record store clerks, recording engineers or record collectors-- are also total foodies. The premise for this zine is simple-- to bring rock and food together in one tasty package, as well as to pay tribute to my community of talented, creative and fun rocker pals and the songs and artists that inspire them."

Eat to the Beat is a collaborative rock'n'roll-themed cookzine featuring contributions by Alycia Wahn, Alexandra Gutnik, Andy "Dictator" Shernoff, Ben Needham, Bev Coneybeare, Casey Johnson, Christina Wozniak, DJ Nico, Elaine Banks, Mark Kingdon, Mary Ann Guiao, Matt Hitch and myself. Zine includes a super special "Food Fight" Risograph pin-up insert illustrated by the fabulous Elaine Banks.

42 pages, 8.5" X 5.25"
Xerography with Risograph insert
2012

Rusty's Dusty:  

A solemn short story in mini-zine form about a man who works in a boatyard in Etobicoke. Inspired by a real-life encounter I had in the early 1990s. Zine comes in a little origami boat.  Recommended for people experiencing post-industrial anxiety.

Zine measures 4.25" X 2.25"

Xerography, origami paper

2012

Buy them here.

The Lesen Lounge on T Magazine/New York Times Blog

So much to catch up on here, but I'll start with this awesome tidbit.  Talented friend and Toronto expat Leah Buckareff has started a new project in Berlin called the The Lesen Lounge-- a roving zine library cart attached to the back of her bike which she rides around to parks, letting people browse her collection of zines for reading enjoyment and inspiration purposes.  In Leah's (adorable) words:

I really just want to share the zines with Berliners. (...)  People think I’m trying to sell stuff...it’s about teaching people to make stuff rather than buying stuff – but they should buy zines. Not here, though. They’re just to read.

To learn more about The Lesen Lounge and Leah's impressive selection of zines from around the world, take a look at the project website.  Also, don't forget to take a look at this article written for the New York Times online by another Toronto expat Nadja Sayej about the project, where you can find a photo and caption for my recent zine, Goin' Down the Road: Newfoundland Stories of Leaving.

Ziney Morning

Got up at 8:30 to get a head start.  Zine Dream is tomorrow!

Zine Dream 5

Zine Dream-- the annual zine (among other things) fair-- is happening again in August, but this year it has grown into an impressive three-day event.  Opening night is at the new location of Art Metropole; day two will feature a panel discussion moderated by small press/art/craft queen Shannon Gerard; and the main event takes place on day three-- a zine fair with 50+ vendors, entertainment and more.

I missed ZD last year on account of skipping town for Baltimore, but this year I'll be there with lotsa goodies.  I'll have a few old zines up for grabs as well as these posters and a brand new collaborative zine that I'm hoping will be done by the 12th!  Hope to see y'all there.

Event deets can be found here.

Burning Schoolhouses

Just in time for Canada Day...fireworks!  I'm happy to announce that I'll have some work up in an exhibition that will be a part of the Planet IndigenUS Festival in August.  The festival will take part mainly at Harbourfront Centre, but also at partner institution Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario.  The exhibition is a showcase of the work of students of the Aboriginal Visual Culture program at OCADU.  I am not in the Aboriginal Visual Culture program myself, but I'm grateful to have been invited by department head and incredible artist Bonnie Devine to take part anyway.  My piece is called Burning Schoolhouses-- more on them below.

Burning Schoolhouses, 2012
Fireworks, Japanese Kozo paper and adhesive
Installation dimensions variable
Each unit approximately 15cm X 14cm X 6cm

Burning Schoolhouses is a series of sculptural multiples inspired by the essay Confessions of a Born Again Pagan by Fred Kelly.  The multiples employ the use of the classic firework, The Burning Schoolhouse, to explore the explosive issue of residential schools just over fifteen years after the last residential school in Canada was closed in 1996.  The objects simultaneously connote a sense of celebration, violence and catharsis while embodying the complex and painful process of reconciliation for both aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.

