BS Rocks
Claimed for my studio on my toxic travels to the Coniston slag heap
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Vjane posting Public Art Discussion
“The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.”
I'd like to try to expand the quotation above (cited by Jim in his lengthy Blog entry) into a more parsed and nuanced examination of the conception of communty through the specific examples of experience in the BS Art Exchange.
"Installations" is a word I have used to describe parts of the two communities. As an artist I think of "installations" as work that takes a deathgrip on context and doesn't ever completely accept the consequences of the powers vested in the institution. Human agency can create installations that seem to fling the powers of the natural world aside and offer some other terrible context. I see this in both "communities" not just because of the industries but also because of the extraordinary setting where the industrial installation does its work. The Sudbury Basin, one of the earth's most spectacular meteor strikes and the Niagara Escarpment are geographic locations of planetary significance. I am attracted to both these areas because I love stone, in my artist's statement I call it "the skin of the world". The particular qualities of the world skin in both these areas stretches far... far enough to encompass all the names given to the communities around these industrial wounds.
My attitude to stone is an element of a specific beginning strategy for parsing one of the elements in both communities. The results of my parsing may have close connections to work of another group member, they may open a larger element of a community to itself in a slightly different way. This may be a small nuance that can't be appreciated in a "blanket declaration", but is a more useful tool for community identification or identity.
Communities have identities and like human identities they are always under construction and always changing.To begin to make them workable for our project I say we have to parse and build nuanced associations and interpretations. This is groundwork for the sympathetic magic mentioned in another post, and a place where public art lives as a valid intervention.
Let's not be reductive. Let's not build walls around experience. Let's not spend time defining and eliminating. Let's not separate out our little territory yet. Let's play. We are the BS Exchange!
“The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.”
I'd like to try to expand the quotation above (cited by Jim in his lengthy Blog entry) into a more parsed and nuanced examination of the conception of communty through the specific examples of experience in the BS Art Exchange.
"Installations" is a word I have used to describe parts of the two communities. As an artist I think of "installations" as work that takes a deathgrip on context and doesn't ever completely accept the consequences of the powers vested in the institution. Human agency can create installations that seem to fling the powers of the natural world aside and offer some other terrible context. I see this in both "communities" not just because of the industries but also because of the extraordinary setting where the industrial installation does its work. The Sudbury Basin, one of the earth's most spectacular meteor strikes and the Niagara Escarpment are geographic locations of planetary significance. I am attracted to both these areas because I love stone, in my artist's statement I call it "the skin of the world". The particular qualities of the world skin in both these areas stretches far... far enough to encompass all the names given to the communities around these industrial wounds.
My attitude to stone is an element of a specific beginning strategy for parsing one of the elements in both communities. The results of my parsing may have close connections to work of another group member, they may open a larger element of a community to itself in a slightly different way. This may be a small nuance that can't be appreciated in a "blanket declaration", but is a more useful tool for community identification or identity.
Communities have identities and like human identities they are always under construction and always changing.To begin to make them workable for our project I say we have to parse and build nuanced associations and interpretations. This is groundwork for the sympathetic magic mentioned in another post, and a place where public art lives as a valid intervention.
Let's not be reductive. Let's not build walls around experience. Let's not spend time defining and eliminating. Let's not separate out our little territory yet. Let's play. We are the BS Exchange!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Reciprocal Agreements
We all live in disparate places but when I look back on my notes about the idea behind the original exchange, I wrote that "this project is about who we are, where we live and how we work." In reading the postings here, it seems to me that we are doing that—exchanging ideas and perhaps engaging in a little sympathetic magic. "In studies of such pre-scientific proposals in culture around the world, well into the scientific century, sympathetic magic is described as following "the laws of sympathy. Like produces like; contact results in contagion, the image produces the object itself; a part is seen to be the same as the whole." Further, sympathetic magic is said to equate "with those bonds which are said to exist between a man and an object or being with which his life is bound up...." as part of a system of survivals. (quote of Marcel Mauss). We are looking for ideas that can bring us together, some theme that will unite our various visions. My problem right now is that I find it difficult to respond in a meaningful way to a place that I have only visited once; where I live definitely informs my work so another visit to some of the sites might be in order to strengthen my impressions.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
ya mon
This is what I meant when I wrote " I admit, I had not really thought of the industrial rape/pillage aspect of our two cities." It seems to me that Burlington is a nexus. My works are centering on this perception.
