art + space + audience
- Making Conceptual Art Accessible
The more conceptual an artwork becomes, the more impossible it is to understand it, or derive meaning from it, just by looking at the piece. Conceptual art is driven by idea, and these ideas are often manifested in ways wherein aesthetic considerations take a back seat. This is not to say that conceptual work isn’t [...]
- Books and Movies: The Bias of Lists
So in the last couple of days, kottke.org has unearthed two lists that have been a lot of fun to go through: 1001 Books and 1001 Movies that presumably you must read or see before you die. Of course lists such as these are always bittersweet. I’ve read 45 books on the list but have [...]
- Power in Numbers: Why Spaces Should Work Together
I am enormously grateful for and supportive of all of the entrepreneurship that occurs within the art world. Entrepreneurial ventures allow the market to maintain a sense of diversity. Different artists, styles, themes, mandates, practices–the variety present in Toronto’s selection of galleries ensures that there is something for everybody.
The problem with entrepreneurial ventures, however, is [...]
- Mircea Cantor
My favourite piece from last year’s Nuit Blanche was Mircea Cantor’s Deeparture, at the Isabel Bader Theatre. The work is a looped film wherein a deer and a wolf are confined together in a white cube space. The tension evoked in these few short minutes is electric. When I came home (at 5 a.m., beyond [...]
- Do you know what RSS stands for?
If you know me at all, you know I’m big on access. I don’t believe necessarily in fighting habit or changing people’s preferences. Instead I like to work with them. Trends are important to follow–when you know what kind of trends exist, you can modify the way you distribute your information in order to reach [...]
- Peter Kingstone: 100 Stories About My Grandmother
Peter Kinstone’s 100 Stories About My Grandmother is on exhibit now at Gallery TPW, as part of both the Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival and CONTACT 2008. Interviews with 100 male sex workers who are asked to share stories about their grandmothers are split into four viewing stations. The interviews range [...]
- How New Media Figures in a Gallery
The evolution of new media has reached a point where it is now being sought out by photography-based galleries to fill their spaces. Why this shift? There is definitely a lack of art spaces to represent new media works, and I am in no way dissenting this shift. But to me it is curious that [...]
- CONTACT 2008: Public Installations
I’m a big fan of art in public spaces. I like the site-specificity of it, the ingenuity of the design of it, and the fact that people can not only make the spaces destinations, but many people can view the work incidentally as well. Since I’m talking about CONTACT 2008 so much, I thought I’d [...]
- FishNet
So I toured a bunch of CONTACT openings yesterday and the one show I’m getting behind isn’t even a part of the festival. FishNet: The Great Lakes Craft and Release Project is at the York Quay Centre at Harbourfront until June 22. In what is the most beautifully displayed exhibition I have ever seen — [...]
- CONTACT 2008
Toronto’s annual photography festival, CONTACT, has begun and I thought I’d take a minute to recommend some shows that I’ll be checking out between now and the end of the month. This year’s incarnation is built upon the subtitle, “Between Memory & History”, which I must admit is sort of an obvious theme. I mean, [...]
