Universe of Art

What actually constitutes art?  Is tattooing art – even if it is historically associated with crime?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about graffiti and its place in modern society – The Writing on the Wall, which relates to this blog.

In Japan, tattoos are still associated with mafia and the violent crimes they commit.  The yakuza, a Japanese crime syndicate and one of the world’s most pervasive mafias, are famous for their spectacular full-body tattoos – horimono. 

 

These full-body tattoos are a reflection of those living on the margins of society.  The yakuza are not, however,  a secret society but an accepted part of the Japanese political and business scene.  The yakuza are an invocation, of sorts, to the samurai legacy.

To be tattooed is a sign of group solidarity and of physical courage, and declaration of having chosen the dark side.  Each…

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Lakeshore Arts, an Etobicoke arts council, has launched its website
www.1000acts-of-art.ca to foster community support for the arts.  Their mission is to engage, educate, entertainment and inspire.

lakeshore arts
2422 lakeshore blvd. w.
toronto, on m8v 1c4
phone: 416 201-7093
fax: 416 201-7379

Beginnings can be difficult and ideas grand.  For now, local South Etobicoke residents can view the arts directory and peruse the calendar of events, but the site is not yet truly interactive.  Not much to see in cyberspace.  But this site will point the way for those not wishing to leave South Etobicoke to experience art in the ‘meatspace.’

Thomas Hirsz is a local Etobicoke resident:

Godspeed,

Second Life as you may know has been around since 2003.  The buzz about its art community has been around for many years and I thought I’d check out the virtual world for myself.  I signed up – my SL name is Kara Cobalt – and explored the first gallery I encountered: Chromutate.  It’s brand new and definitely worth exploring.

This psychedelic installation moves and reacts as you interact with it.  Platforms will rise and fall, objects will drop from sky, things will spin, and your avatar will dance!

Wow.  So this may be the opening to the doors of perception.  This artist renders what is impossible to convey in real life (RL). Second Life (SL) enables you to fly, teleport and even walk on water.   This world is pure fantasy and the artist’s “perception is not limited to what is biologically or socially usefull.” (Huxley)  Escapism – I got lost in Chromutate for 45 minutes without realizing it.

This is a world where everything moves, light beams, sculptures dance and colours swirl.  I found myself walking in a rainbow river and upon emerging from the river I found a dance ball that gave my avatar the ability to do ballet.  I was twirling in a gazebo, laughing, crying and blowing kisses.

Then I stumbled upon the biggest drive-in theatre you’ve ever seen.  I mean multiple screens clad with sexy women – some recognizable movie stars.  I touched one of the screens that was YouTube operated and a movie started playing with big surround sound.

It was now night time, I suppose so the movie screens shone brighter, but I was feeling strange in the dark all alone; so I flew out of there and into a building.  Yes, I said fly – it was glorious.  When I landed on the building I climbed some stairs, found a piano and started playing!  Alone in the dark so it was time to find another art spot.  Teleport home…

Click here for a listing of art galleries in SL. 

Godspeed,

COME UP TO MY ROOM at the Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Room 204 – Julia Hepburn

“Art is not ordinary perception…but insight in the very nature of things.” Aldous Huxley

by Julia Hepburn

This very notion resonates in the room created by Julia Hepburn. She created the dream room where private wishes and instinctive urges are captured above the bed of the dreaming subject. Information about the personality of the dreamer is presented for all to view; however, “viewers are encouraged to use their imaginations in order to develop a narrative explaining the scene,” says Hepburn.  The room was created to lure the voyeurs of the most intimate kind. 

 Room 207 – Bed Memory

Richard Unterthiner, Paolo Ferrari

John and Yoko did it publicly, but all of us desire the comfort of a bed and the memories it brings and leaves.