Toronto Life

Two-colour Risograph prints on archival cardstock made in collaboration with JP King of Paper Pusher Print Works. These drawings will be on the upcoming School Jerks 12", due out in a matter of weeks.

1) Thanks, JP!  

2) Prints can be purchased here.

Thursday

Lots happening this Thursday!  First off, as I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be taking part in the exhibition Under 30 at 30 at the Japanese Paper Place's warehouse space on Brock Avenue.  All day Thursday, the JPP will be celebrating their 30th Anniversary with an open house, exhibition, paper sale and heaps more.  The exhibition opens in the evening...come out and support this singular Toronto institution in the process.

Japanese Paper Place - 30th Anniversary Celebration
Thursday, June 7, 2:30-9:30pm
77 Brock Avenue, Toronto
http://www.japanesepaperplace.com

Later that night, there will be a legal fee benefit event for my good friend, fibre artist Lizz Aston at The Piston, on Bloor Street West.  Lizz was falsely accused of assault when someone ID'ed her to the police using Facebook, resulting in her unlawful arrest...!  Unbelievable!  I am donating the piece pictured above, A Breast, for the event's art auction.  The night should be a blast, with dancing, crafty art and live music by psych/pop locals The Whirly Birds, The Persian Rugs and Hollow Earth, who I've been meaning to check out for ages.

For more info on the event, look here.

Under 30 at 30 at The Japanese Paper Place

My recent piece, A History of Hunger, will be shown at the Japanese Paper Place's upcoming exhibition Under 30 At 30, which will open during the first week of June.  The exhibition is a small part of the JPP's 30th anniversary festivities, which will include a paper sale, workshops, an open house and more.  They are such a unique local institution and I rely on them for project supplies frequently--I'm so glad they exist!

For more info on the JPP's 30th anniversary, look here.

A History of Hunger

Here a is new-ish project I completed recently called A History of Hunger consisting of one dozen mini-scroll "books" made of a dozen white eggs.  Admittedly, this was a project for school.  Here's a statement about it...sorry if it comes across as a little clinical sounding.

A History of Hunger
Eggshells, Japanese paper, adhesive, egg carton
Edition of 12 unique objects

A History of Hunger is a series of 12 miniature objects inspired by books.  Using the phrase “break in case of emergency” as a starting point and combining creative writing with research and sculptural processes, I used broken, empty eggs to frame an exploration of hunger and famine across time and space.  Through online research, I learned about both contemporary and historical examples of famine and food insecurity such as the Irish potato famine as well as periods of hunger during communist rule in China, WWII and the Great Depression.  Each of the twelve book-objects represents a year when a famine or food shortage existed somewhere in the world, and contains a short poetic response to a condition or situation that I read about.  A guiding idea in the series is that in opening each egg and finding it empty aside from a short piece of text reflecting an experience of hunger or famine, one might learn not only how widespread hunger is, but how people have coped with food shortages, as well as how they come to exist.

This project is in keeping with the guiding principle of our class publication-- playing with time by imagining the present through the lens of the future, and guessing what aspects of our contemporary cultural/societal condition will carry over to become major issues in subsequent decades.  Food security is an issue worldwide that will likely only get worse with increasing climate change.  The series of multiples resists providing a linear narrative or definitive history of hunger, and the inclusion of a multiple marked with the year 2042 alludes to the fact that hunger will likely be a continuous problem in a rapidly growing and warming world.

Many of the material/formal decisions I made in the execution of A History of Hunger grew out of my initial decision to use a carton of broken eggs as a starting point.  While the content of the multiples is historical, the use of a contemporary carton of eggs marked with nutritional information at a recent date stamp root the work in the present.  The multiples play with the scroll-- a historical format that is echoed in word processing applications, web browsers and film credits.  Typing directly onto the narrow scrolls required the use of short words in my poetic responses to each historical example of hunger, making them resemble Haikus and giving them a quiet quality that softens the tragic imagery contained in some of the text.  The long scrolls made out of Japanese Kozo paper were designed to mimic the look of egg yolks and whites pouring out of their shells.  Finally, the fragility of the eggshells fits with the precariousness of food security across time, as well as the increasing instability of our environment.