Burlington & "Community" Clarification Please
If this process and exhibition are exploring “where we live” and “where we visit”, I’d like clarification about the concept of “community” that is being used. The idea that we are referring to two communities is difficult for me to understand. Or more specifically what community is being referred to by the different posters?
Vjane posting Public Art Discussion
“The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.”
Rocky ,Vjane and Nick have referenced the word “communities” and compared “them” with references to the industrial aspects. I can understand how based on the places that were visited that Sudbury artists obtained the perception that was posted on March 27, 2009 (Public Art Discussion) and now by Nick. I am continuing to be unclear as to which community is being compared to Sudbury?
Burlington is the community where the exhibit will happen but is that what these artists are referring to when they refer to community in their statements?
To reference the steel mills as being connected to Burlington may be perceived as an insult by some of the people of Burlington. I’m sorry if we did not spend enough time in Burlington for the Sudbury artists to get a better grasp about the community that the exhibition will be in. The vast majority of Burlington is a very visually clean and a well kept community. So when someone compares nickel mining and steel mills, it may be best to be articulate which communities that you are comparing. It is not Burlington but Sudbury and Hamilton.
Burlington’s industries are not steel making but tend towards clean industries. The main industries of Burlington are: a/ high technical /informational (advance electronics & bio tech), b/ automation, robotics and engineering design, c/ durable good producers, and d/ advanced manufacturing. Its largest employer is a food processing plant. THESE ARE CLEARLY NOT HEAVY STEEL INDUSTRIES. Added to that, Burlington is a commuter city with many citizens working in the west GTA and downtown Toronto. Within the past forty years more and more people have moved to Burlington from the east such as Toronto.
( read http://tinyurl.com/dfdkan andhttp://cms.burlington.ca/Page500.aspx
I acknowledge that the steel mills of Hamilton play a role in the perception of the concept of community for those from Hamilton. The artists from Sudbury visited and may have spent more time in Hamilton than Burlington. They may have gained a deeper understanding of it than Burlington. They may feel more affiliation with Hamilton. I was also seeing and considering a comparison of the steel/mining concept. If others are taking that comparitive approach, it may be better for me to stick to Burlington as it is my community now. Although I have a lot of interaction with Hamilton, very few people in Burlington have interactions with Hamilton. Increasingly, Burlingtonians look more towards the east (Toronto) than west (Hamilton). Presently, fewer than 15% of people of Burlington are employed in Hamilton. Forty years ago, that figure was 55%. Steel mill influences in Burlington are just not present today at all!
Burlington is generally affluent and has stronger socio economic ties with Oakville, Milton, Mississauga and Toronto. BAC, itself, does seem to have ties with all of the communities represented in the Burlington group though. If the exhibition goes outside of BAC walls, the public realm for interaction is going to more or less be the Burlington community. Or are some artists considering a public installation in Hamilton?
I found a discussion with Jamie and Nick during the James St. N. art crawl interesting Perhaps rather than comparing “communities, it may be more along the lines of comparing Northern and Southern? I think that it was during that discussion that I became aware of a perceptual difference between northerners and southerners when it comes to travel. Northerners refer to traveling in terms of time while southerners refer to travel in terms of distance. If a northerner is travelling they state how long that it will take to get to point B while southerners refer to the distance in kilometers. Do I have that correct Nick and Jamie?
It may be best to be aware that the “community” concept may be rather difficult to compare unless we are more specific. The artists in the Burlington group have roots in a larger number of communities other than Burlington itself but the exhibition will be in the community of Burlington. I don't mean to offend anyone but as the lone artist from Burlington itself, I thought that I had better clarify a bit more about the community of Burlington. I’m confident that we will have a great exhibition! I thought it best to bring these points to all of us though.
What are you views about "our" communities?
Vjane posting Public Art Discussion
“The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.”
Rocky ,Vjane and Nick have referenced the word “communities” and compared “them” with references to the industrial aspects. I can understand how based on the places that were visited that Sudbury artists obtained the perception that was posted on March 27, 2009 (Public Art Discussion) and now by Nick. I am continuing to be unclear as to which community is being compared to Sudbury?