The duo describes their work as “a kind of spatial choreography through which one or more visitors engage with the bed.”  True enough as I lay down with two other people to better read the bed memories on the ceiling – after having made my way through a precariously narrow, mirrored chasm.  The memories are those solicited by the artists within their cyber community – true collaborative art.

sweet dreams…she had a great ass…i need a new job…
only my bed could tell you

 

Godspeed,

 COME UP TO MY ROOM – Jan 21 – 24, 2010 at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

COME UP TO MY ROOM (CUTMR) is the Gladstone’s annual alternative design show that incorporates the myriad creators of design: architects, sculptors, writers, textile artists, print makers, new media artists and all those with a desire to create an intellectual playground.

The Curatorial Collective of the 2010 show used design as a means to converse, connect and collaborate – through its own phenomenology.  The show seemed more universal this year with a dream theme weaved throughout.  However, I concentrate below on Room 214 – Recent Departures by Work/Party Collective: chris braden, mike dudek, paul kawai, liam johnstone, ayla newhouse and emma wright.

Departures need not be sad, for they are simply the beginning of an arrival.

Work/Party is self-described as a loose collective, occasionally pulled together when the stars are perfectly aligned. Over the last few years they have stumbled, crawled and leapt out of art and design school.

The engineers of the future will be poets.

Departures explores the remains of a lost community.  Their journey from Earth in search of G-581 ended when their ship exploded.  All that was left were their belongings, strewn about the Pacific.”

The tragedy began long before the computer and the cell phone.

Recent Departures is a collection of artefacts from the Project G-581 disaster. The objects on display are pieces to a puzzle:

…strange customs of the human race, the new american etiquette, fired up ipod, 1960s playboy,
    defunct passports, apple screen (intact), bottle of scotch…

Photo by Andrea Carson

The belongings left behind are glimpses into their lives but do they provide answers?  According to the artists, “The ride does not require explanation, just occupants.”

This installation addresses a modern problem – one whose answer still lies in the future.

Godspeed,

Audio, visual and tactile experiences are created by Heather Nicol – a Toronto based artist and independent curator. 

 Heather’s art beckons to be touched, but this is taboo, don’t touch the art !  Her art contains a crazy amount of texture: from fuzzy spheres, to faux fur, to corrugated cloth, to 3D framed collages.  Not to mention her ceiling lights that provide the perfect dim ambience.  When you view Heather’s art, it’s like falling down the rabbit hole.   It’s trippy like Alice in Wonderland.  

Her art embodies all things feminine – the contours, the foliage, the seduction:

“Can you hear me? Come a little closer,” a soft voice beckons from the bathroom.

Audio Experience click here

Furniture with a voice  is a collaborative creation by Pietro Gagliano and Peter Wehrspann.   Pietro is a graphic designer who specializes in branding, interactive and motion design and Peter is a skilled designer, metal artist and woodworker.

They create furniture such as TV stands,  chairs and coffee tables that are adorned with consumer information graphically printed on the fabric and wood.  For example, North America consumes nearly 1/3 of electricity used in the world.  The design and graphics of the furniture are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and if one looks a little closer, it will educate the consumer as well.  “Information as Ornamentation” is a concept that will surely get people talking, listening and changing the way they interact.

Peter Wehrspann further explains the concept: “In an attempt to create a conversation about consumption we wanted to give our furniture a voice.  By fulfilling the first two primary functions of furniture–that of aesthetics and functionality–successfully, we can offer a third function i.e. substance. Thus we add a message to the medium of furniture.”

Godpseed,

Tutankhamun – The Forgotten King

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto – on now through to April 18, 2010

How interesting that we are able to experience the life and history of Tutankhamun because history erased him from existence.  King Tut was associated with the rulers of the revolutionary religion of Aten who were essentially forgotten, their names excised from the official lists of Pharaohs.  For the Egyptians, Tut did not exist.   For this very reason, his tomb remained intact – one does not seek what one does not know.

Aten was the sun disk and became the deity of the monotheistic religion of Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten (“horizon of the sun”).  Aten, under the rule of Akhenaten (1352-1336 BC), became the god of gods subsuming 100s of deities – male, female, animal and human/animal – into essentially one god.  Except for Osiris, he remained the sole ruler of the underworld.