Museozine

I completed my latest zine exactly a week ago, making my collective zine output total a whopping four zines-- two were collaborations, and two were my own-- in 2011, the official year of the Revenge of Print.  Looking back, I feel that I did well...I did my part for the revenge!  Print was one of my first loves. Needless to say, I hope it is here to stay.

While this zine came to fruition mere days into 2012, I consider it a '2011' zine because so much of its research and construction was done in 2011.  In a nutshell, Museozine is a zine of interviews with friends of mine-- all wonderfully creative young people who craft, make music and make art on their own terms-- about their museum experiences.  These interviews started off as casual research I was doing for my job at a small Toronto museum last summer.  The interviews were, in some cases, so honest and joyful and surprising that I felt like I just had to publish them in zine form as a way of honoring and preserving them.

Some of my favourite moments in the zine include the following quotes:

"When I was a young kid I loved to sit upside down on the couch (legs up the wall, head hanging down over the end of the seat) and look at the living room/kitchen upside down and fantasize about how cool it would be to be able to walk around in a house that was upside down.  Really upside down, but defying gravity so everything would stay in its place, and to walk in the front door and try to navigate around the house that way and see all the familiar objects in this whole new way.  I did this a lot.  It was a bit of an obsession.  There's my dream museum-- my childhood home upside down."  --Elaine B.

"If I could create my own museum it would be quite a bit like my own apartment, except much, much bigger...everything from old print (magazines, comic books, fanzines, old books) to old toys, various pop culture items, guitars and music gear, and-- probably most importantly-- vinyl records."  --Matt H.

"I think a hobo museum would be cool.  It would have a riding the rails simulator, and a hobo camp staffed with historical re-enactors like Black Creek Pioneer Village, and maybe a folk singer from the 20s or 30s.  Although this is changing, museums tend not to represent the lives of people on the margins of history."  --Patrick M.

Today, headlines about millions of dollars in funding for culture and research being cut from both the municipal and the provincial budget over the next year were splashed across Toronto papers.  Sad when you consider how much museums have captured the imaginations of the people I interviewed.  Most of these interviews referred to childhood museum experiences, which, for the case of many, happened in the 1980s, before the massive culture funding slashes and economic recession of the very late 1980s and early 1990s.  There is currently an accessibility problem among Toronto's museums.  I hate to think that the current economic climate and recent cuts will make the current problem (or crisis, even) of local museum accessibility--and not to mention cultural funding-- even worse.

For lots of impassioned writing on the topic of public access to museums and cultural institutions, check out Toronto critic and arts writer Leah Sandals' always engaging blog, Unedit My Heart.

House Proud

Here are a few photos that were taken a few weeks ago at Canzine 2011 of the City of Craft table,  (or "City of Craft Village"), with houses by Ian Phillips, Jen Anisef, Kid Icarus, Cecelia Hayes, Roz Faustino, Reverend Aitor, Michelle Renaud, Becky Johnson, and myself. House number #2432 is my contribution-- a little ink drawing of my house in Baltimore.  I've been looking forward to checking out pictures of this awesome little collaborative project co-ordinated by City of Craft wonder lady, Becky Johnson. There has been a ton of buzz about City of Craft as of late-- I am so sad to miss it for the first time this year since it started....be sure to check it out over the weekend of December 10-11, 2011. 

Photos: Glowing Doll
glowingdoll.blogspot.com/2011/11/paper-city.html

www.cityofcraft.com

Don't Flinch, Jack.

Photos from an assignment from school that incorporates performance and hand-drawn posters of quotes about labour taken from Newfoundland "Jack Stories," Barbara Erhenreich's book, Nickled and Dimed, and an interview with my father. This performance isn't quite where I want it to be, so I won't post too much about it here. The photos turned out good, though!

