Column

Daniella Sanader is a writer and reader who lives in Toronto. 

Writer

Participation

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Public art

Propoganda

This article discusses a number of exhibitions, projects and events including: the Asia Art Archive, Institution by Artists: The Convention, the CARTographyTO: Astral Media Intervention, nightcoregirl.net, “Materializing “Six Years”: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art”, “Call Ampersand Response” and “How to Use Fool’s Gold.”

Noteworthy: Participation 

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Federation of Canadian Artists 1

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Editorial

Over the past year, C has examined themes that have included Exhibition Practices, Memory, Men, and now, in this issue, Participation. However, our interest in these topics never ends once each respective issue has gone to press. For instance, in her short text in this issue, “Venus in Transit,” Corrine Fitzpatrick responds to the Men issue in describing the ongoing “rethinking and reframing” of masculinity: “A conclusion is a comma, not a full stop. A comma begets a new clause.” While Fitzpatrick refers here to masculinity, and more broadly to gender, she could also be describing our own evolving editorial strategy in relationship to thematic issues. In various ways, ideas from previous issues continue on or re-emerge, evolving in conversation with our contributors and readers.

In this issue, several feature essays look at art practices that model, enact or represent forms of social or political participation. In “The Vancouver Occupations of 1971,” Leah Modigliani looks at how Ken Lum, Stan Douglas and Mark Tribe take the history of the New Left and 60s and 70s radical subcultures as subject matter for their work, through installations such as Lum’s _from shangri-la to shangri-la_ (2010), Douglas’ _Abbott & Cordova_, 7 August, 1971 (2008), and Tribe’s _Port Huron Project_ (2006-2009). Contrasting the actual Vancouver Occupations of 1971 with their contemporary representation by artists, Modigliani employs Walter Benjamin’s idea of Left-Wing Melancholy to raise important questions about how these artworks engage viewers as political agents.

In “Communities and Antagonism: Looking for Art in All the Wrong Places,” Amy Fung surveys 12 years of socially engaged practice by the Toronto and Vancouver-based collective Instant Coffee, while also discussing works by similar organizations, such as Mammalian Diving Reflex. Since the 90s, Instant Coffee has staged events and created architectural environments that facilitate different forms of social participation and conviviality, but which often also perform a service function. For example, with _Light Bar_, a work they mounted in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, participants could combat seasonal affective disorder with full-spectrum lighting, enjoy light shows and watch projected lectures. In Fung’s essay, she interviews the current Vancouver members of Instant Coffee and proposes an alternative to the ideal, harmonious community of likeminded people through the idea of “uncommon-unity” where forms of social participation not only bring people together who didn’t have anything in common prior to their involvement in an art event, but which can also produce productive forms of antagonism.

In her essay “Push and Pull: How to Make a ‘Happening Classroom,’” Vesna Krstich writes about projects where artists – including Allan Kaprow, Grzegorz Kowalski, Pawel Althamer and Artur Zmijewski, among others – have attempted to fuse ideas and methods from Fluxus and performance art with pedagogical practice. Through the use of instructional scores and by applying formal structures to social relations, they have created participatory events that can sometimes invert existing social hierarchies and enact forms of play and poetic gesture within traditional school curricula. Tracing the history of the use of performance instructions and conceptual art in classroom environments since the early 60s, Krstich presents an expanded discussion of these practices as part of experiential and collaborative learning.

This issue also revisits the theme of Memory — the focus of C113 — with Rachel Anne Farquharson’s essay, “The Present as Enduring Past: Recollecting Through the Works of Kerry Tribe, Petrina Ng and Lindsay Seers.” Here, she looks at recent works by these artists in terms of how they help us to understand how contemporary media, such as film, reflects the structure and experience of human memory. Dealing with both “real” memories that are grounded in life experience, and fictional memories that are produced through images and popular culture, Farquharson explores how our sense of the present is structured by our own past and the stories of others, literally becoming present through forms of cognitive association.