Tutankhaten became King shortly after Akhenaten’s death in 1336 BC. During the second year of his reign he changed his name to Tutankhamun – signalling the end of the supremacy of Aten.

Funerary Figure of Tutankhamun

Tut remained buried in the Valley of the Kings for 3000 years until his tomb was discovered in 1922 by British Archaeologist, Howard Carter.  His first words upon laying his eyes inside the tomb:

“Strange animals, statues and gold…”

To his astonishment he discovered a wall of solid gold. Gold is a prized material because Egyptians believed that it comprised the skin of their gods.  King Tut was found adorned in gold from head to toe.  His fingers and toes were encased in gold, he wore gold slippers and a gold cobra collar encircled his neck. (All these items are on display at the exhibit.) The Pharaohs believed they too would become gods in the afterlife if they were adorned in gold like that of their gods. 

I recommend the King Tut Exhibit in Toronto despite its sensationalistic beginning – I felt like I was waiting to enter a Disney attraction while being held in an antechamber listening to Harrison Ford’s Hollywood introduction.

It has quite the colossal ending too. The statue at the end of the exhibit is of mammoth proportions.  Of course the journey between the beginning and the end is awe-inspiring.  There are many items from his tomb: from royal chairs, beds and golden jewellery to the jackal-headed Duamutef.

If you can’t wait, click on the link below to see a tour of the actual tomb.

Godspeed,

Thompson Landry Gallery

Distillery District, Toronto
55 Mill Street Building #5

Upon walking into the Thompson Landry Gallery one feels the warmth, energy and colour circulating throughout the space. This first impression is a feeling of being in a familiar, yet distant place as the architecture belongs to another century. It is housed in the oldest building in the Distillery District, built in the 1830s. Cast iron beams, distilling tanks and the rough stone walls all remain as they did centuries ago. Large scale paintings are carefully selected for the varying backdrops. Certain pieces are chosen to reflect the raw stone, the wood or the modern walls – all making for an eclectic, yet harmonious look and feel. Joanne Thompson and Sylvain Landry opened their gallery in March 2006 with a unique mandate – all Quebec, all the time.

They are seasoned collectors who have purchased Quebec art for more than ten years. They wanted to bring these Quebec artists that they already knew and loved to a wider market. They spent a lot of time planning to ensure they knew what they were doing, including picking the right place. The place couldn’t be more perfect as The Distillery District was created with a vision of bringing a new and passionate arts community to Toronto.

They continously keep their eyes on the new, upcoming artists in order to keep their roster strong. And will always endeavour to have new events for people to see and get excited about. Their continued success also rests on, as Joanne says, “Being fair in business: being straightforward, open and honest with their clients and artists.”

Click here to see a 360° panorama view of the gallery

Godspeed,

Come Up To My Room

COME UP TO MY ROOM – Jan 21 – 24, 2010 at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Breaking Rules and Rollicking Raw Ideas

The Gladstone Hotel’s annual alternative design event comes to Toronto between  January 21-24, 2010.  Come Up To My Room has been running for 7 years and the show never presents itself the same way twice.   Designers and artists considered the “outsiders” of traditional design transform  rooms with concepts that will make you change the way you see, touch and hear design.  This is truly a lasting sensory experience – one that titillates and educates.

This year CUTMR has officially joined forces with TIDF (Toronto International Design Festival) which is the new festival celebrating local and international design. 

Some samples of years past:

The Brothers Dressler, who are primarily furniture designers, created a limited series of objects that paid tribute to the extinct artistry of the cobbler. The children of these ‘cobblers’ may not have shoes as they’re too busy combining natural and industrial worlds to create harmony and balance.

The seasoned designer Jacques Bilodeau graced the second floor of the Gladstone in 2008. Jacques transformed space with transformable art.  Mirrored floors reflected a black, mammoth hanging art piece made of carwash brushes and fibre optics and next to it sat a malleable structure that functions as art or can be formed into a seating area.  The purchased art is left to the caprice of the new owner.

Hope to see you there!