Top Photo: Kristine Woods

The Feedback Quilt Project

I'm going to step back in time a bit to post some documentation of a participatory activity I designed for the TMC that was up in the museum for the month of August. The quilt was part of a larger project I did for the museum, doing qualitative research about visitor engagement and satisfaction. Inspired by some of the ideas in Nina Simon's book, The Participatory Museum, I thought I would make an in-museum project that would serve as something of an interactive guestbook. Here is a short summary I wrote about the quilt that explains it a bit more. I'm happy to report that by the end of my contract on August 19th, the quilt was almost completely done!

The purpose of The Feedback Quilt Project is to create a participatory visitor feedback activity for the museum space. Its goals are to collect and preserve visitor content, to create a more interactive museum environment, to educate visitors about a particular material practice (quilt structure and construction) and to become a “town square,” essentially creating an alternative portrait of our visitorship.

A 3-colour hourglass quilt structure (http://quilting.about.com/od/blockofthemonth/ss/cal-hourglass-quilt-block_2.htm) was mapped out on an 8’ X 4’ piece of Foamcore with a 1/2", dark-coloured masking tape. The board was mounted to a wall facing the 2nd floor elevators and stairwell. The activity requires that visitors answer at least one of three questions:


1. Describe your ‘Fantasy Museum.” 
2. What keeps you from going to museums? 
3. What do you want out of a museum for textiles? 


Each question has a corresponding coloured “quilt block” sticky note. Using a dry-mounted, colour-coded quilt legend, visitors placed a sticky note with their response in the appropriate position on the quilt template, almost like a large paint by numbers or cross-stitch kit. In doing so they are building a large quilt form together, and the more questions they respond to, the more the “quilt” starts to take shape. The quilt form was chosen as a basis for the activity due to the connections between quilting, community and communication.

Responses to this activity were revealing.  Many people took the opportunity to spill their guts about what they felt museums were and weren't giving them as visitors.  Many focused on the price and hours of operation of museums not being accessible.  A few came up with truly amazing ideas for fantasy museums-- a museum of smells, a snowglobe museum, a "museum of everything in the entire world." I came away from the project at the end of my contract realizing that museum visitors will reveal a lot to you if you make the effort to stray away from the same old prescribed questions, such as "are you a return visitor?" and "how did you hear about our museum?"

My sincerest thanks goes out to the museum for giving me the chance to basically make art and talk to enthusiastic museum-goers and textile fans all summer.  Funnest job ever!

For more documentation of the quilt, check out the TMC's fantastic Facebook Page.

Printing Errors at Akau

I attended the opening for the great little exhibition Printed Errors at Akau Gallery at the beginning of the month, and have been meaning to post about it here for a while. Here is the text from the press release:

As we all know, to err is human. Or, as a character in Jonathan Franzen’s novel “Freedom” says, in retrospect, “mistakes were made”.

In this exhibition, Barbara Balfour has invited thirteen artists who have worked in various forms of print media to respond to the notion of Printing Errors. They include: Janice Carbert, Shannon Gerard, Libby Hague, Micah Lexier, Patrick Mahon, Eric Mathew, Ken Nicol, Lauren Nurse, Dan Olsen, Derek Sullivan, Jeannie Thib, Daryl Vocat, and Joy Walker.

Once one moves beyond the detection of error – the dismay and disappointment of one’s own error or the Schadenfreude of detecting someone else’s – what can be done with it? Above all, can printing errors be interesting?

As someone with a real interest in print media (a little known fact about me is I started a print major at OCAD almost 10 years ago which I subsequently ran kicking and screaming away from, though I've never lost my visceral connection to the process of printing), this was a really fun show to soak up and think about. It was also neat to play spot the error with each piece! I especially enjoyed the work of Ken Nicol (who did the cue card piece pictured above that was not in the show) and Jeannie Thib, and it was nice to see some fellow artists from the DIY art/craft community included as well, Shannon Gerard and Daryl Vocat.

Printing Errors is a part of the international print symposium, Printopolis, sponsored by Open Studio. For more on it, check out this website.