Column

Writer

Sport

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Artists Books

Multiples

The article features several books, including “Two Boiler Suits and a Playlist: A Primitive Guide,” by Bill Burns, “Militant Modernism,” by Owen Hatherley and “Towards a Theory of Impressionist and Expressionist Spectatorship,” by Luis Jacob.

Noteworthy: Sports

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Editorial

This issue of _C Magazine_ introduces a discussion about some of the ways that artists take up sports in their work. Two feature essays address this topic explicitly: Elizabeth Matheson’s “The Beautiful Game: Art and Sport in the Work of Humberto Vélez,” which looks specifically at Vélez’s work with amateur boxers and body builders in Europe and in Latin America, and Ray Cronin’s “Graeme Patterson: The Grappler,” about Patterson’s engagement with Canadian popular culture and memory through his elaborate installations focused on hockey and wrestling. Both Vélez and Patterson challenge the separation between high art and popular culture by involving participants and viewers not often considered as making art or being interested in contemporary art. In particular, Vélez’s 2007 piece _The Fight_ involved musicians, dancers, and amateur boxers competing in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London, while Patterson’s 2006 piece _The Hockey Rink_ re-stages the hockey rink from his childhood hometown of Woodrow, Saskatchewan, along with many of the town’s (now largely abandoned) buildings. Both artists examine the relationship between sport, memory and identity—with Patterson taking up of the tropes of Canadian cultural memory and Vélez examining the body and its relation to physical and aesthetic ideals (looking es-pecially at how the body engages codes of collective identity). This issue also includes an artist project by Patrick Krzyzanowski, whose fastidious water-colours of wrestlers and baseball players express how professional sport is so readily turned into a spectacle of masculine excess.

When adopting sport as a theme, it is possible to engage many of the critical ideas about art and performance that address how gestures code the body’s relationship to larger structures of society, like nation, race and gender. With the 2010 Winter Olympics taking place in Vancouver as I write this editorial, the connections between sport and both national and corporate identity require critical analysis. Though the Olympics may encourage viewership and consumption over participation, the event still creates permanent infrastructures for citizens to become increasingly involved in sport. However, it’s also important to encourage forms of critical re-invention and a critical discourse around sport, which is where artists and critics stand to play an important role.

Also in this issue, we’re extending the C104 discussion about contemporary feminist practices. As such, we’ve included a piece by Kaitlin Till-Landry, a Toronto-based artist and curator who interviewed Martha Wilson the performance artist and founder of Franklin Furnace. Wilson’s early works were done when she was living in Halifax during the 1970s. She discusses these pieces in relation to the conceptual practices that were beginning to take shape in Halifax at that time, and describes important precursors to contemporary feminist art. Deborah Root’s article on Mexican artist Lorena Wolffer introduces a different set of concerns complementary to those addressed in our last issue. Wolffer’s performances deal with the day-to-day violence that affects many women in Mexico, particularly the murders of hundreds of women living in the regions that border the United States, where many poor women come to work in foreign-owned factories. Addressing how global economic disparities enforce violence against women, in particular women of colour from among the economic underclass, Root argues for the continued urgency of art that examines these issues.

Related to these two articles, as part of _CSchool\_—a new initiative that extends the work of C The Visual Arts Foundation (which publishes \_C Magazine_)—we held a panel discussion at Toronto’s Drake Hotel in February. The panel included _C Magazine_ writers Jen Hutton, Gabby Moser, Helena Reckitt and Stephanie Rogerson, as well as Toronto-based filmmaker Elle Flanders. What had been imagined as a very casual conversation became a much larger discussion among members of the Toronto art community, academics, and activists from across different generations. _CSchool_ aims to further extend this conversation with a programme that makes magazines available to students in studio, art history and cultural criticism.

This spring, I look forward to visiting art fairs and conferences in New York, Vancouver, Chicago, and St. John’s, Newfoundland, to promote this magazine and its writers, and to meet artists and critics in these cities. We continue to expand C’s coverage of contemporary art practices occurring outside major urban centres and we also continue to encourage emerging critics. Each issue includes reviews from a diverse range of places, a practice dependent on writers engaged with interesting new practices and lesser-known art scenes. And we also have an emerging critics competition, where the winning writer’s work is published in our fall issue. If you’re an emerging critic, consider this a personal invitation to contribute. We look forward to continuing and expanding the conversation.

Amish Morrell is Assistant Professor at OCAD University, where he teaches Criticism & Curatorial Practice, and Visual and Critical Studies.

Editor

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Pop culture

Sports

Criticism

Feminism

The article discusses various reports published within the issue that all revolve around the theme of sport, including one by Elizabeth Matheson on the works of Humberto Vélez, one by Ray Cronin on the engagement of Graeme Patterson in hockey and wrestling and one by Deborah Root on the works of Lorena Wolffer regarding the violence against women.

Editorial: Critical Participation

Feature

Deborah Root writes on cultural politics and the arts.

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Performance art

International

Women

The article focuses on Lorena Wolffer, a performance artist in Mexico. It states that the artistic performances of Wolffer focus on the use of her body as the art medium which emphasizes the existence of violence against women. It highlights the works of Wolffer which stress the global discrimination in the workplace on race, ethnicity and gender particularly among women. It mentions several projects of Wolffer including “La ropa sucia se lava en casa,” “Mientras dormiamos (el caso Juárez)” and “Zona de tolerancia.” It also presents the photographs of Wolffer in her artistic works.

