Dive into the archives.
- Departure & Invention
I didn’t realize it until I went to Montreal and Quebec a couple of weeks ago, but a lot of what bores me about art is the familiarity of media, the same ol’, same ol’ use of photography, painting, multi-dimensional materials, space, video, animation. I came to this realization first at MOCCA in Toronto, then [...]
- On Funding
The arts (usually) aren’t profitable, and in many cases, they aren’t even (or are barely) sustainable. That’s why visual arts, dance, music, theatre, film and new media organizations look to the government for financial assistance. They can’t do it without them. They can’t operate, produce, educate or distribute. Without government assistance, arts organizations would cease [...]
- Town Hall Meeting: Please Attend
If you’re as outraged as I am about the recent funding cuts to arts and heritage programs in Canada, please attend this meeting on Wednesday, September 3rd at 7:00 PM.
Here’s the email, verbatim:
Valuing Culture: TOWN HALL REGARDING CUTS TO CULTURAL AND HERITAGE GRANTING PROGRAMS
Who should come? Everyone concerned about the Federal Government’s blatant contempt [...]
- Disgraceful
Canada, you’re killing me.
Tories to axe five more arts and culture programs
- You Can’t Deny Funding on Account of Your Bad Taste
Canada, the poor man’s America. Toronto, Hollywood’s New York City. When will Canada learn that the only way to quell these unfortunate stereotypes (even amongst its own citizens) is to put as much money into the production and distribution of arts as the U.S. and U.K. do?
This week, in the swell of coverage about the [...]
- Enacting Emancipation at A Space
I’m finding it harder and harder to come across art in Toronto that is actually moving, thought-provoking and evocative on both a political and social level. That isn’t to say conceptual- or aesthetic-based works or exhibitions aren’t interesting or fulfilling, because they can be. But goosebumps-inducing projects seem fewer and farther between as artists’ media [...]
- Interview: Poster Boy, NYC (Part Two)
A few weeks ago I interviewed NYC’s Poster Boy, a mash-up artist who uses the subway system as his medium and gallery space. After admitting to functioning as several different personas in the art world and citing Cindy Sherman as one of his influences, I was interested in learning more about how his economic/political experiences [...]
- Interview: Poster Boy, NYC (Part One)
In a reinvented, neo-Dada sort of way, Poster Boy’s on-site mash-ups appropriate advertising imagery to create subversive posters in very public spaces — the NYC subway system. I first came across Poster Boy on Gawker, where they noted how good vandals were becoming. After FFFFOUNDing one of his images, the artist emailed me, acknowledging [...]
- Add-Art: Achieving Their Mandate?
I’ve recently installed the Add-Art plugin to Firefox and I’ve got to say: this tool has a lot of potential.
What Add-Art does is use an ad-blocking plugin to first block advertising on most websites, and then uses the ad space to display curated art shows that change every two weeks. While the concept is obviously [...]
- Artist-Run Culture
Apologies for not writing sooner. My brain had been functioning on a sub-intellectual level as I searched for a job, but now that I’ve started working as a programming assistant for YYZ Artists Outlet in Toronto, not only can I resume thinking about art in a meaningful way, but I am gaining new insights into [...]