Burlington is the community where the exhibit will happen but is that what these artists are referring to when they refer to community in their statements?
To reference the steel mills as being connected to Burlington may be perceived as an insult by some of the people of Burlington. I’m sorry if we did not spend enough time in Burlington for the Sudbury artists to get a better grasp about the community that the exhibition will be in. The vast majority of Burlington is a very visually clean and a well kept community. So when someone compares nickel mining and steel mills, it may be best to be articulate which communities that you are comparing. It is not Burlington but Sudbury and Hamilton.
Burlington’s industries are not steel making but tend towards clean industries. The main industries of Burlington are: a/ high technical /informational (advance electronics & bio tech), b/ automation, robotics and engineering design, c/ durable good producers, and d/ advanced manufacturing. Its largest employer is a food processing plant. THESE ARE CLEARLY NOT HEAVY STEEL INDUSTRIES. Added to that, Burlington is a commuter city with many citizens working in the west GTA and downtown Toronto. Within the past forty years more and more people have moved to Burlington from the east such as Toronto.
( read http://tinyurl.com/dfdkan andhttp://cms.burlington.ca/Page500.aspx
I acknowledge that the steel mills of Hamilton play a role in the perception of the concept of community for those from Hamilton. The artists from Sudbury visited and may have spent more time in Hamilton than Burlington. They may have gained a deeper understanding of it than Burlington. They may feel more affiliation with Hamilton. I was also seeing and considering a comparison of the steel/mining concept. If others are taking that comparitive approach, it may be better for me to stick to Burlington as it is my community now. Although I have a lot of interaction with Hamilton, very few people in Burlington have interactions with Hamilton. Increasingly, Burlingtonians look more towards the east (Toronto) than west (Hamilton). Presently, fewer than 15% of people of Burlington are employed in Hamilton. Forty years ago, that figure was 55%. Steel mill influences in Burlington are just not present today at all!
Burlington is generally affluent and has stronger socio economic ties with Oakville, Milton, Mississauga and Toronto. BAC, itself, does seem to have ties with all of the communities represented in the Burlington group though. If the exhibition goes outside of BAC walls, the public realm for interaction is going to more or less be the Burlington community. Or are some artists considering a public installation in Hamilton?
I found a discussion with Jamie and Nick during the James St. N. art crawl interesting Perhaps rather than comparing “communities, it may be more along the lines of comparing Northern and Southern? I think that it was during that discussion that I became aware of a perceptual difference between northerners and southerners when it comes to travel. Northerners refer to traveling in terms of time while southerners refer to travel in terms of distance. If a northerner is travelling they state how long that it will take to get to point B while southerners refer to the distance in kilometers. Do I have that correct Nick and Jamie?
It may be best to be aware that the “community” concept may be rather difficult to compare unless we are more specific. The artists in the Burlington group have roots in a larger number of communities other than Burlington itself but the exhibition will be in the community of Burlington. I don't mean to offend anyone but as the lone artist from Burlington itself, I thought that I had better clarify a bit more about the community of Burlington. I’m confident that we will have a great exhibition! I thought it best to bring these points to all of us though.
What are you views about "our" communities?
ok
A brief response to the discussion posting:
- The choice of installing in or outside of the gallery setting should be the prerogative of the artist. Some of the works that I am considering could be installed outdoors, but most would not survive outside of the gallery environment.
- Regarding the differences of the two galleries, there has been no suggestion that the two shows be identical. Works will fit together differently in each venue.
- I assume that our discussions / ideas will engage the curators as a part of this process.
- The "site specific" needs of most outdoor art works could connect well here for the reasons stated. I admit, I had not really thought of the industrial rape/pillage aspect of our two cities.
- Although the projections would work very well in Burlington, the AGS has no such sight lines. An alternate venue would need to be found for this aspect of the show. Perhaps part of city hall or the blank windows of the Rainbow Centre. Maybe some of the upper floor windows of the Buddha/Townhouse would help to connect to the Elgin street visitor.
Should we consider showing a couple of pieces each about our home towns?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Public Art Discusion Piece
A Modest Proposal
The Sudbury Burlington Exchange project should explore an emergence into the "Public Realm" beyond the museum/gallery.