The Body Engraved: Performances and Interventions of Lorena Wolffer

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Canadian

Installation

The article focuses on Graeme Patterson, an installation artist in Canada. It states that the emphasis of the art installations of Patterson is the integration of art and culture which focuses on sports particularly hockey and wrestling. It describes several art installations created by Patterson including “Woodrow,” “Hockey Organ” and “10 Point Game.” It emphasizes the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) where the art installations were exhibited. It presents several photographs of the art installations including “The Hockey Rink,” “10 Point Game” and “Grudge Match.”

Graeme Patterson: The Grappler

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The article profiles the artistic works of Humberto Vélez in Europe. It states that the performance arts of Vélez focus on the expression of the aesthetics of athleticism which emphasizes the integration of art and sports, particularly bodybuilding and boxing. It highlights the “The Fight,” latest project of Vélez presented at the Tate Modern in London, England, which stresses the relationship between musicians, boxers and dancers. It presents photographs of Vélez in several of his art performances including “La Banda de Mi Hogar,” “Dreambody” and “The Fight.”

The Beautiful Game: Art and Sport in the Work of Humberto Vélez

Interview

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Politics

Work

Conceptual

An interview with Tenching Hsieh, a Taiwanese artist, is presented. When asked about the artistic works for the project titled “Personal Structures: Time Space Existence,” he responded that the focus of the work is more on time rather than space. He mentions the book “Out of Now” wherein he reflects his experience as an illegal immigrant in the U.S. He emphasizes the essence of time in his works wherein he believes that one year is the unit for the calculation of human life.

Art/Life: A Conversation with Tehching Hsieh

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An interview with Martha Wilson, a Canadian performance artist, is presented. When asked about the artworks in video and photograph format as the art medium, she refers to the book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,” by Erving Goffman which focuses on one's sense of performance. She emphasizes the integration of feminism and surveillance in creating performance art. She expresses the issues concerning nudity and safety in the creation of the “Cauterization” video.

Katlin Till-Landry Interviews Martha Wilson

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Chris Lee is a graphic designer and educator based in Buffalo, New York and Toronto. His research explores graphic design’s entanglement with power, standards and legitimacy. Chris is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo SUNY.

Designer

Publisher

Artist Project

Artist

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Painting

This artist project features a painting by Patrick Krzyzanowski. The painting is part of a series that looks as professional sports as mass spectacle.

Baseball Pile #2 and Wrestling Ring

Review

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Collecting

The article reviews the exhibition “And Other Essays” at the Bard College Center for Cultural Studies in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

And Other Essays: Nayland Blake, Tom Burr, Harry Dodge, Alix Lambert, Allen Ruppersberg and Andrea Zittel

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Money

The article reviews the exhibition “Ideally,” in Bern, Switzerland.

Annie Wu and Antoni Wojtyra: Ideally

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Video

The article reviews the exhibition “Glenn Ligon: Death of Tom and Untitled (Minnesota Massacre)” at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary, Alberta.

Glenn Ligon: Death of Tom and Untitled (Minnesota Massacre)

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Photography

The article reviews the exhibition “War at a Distance” at the Gallery TPW in Toronto, Ontario, featuring works by Stephen Andres, Richard Johnson, Allyson Mitchell, Andrew Moodie, Greg Nelson, Suzanne Opton, Louie Palu, Adam Pettle, Jason Sherman, Francesco Simeti, and Graeme Smith.

War at a Distance

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Architecture

Built environment

The article reviews the exhibition “Every Building, or Site, that a Building Permit has been Issued for a Building in Toronto in 2006″ at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art in Toronto, Ontario.

Daniel Young and Christian Giroux: Every Building, or Site, That a Building Permit Has Been Issued for a New Building in Toronto in 2006

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Sculpture

The article reviews Kelly Mark’s exhibition “It's Just One God Damn Thing After Another” at Diaz Contemporary in Toronto, Ontario.

Kelly Mark: It's Just One God Damn Thing After Another

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Myth

The article reviews the exhibition “Dark Souls” at the Musée d'art contemporain in Montreal, Quebec.

Tricia Middleton: Dark Souls

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Social

The article reviews the exhibition “Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan” at Asia Society in New York on September 10, 2009.

Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan

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The article reviews Tim Barber’s exhibition “Tout va Bien” at LES Gallery in Vancouver.

Tim Barber: Tout va Bien

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The article reviews the exhibitions “All Things Considered,” by Steve Higgins and “Department of Systems Oversight,” by Sara Graham at the Dalhousie University Art Gallery in Halifax

Steve Higgins: All Things Considered, and Sara Graham: Department of Systems Oversight 

Jesse McKee is a curator and writer in Vancouver, where he works as Head of Strategy at 221A. Previously he was the Curator of Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery and a curatorial resident with tranzit, Romania and Things that can happen, Hong Kong. 

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The article reviews the exhibition “Le son du projecteur” at the Optica in Montreal, Quebec in 2009.

Sophie Bélair Clément

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Economy

Religion

The article reviews the book “Idols of the Market: Modern Iconoclasm and the Fundamentalist Spectacle,” by Sven Lütticken.

Idols of the Market: Modern Iconoclasm and the Fundamentalist Spectacle by Sven Lütticken

David Senior is Senior Bibliographer at the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York.

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The article reviews the book “In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1995,” edited by Andrew Roth and Philip Aarons.

In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955, edited by Andrew Roth and Philip Aarons

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C Mag

Issue 105