Similarly, in the aforementioned essay “Venus in Transit,” Corrine Fitzpatrick expands upon ideas that appeared in the most recent issue. She writes: “Masculinity is a muscle that our culture can’t relax. Its sinews are grammatical, sartorial, religious, popular. Acts of resistance too often replenish the strength of the dominant force.” For me, reflecting on the Men issue, it is difficult to know whether this particular issue of C Magazine has had the inadvertent effect of further entrenching the unequal power relations that pervade our culture and language or if it ever so modestly made a contribution to their undoing. In her essay, Fitzpatrick also describes MPA and Amapola Prada’s collaborative performance last November at Leo Koenig Inc. in New York City, as part of MPA’s highly acclaimed exhibition Directing _Light Onto the Fist of Father_. In the performance, titled Revolution. Two Marks in Rotation, the artists used steel scaffolding poles to break glass, smash holes in the walls, and engage the audience in a struggle for control over the gallery space. This piece invoked what Fitzpatrick describes as a “collective physical refusal” manifest in the audience’s reaction, as fearful and enraged audience members pushed back against the performers. Experienced by its viewers as a deeply affecting meditation on the dynamics of power and resistance, passivity and the shifting nature of power itself, documentation of this performance appears in the centrefold and inside back cover of this issue.

Over the next year, as C Magazine approaches its 30th anniversary — the first issue of C Magazine having been published in the winter of 1983/84 — we will be delving into past issues of the magazine and exploring ways of making both new and archival content available through our website. Returning to the theme of Participation, we’re interested in how the print edition of C and its online version might intersect in ways that enable greater dialogue between the magazine and its readers, and how these two forms might evolve together.

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

Editor

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Memory

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including an essay by Corrine Fitzpatrick, the theory of memory and the art exhibition “Communities and Antagonism: Looking for Art in All the Wrong Places”

Editorial: Participation

Feature

Vesna Krstich is Toronto-based critic, curator and educator.

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Performance

Education

The article reflects on the historical performance piece “Hans Hofmann and His Students,” which took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from 1963-1965\. Particular focus is given to how this performance art tradition was carried out by the Polish artist Grzegorz Kowalski and his students. The educational experiment called “Project Other Ways” is also discussed.

Push and Pull: How to Make a "Happening" Classroom.

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Canadian

Environment

Politics

Nature

In this article, the author reflects on the Maplewood Mudflats squatter's colony in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Particular focus is given to the burning of the artists' colony in December 1971\. Several of the artists that resided there profiled including Tom Burrows and Malcolm Lowry. The 2010 installation “from shangri-la to shangri-la,” by Ken Lum, which focused on the 1971 events is also noted.

The Vancouver Occupations of 1971

Amy Fung is a writer and organizer of multifarious exhibitions and events. She is Toronto-based, not raised. 

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Social

Relational art

History

In this article, the author reflects on art in the early twenty-century. Particular focus is given to her criticisms of community art programs and of art that is solely reflective of artists' own lives and experiences. Several art practices of the twenty-first century are also profiled including participation, institutional critique and meta-art. The installation “Instant Coffee Light Bar,” which took place in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2011 is also examined.

Communities and Antagonism: Looking for Art in All the Wrong Places

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Feminism

In this article, the author reflects on various aspects of masculinity in the art world in the twenty-first century. Particular focus is given to how re-thinking and re-framing traditional ideas of masculinity are imperative to feminist and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) responses to dominant culture. The fall 2011 exhibition “Directing Light into Fist of Father,” by the artist MPA is also noted.</

Venus in Transit.

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Identity

In this article, the author examines the work of the artists Kerry Tribe, Petrina Ng and Lindsay Seers. Particular focus is given to how each of these artists deal with memory in their work. Several of the artists' media are also explored including film and video, photo-documentary and installation artworks.

The Present as Enduring Past: Recollecting Through the Works of Kerry Tribe, Petrina Ng and Lindsay Seers.

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Curatorial practice

Museums

The article provides brief information on the symposium “Manufacturing Exhibitions 2,” which was held at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Montréal, Quebec, from March 30-31, 2012\. Several speakers were featured including the curator Dieter Roelstraete, the curator John Zeppetelli and the museum director Champagne-Ardenne.