I have two main reasons for putting this suggestion forward, first, it offers the institutions greater flexibility in presenting the exhibition. The different characteristics of the exhibition spaces make two identical exhibitions logistically difficult. Second, as an artist engaged in this project I have not been subject to the standard curatorial visit and selection through the exercise of connoisseurship by the curators. This may be planned for the future of course, but the whole atmosphere of exploration seems to me to already have pointed us in a different direction. The experiences of visiting the "other" community and "hosting" in my own community have opened me to seeing both in new ways. The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.
In 1779 the museum Fridericianum was opened in Kassell. "It was the first museum on the continent of Europe that was open to the public." It reflected the new social reality of the wunderkammer a connoisseur's private collection influenced by the expanding banks of information about a newly unstable Baroque world. With the ascendancy of the public museum/gallery with a mandate for our edification, public art fell off its plinth. "The logic of the monument collapses with the ascendancy of the collecting museum". Over the years the public gallery has become a home, a safe haven, a bubble? for the anarchist artist who is ironically often accepted by the institution through a passive aggressive strategy of thumbing his/her nose at the museum's claims to gatekeeping. The frustrations of taxpayers and politicians and the institutions complicated love/hate, public/private, elite/antielite relationships with Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst all come to mind.
"Without the beating heart of resident living artists the body of culture will never be animated, without the seeing eye and listening ear of a community artists speak silently and grieve for their loss of voice" If I begin to parse the locations for the two exhibitions these are my first observations. The Art Gallery of Sudbury has a connection to a University "a collectivity embodying important branches of learning", The Burlington Art Centre over looks one of the world's greatest inland seas, Lake Ontario. My second observation is the Art Gallery of Sudbury is across a bridge from a depressed downtown neighbourhood, The Burlington Art Centre sits on Lakeshore Rd which blends into North Shore Blvd and a river of the well to do in cars pass it by everyday. The third, fourth etc observations can come from readers to the blog. As soon as these specifics of site are written down they suggest approaches to "public art strategies". For instance: partnerships with researchers at the University of Sudbury, shipwrecks in Lake Ontario, documents of the street, driving by and advertising message boards. And on and on "But so what? How does all this become new work or public art and who cares and why should we?"
We live in a world a lot like Baroque Europe: Explosions of available information, a vision of the world destabilized by a daily bombardment of discovery, frequent disaster,
Imminent financial ruin, new habits that change our world on an intimate scale, "the shallow recession of our homes and domestic scenarios, is moving and being constantly transformed." Pubic art today is not "the Monument" it is interventionist, playful, Baroque scenarios expand narratives infinitely creating complex multiple possibilities. This Public art carries an inherent process of audience engagement and does not fear interpretation but relies on interpretive drift. There is no longer a separation between the cultural bombardment of the mass media and the art of the avant garde, we are in an infinite polydimensional "matrix" of contemporary culture.
Here is one concrete suggestion for the group as a whole at the Burlington Art Centre. As part of the international "Inquiry Projects" I have done we always finish the project with a "public visual presentation". This is a relatively simple thing. We edit inquiry work daily and create or extract or perform documentation in digital form. All the documentation is edited to a manageable size by the participants and mentor. This material which, may also include images of completed projects, is put on a CD and projected in or to the outdoors at the Inquiry location. At The Burlington Art centre we could project more than one CD of images to fill the glass wall of the Shoreline Room. We would just have to line the glass with mylar film on the inside and the images would appear on that film from the outside to the people in cars driving by. This suggestion happens to include the whole group as well as interacting with a specific observation of "site".
As with most public projects it may also involve permission. This is another Baroque area of public art. But that would be another essay.
N.B. I have not given any citations for quotations in this piece... partly because I made them up, but not all of them, but it's a blog anyway. I would recommend the book, Neo-Baroque Esthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, by Angela Ndalianis, MIT Press 2004.
Vjane
Waterdown March 25
SO BSersWHAT DO YOU ALL THINK?
The Sudbury Burlington Exchange project should explore an emergence into the "Public Realm" beyond the museum/gallery.