Godspeed,

What actually constitutes art?  Is tattooing art – even if it is historically associated with crime?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about graffiti and its place in modern society – The Writing on the Wall, which relates to this blog.

In Japan, tattoos are still associated with mafia and the violent crimes they commit.  The yakuza, a Japanese crime syndicate and one of the world’s most pervasive mafias, are famous for their spectacular full-body tattoos – horimono. 

 

These full-body tattoos are a reflection of those living on the margins of society.  The yakuza are not, however,  a secret society but an accepted part of the Japanese political and business scene.  The yakuza are an invocation, of sorts, to the samurai legacy.

To be tattooed is a sign of group solidarity and of physical courage, and declaration of having chosen the dark side.  Each tattoo is individually designed; the motifs include references to the person’s gang and represent hundreds of hours of work.

It is not uncommon for public onsen (Japanese baths) and some hotels to hang signs ‘No Tattoos’, which tends to baffle tourists.  Many of the older generation still associate tattoos with the mafia, specifically the yakuza, which may be the reason you don’t see too many people showing them off in public places.

However, tattoos have become mainstream in Japan as well as around the world. The cultural status of tattooing has steadily evolved from that of an anti-social activity to that of a trendy fashion statement.

Below is a link to a video depicting yakuza tattoos.  What do you think?  Is it indeed a form of art?

Identifications, 1970

Co-presented by Pleasure Dome and Mercer Union

 Saturday, November 28, 8pm – CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.

Could Identifications really be the archetype to YouTube? 

This art project was dubbed a “TV project” by the German gallerist Gerry Schum, who envisioned television as a new exhibition platform distinct from the art market. Schum described it as follows:

“We no longer perceive the work of art as a painting or sculpture not connected with the artist. On television, the artist can reduce his work to an attitude, a simple gesture, referring to his concept. The work of art is conveyed as a unity of concept, visualization, and the artist who provides the idea.”

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  What a great concept – connect the art with the artist so the audience can see the unity between creator and the created.  I was stoked to see my first art film and off I went to CineCycle – the ‘movie house’ where the screening took place.  I had never been there before and when I reached my destination, I discovered it was in a dark alleyway off Spadina Ave, Toronto. 

“Ok, the art film scene is different,” I thought.  Cinecycle is a small coach house that pretty much looks like a garage inside.  I talked to the curators about the film and my anticipation grew with every moment.  As the movie began, I held my breath and thought, “this is gonna be good.”

It was slow – kinda like the viscosity of molasses on a cold day.  I kept thinking to myself, “wow Germans must be a very patient people.”  What was I not understanding?  Was it the fault of my North American culture – one that continuously streams visuals because we have absolutely no attention span?

A couple of examples from Schum’s TV project, so you get the idea:

Giovanni Anselmo – A block of cement with a leather flap projecting from it: Anselmo twists the leather around a stick and then puts the stick against a wall so that the leather stays taut.

 Reiner Ruthenbeck – A big pile of paper is to be seen on the right. Two hands take off one sheet after another, twist them up into a ball, and throw them on the floor, into the middle of the picture.

I will not let this one mishap of conceptual art keep me from delving further into this genre. I’m sure there is a plethora of art films that will not incite emotional dissonance.

Godspeed,

Joshua Neustein: Margins
Contemporary art unraveling the Dead Sea Scrolls

Until January 17, 2010

Now that the dust has settled upon the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the controversy is over, I had the pleasure to see the Margins Exhibit created by Joshua Neustein.  Funny how the time between the testaments is sometimes referred to as the ‘silent’ years (c. 433-5 B.C.); as they were anything but silent.  The Dead Sea Scrolls were written during this period and weren’t discovered until 1947 in a cave overlooking the Dead Sea.

Neustein’s project incorporates the words of poet Edmond Jabès whose works complement the scrolls by referencing lost words, silence, God and the Book.  The installation connects with the poetry from The Book of Resemblances and The Book of Margins.