Manufacturing Exhibitions 2

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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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Exhibitions

Documentation of the performance artwork “Revolution. Two Marks in Rotation,” a collaboration between the Peruvian artist Amapola Prada and the New York City-based artist MPA. Performed at MPA‘s exhibition “Directing Light onto Fist of Father, held at the Leo Koenig Inc. gallery from September through November 2011.

Revolution. Two Marks in Rotation.

Review

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Installation

Artist-run centres

Artists Books

The article reviews the art exhibition “ARTFORUMX,” which featured works on paper and artists' books by the contemporary artist Michael Maranda,” to be held at the Art Metropole gallery in Toronto, Ontario, from January 13th through February 10, 2012.

Michael Maranda: ART FORUM X.

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Photography

The article reviews the art exhibition “Nature, Knowledge and the Knower,” which featured photographs, objects and archival material by the artist Mohammad Salemy, to be held at the Satellite Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, from October 2011 through January 2012.

Nature, Knowledge and the Knower

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Pop culture

Portrait

The article reviews an art exhibition that features the work of the American photographer Cindy Sherman, held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, from February 26th through June 11, 2012.

Cindy Sherman

Shannon Anderson is an independent writer, curator and editor based in Oakville, Ontario.

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The article reviews the contemporary art exhibition “The Ungovernables,” which featured work by various artists including Hu Xiaoyuan, Eungie Joo and Minam Apang, to be held at the New Museum in New York City, from February 15th through April 22, 2012.

The Ungovernables

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The article reviews the contemporary art exhibition “Steady Water,” which featured a modernist project by the Edinburgh, Scotland-based artist Rory Middleton, which was held at the Fogo Island Arts Corporation in Fogo Island, Newfoundland in February 2012.

Rory Middleton: Steady Water

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Painting

The article reviews the art exhibition “Missing,” which featured paintings by the artist Emily Falencki, held at the Port Loggia Gallery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from February 8th through 26th, 2012.

Emily Falencki: Missing

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Publishing

Multiples

The article reviews the art exhibition “In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists since 1955,” which featured work by artists including Les Levine, Anna Banana and Eleanor Antin, to be held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, England, from January 25th through March 25, 2012

In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists since 1955

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Myth

The article reviews the contemporary art exhibition “The Mute Book,” which featured autobiographical self-portraiture by the artist Janieta Eyre, to be held at the Galerie Samuel Lallouz in Montreal, Quebec, from February 23rd through March 31, 2012

Janieta Eyre: The Mute Book

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Found

Language

Spirituality

The article reviews the contemporary art exhibition “Crow's Nest,” which featured mixed media works by the artist Sean MacAlister, held at the Haight Gallery in Calgary, Alberta, from March 23rd through April 21, 2012.

Sean MacAlister: Crow's Nest

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Work

Youth

The article reviews the art exhibition “Jeremy Deller: Joy in People,” held at the Hayward Gallery in London, England, from February 22ng through May 13, 2012.

Jeremy Deller: Joy in People.

Lisa Myers is an independent curator and artist who works as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She is a member of Beausoleil First Nation.

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Indigenous

Cultural Studies

The article reviews the art exhibition “Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture,” which featured works by artists including Nicholas Galanin, Duane Linklater and Geronimo Inutiq, held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, from February 25th through June 3, 2012.

Beat Nation: Art, Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture.

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Minimalism

The article reviews the art exhibition “Minimalism in Germany: The Sixties II,” which featured works by artists including Charlotte Posenenske, Franz Erhard Walther and Peter Roehr, held at the Daimler Contemporary in Berlin, Germany, from March 31st through September 9, 2012.

Minimalism in Germany: The Sixties II

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Economy

A review of the book “Living As Form: Socially Engaged Art From 1991-2011,” edited by Nato Thompson is presented.

Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011, edited by Nato Thompson

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This article reviews the book “the buddhist,” by Dodie Bellamy, which was published in 2011 by Publication Studio.

the buddhist, by Dodie Bellamy

Header

C Mag

Issue 115