I have two main reasons for putting this suggestion forward, first, it offers the institutions greater flexibility in presenting the exhibition. The different characteristics of the exhibition spaces make two identical exhibitions logistically difficult. Second, as an artist engaged in this project I have not been subject to the standard curatorial visit and selection through the exercise of connoisseurship by the curators. This may be planned for the future of course, but the whole atmosphere of exploration seems to me to already have pointed us in a different direction. The experiences of visiting the "other" community and "hosting" in my own community have opened me to seeing both in new ways. The obvious connection of two of Canada's most notorious heavy/industrial planet changing installations has become parsed, examined in more nuanced units. Public Art fits into these nuanced appreciations of both communities.
In 1779 the museum Fridericianum was opened in Kassell. "It was the first museum on the continent of Europe that was open to the public." It reflected the new social reality of the wunderkammer a connoisseur's private collection influenced by the expanding banks of information about a newly unstable Baroque world. With the ascendancy of the public museum/gallery with a mandate for our edification, public art fell off its plinth. "The logic of the monument collapses with the ascendancy of the collecting museum". Over the years the public gallery has become a home, a safe haven, a bubble? for the anarchist artist who is ironically often accepted by the institution through a passive aggressive strategy of thumbing his/her nose at the museum's claims to gatekeeping. The frustrations of taxpayers and politicians and the institutions complicated love/hate, public/private, elite/antielite relationships with Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst all come to mind.
"Without the beating heart of resident living artists the body of culture will never be animated, without the seeing eye and listening ear of a community artists speak silently and grieve for their loss of voice" If I begin to parse the locations for the two exhibitions these are my first observations. The Art Gallery of Sudbury has a connection to a University "a collectivity embodying important branches of learning", The Burlington Art Centre over looks one of the world's greatest inland seas, Lake Ontario. My second observation is the Art Gallery of Sudbury is across a bridge from a depressed downtown neighbourhood, The Burlington Art Centre sits on Lakeshore Rd which blends into North Shore Blvd and a river of the well to do in cars pass it by everyday. The third, fourth etc observations can come from readers to the blog. As soon as these specifics of site are written down they suggest approaches to "public art strategies". For instance: partnerships with researchers at the University of Sudbury, shipwrecks in Lake Ontario, documents of the street, driving by and advertising message boards. And on and on "But so what? How does all this become new work or public art and who cares and why should we?"
We live in a world a lot like Baroque Europe: Explosions of available information, a vision of the world destabilized by a daily bombardment of discovery, frequent disaster,
Imminent financial ruin, new habits that change our world on an intimate scale, "the shallow recession of our homes and domestic scenarios, is moving and being constantly transformed." Pubic art today is not "the Monument" it is interventionist, playful, Baroque scenarios expand narratives infinitely creating complex multiple possibilities. This Public art carries an inherent process of audience engagement and does not fear interpretation but relies on interpretive drift. There is no longer a separation between the cultural bombardment of the mass media and the art of the avant garde, we are in an infinite polydimensional "matrix" of contemporary culture.
Here is one concrete suggestion for the group as a whole at the Burlington Art Centre. As part of the international "Inquiry Projects" I have done we always finish the project with a "public visual presentation". This is a relatively simple thing. We edit inquiry work daily and create or extract or perform documentation in digital form. All the documentation is edited to a manageable size by the participants and mentor. This material which, may also include images of completed projects, is put on a CD and projected in or to the outdoors at the Inquiry location. At The Burlington Art centre we could project more than one CD of images to fill the glass wall of the Shoreline Room. We would just have to line the glass with mylar film on the inside and the images would appear on that film from the outside to the people in cars driving by. This suggestion happens to include the whole group as well as interacting with a specific observation of "site".
As with most public projects it may also involve permission. This is another Baroque area of public art. But that would be another essay.
N.B. I have not given any citations for quotations in this piece... partly because I made them up, but not all of them, but it's a blog anyway. I would recommend the book, Neo-Baroque Esthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, by Angela Ndalianis, MIT Press 2004.
Vjane
Waterdown March 25
SO BSersWHAT DO YOU ALL THINK?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Lay down for art
Beware! The AGS requires special manoeuvres when installing shows. "Igneous Corpus", an exhibition with Kathy Browning (Nick's wife), will be exhibited until March 2.
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