The words appear on acrylic slates seemingly strewn and forgotten on the floor.  They are difficult to read as their metallic surface reflects the light of the chandelier that is half hidden in the wall.  Mona Filip, Curator, says Margins explores apparent and concealed ideas of the Dead Sea Scrolls, exposing them to the light of our times.

The scrolls and the artists represent the social forces that shaped the intertestamental period – a world of Diaspora.  Jews outside of the Holy Land used their Greek translation of the Old Testament as a focus of worship.  This theme is found in the words by Jabès:

To speak the language of others, but in the interrogative mode. “Always in a foreign country, the poet uses poetry as an interpreter.”

The recurring theme of the chandelier by Neustein plays a central role in Margins, establishing a luminous presence; although the lights are not fully functional.  Imperfections in the appearance of the words and the chandelier speak to us, but there’s a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in.¹

Godspeed,

¹ Leonard Cohen

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Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C6

Telephone: 416.586.8000

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games

What if you paint and sculpt your way into the Olympics?    Well, you could have between 1912 and 1948. 

Baron Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympics and incorporated art competitions as part of the games. It was de Coubertin’s dream to “create an environment in modern society where artists and athletes could again be mutually inspired,” Beatriz García writes in her essay entitled The Concept of Olympic cultural programmes.

It is a little known fact that the Olympic Games have always included competitions in the arts since their origin in ancient Olympia over two thousand years ago.  The first art competitor in Olympia was said to be Herodotus, the historical writer in 444 B.C.  If you’re curious to know more, you can read all about it in the book titled The Forgotten Olympic Art Competitions.

The art competitions within the Olympics were called the ‘Pentathlon of Muses’ and medals were awarded in the categories of sculpture, painting, music, literature and architecture.  Athletes could compete in both the sports and arts aspect of the competitions.  Alfréd Hajós of Hungary won two gold medals at the 1896 Athens Olympics as a swimmer and then, twenty-eight years later, he won a silver medal in architecture.

Although the competition of the arts in the modern Olympic games was short-lived, the marriage of art and sport would remain in the form of the Cultural Olympiad. 

The Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad runs January 22 until March 21, 2010 with art and cultural exhibits popping up all over the city’s urban landscape.

A glimpse of what to expect at this year’s Olympiad:

Bright Light   

Bright Light will feature a collection of 14 commissioned public art projects that will light up the Downtown Eastside and highlight the community’s cultural vitality.

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Visceral Bodies displays the work of 18 contemporary artists who investigate the human body. This exhibition will be presented alongside Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, a collection of 16th century drawings by the first major artist to study human anatomy.

 

 Gabriel de la Mora; Memoria I, 24.10.07           

 

 

 

 

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Tracing Night is a large maze-like installation that combines drawing, video and sound to recreate the phenomenon of night and darkness.

 Detail from Tracing Night, 2004, by Ed Pien

For a full listing of arts and culture at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games click below.

Reverse Graffiti – it’s not painting it’s cleaning. 

Paul Curtis, aka Moose, represents the dichotomy between dirty and clean.  Moose makes pictures by cleaning and calls himself the Professor of Dirt. 

He creates negative space – making something by taking something away. He cleans away the dirt within stencils and the contrast of clean to dirt speaks loudly.  He is starting small with his murals and says, “Once you get started you realize the whole world needs cleaning.”  He’s not an environmentalist per se, but when drawing in pollution, he definitely toes the environmental line.  And by doing so he’s giving nature a voice.

He works in dirty places like the Broadway tunnel in California, and at first appearance, it seems that he is a construction worker gone AWOL working in the middle of the night.  The tunnel is his canvas – a massive dirty canvas that is 140 feet long.  This project incorporates images of plants once indigenous to the area before man paved over them.

           g r i m e   w r i t i n g

                                                        d u s t  ta g g i n g

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Moose has been knee high in dirt for a decade now.  Although Moose is trying to make art and communicate a message – one that needs to be heard – he did get resistance from the British government who has tried to charge him with being in breach of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003.  This act includes penalties for graffiti and display of advertisements in contravention of regulations.  They have not been successful and as Moose says, “No one owns the dirt.”