Instead of
Part-catalog, part-magazine, part-annual report, many parts in one whole. Putting all of your eggs in one basket. banking on triggering tangential threads rather than focussing on a single tightly wound thematic. Instead of slim publications distilling a single exhibit, WOOD is adamantly maximalist. WOOD features sixty-four artists and writers from five exhibitions and two projects presented in chronological disorder. Artists from emerging to established, local to international, of varied disciplines, all participating generously in the various devised curatorial concoctions. It all starts with them and their art works. It continues with you as visitors to the exhibitions and readers of wood. Instead of closing the book, WOOD suggests you keep it open, lingering, splayed out for casual perusal as well as careful consideration. WOOD is two thousand and nine in a cracked nutshell. A year at the Blackwood Gallery committed to paper for farther reach. WOOD looks back towards the future. WOOD was. now WOOD is.
Table of Contents
INDEX p.006
INSTEAD OF (AN INTRODUCTION) p.008
Christof Migone
AWASHAWAVE p.010
2 Radio Solos
List of works
OPENING THE INSTALL (30 DAYS IN THE LIFE OF AN EXHIBITION) p.023
Christof Migone
WHAT COMES OUT IN THE WASH p.034
Alison Syme
FALL OUT p.038
Project descriptions
FALL IN p.054
For bodies near the surface of the earth
Project descriptions
ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION: ON LIFE, ENVIRONMENT AND MACHINE p.078
Shannon Hoff
DROP OUT p.088
Cry School Yearbook
F Papers
Project descriptions
ROCHDALE COLLEGE: FAILURE STUDIES IN TORONTO p.114
Sunny Kerr
THE SEVEN INCH FALL p.118
Alison S.M. Kobayashi
BEND p.122
Johnson Ngo
STIR p.126
THE PROJECTS: PORT CREDIT p.128
Project descriptions
NO STARS: A SHORT HISTORY OF INDUSTRY AND SMALL BUSINESS IN PORT CREDIT OVER SOME OF THE PAST CENTURY p.148
John Armstrong
THE WAY I ARE p.154
List of works
THE WAY I ARE p.167
Katie Bethune-Leamen
WORDAFTER p.172
Christof Migone
BIOGRAPHIES p.174
COLOPHON p.180
BOOKENDS: SKYLINE
Diane Borsato
Artists & Writers
Adams, Kim
Ader, Bas Jan
Anwar, Faisal
Armstrong, John
Bethune-Leamen, Katie
Blass, Valerie
Borsato, Diane
Brown, Trisha
Burnham, Anthony
Campbell, Jennifer
Castellanos, Ulysses
Cheung, Annie Onyi
Clément, Sophie Bélair
Collyer, Gillian
Cumming, Robyn
Farber, Zev
Fones, Robert
Food Jammers
Fortier, Louis
Goldsmith, Kenneth
Golland, Martin
Gove, Emily
Hirsch, Antonia
Hoff, Shannon
Hutton, Jen
Jazvac, Kelly
Jones, Simone
Kempinas, Zilvinas
Kerr, Sunny
Kierulf, Erika
Kim, Young-Sup
Kobayashi, Alison S.M.
Koroshegyi, Arnold
Krepakevich, Shane
Lahde, Kristiina
Landry, Diane
Lichty, Gareth
Litherland, Paul
Maly, Valerian
Massey, John
Mcintosh, Elizabeth
Migone, Christof
Ngo, Johnson
Nurse, Lauren
Pada, Lata
Park, Ryan
Partheniou, Roula
Pivato, Juliana
Planningtorock
Quadrasonic
Rechico, Sandra
Reid, Kerri
Richardson, Kelly
Romano, Tony
Sampradaya Dance Creations
Sasaki, Jon
Schwebel, Joshua
Sherman, Tom
Simmons, Don
Snow, Michæl
Suddick, Jennie
Syme, Alison
Thorpe, Josh
Wood, Kelly
How To Order
To order any of our publications, please send an email including title(s), number of copies, and your mailing address to: blackwood.gallery[at]utoronto.ca.
A 20% discount is available to students and members of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.
- Contributors
- Faisal Anwar
- Valerie Blass
- Anthony Burnham
- Robert Fones
- Martin Golland
- Jen Hutton
- Kelly Jazvac
- John Massey
- Elizabeth McIntosh
- Ryan Park
- Roula Partheniou
- Planningtorock
- Sandra Rechico
- Tony Romano
- Jon Sasaki
- Joshua Thorpe
- Kelly Wood
- John Armstrong
- Alison S. M. Kobayashi
- Johnson Ngo
- Katie Bethune-Leamen
Faisal Anwar is a digital media artist living in Toronto/Pakistan with diverse backgrounds in theatre, film, media, interactive art, and graphic design. He is the founder and director of an interactive art and design studio called DigitalDip and an inter-arts platform called NewKulture Art Space. Anwar’s art practice explores sociopolitical spaces, which intrigues the mind and emotion by multiple layers of participatory experiences. His projects often bring together art, culture and technology in an odd configuration to explore perceptions towards architectural space, surveillance and social interactivity in modern urban cultures. He has shown and performed nationally and internationally. Anwar is a 2004 graduate of the Canadian Film Centre's Habitat-LAB Interactive Arts and Entertainment Program and did his Bachelor in graphic design from the National College of Arts Pakistan in 1996. He is one of the pioneers of The Puppeteers theatre group in Pakistan and worked on many performances addressing social awareness in Pakistan. Faisal volunteered on the Programming Committee of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) (06 – 07) and taught courses in 'Interactive Design' at Centennial College, Toronto. Anwar has directed six short films and videos which were part of various festivals in Canada and abroad, such as Monitor 3 South Asian Film and Video presented by SAVAC Toronto, Pollution presented by INTERart, Romania, aluCine Toronto Latin Festival, shortsnonstop.com and at TPW Gallery Toronto. His new film, City Revenge, was screened at the Toronto Urban Film Festival.
Based in Montreal, Valérie Blass completed her BFA and MFA at l’Université du Québec à Montréal. She has had solo exhibitions at Montreal’s Parisian Laundry, Circa Gallery, Gallery B-312, and Gallery Dare-Dare, with upcoming exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and Bishop University’s Foreman Gallery, and was included in the inaugural Quebec Triennial at Montreal’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Anthony Burnham studied at Concordia University and currently lives and works in Montreal. Burnham’s solo exhibitions have included presentations at Montreal’s Darling Foundry and Clark Gallery. During the past years he has exhibited his work in groups shows in Québec, Spain, Austria, and France, and was included in the inaugural Quebec Triennial at Montreal’s Museum of Contemporary Art.
Born in London, ON, Robert Fones was part of the art scene there that would later prove to be integral to Canada’s conceptual art movement. Based in Toronto since the mid-70s, he exhibited at the renowned Carmen Lamanna Gallery, then the Sandra Simpson Gallery. Fones has exhibited extensively in Canada, the USA, and Germany, and has published several artist books with Coach House Books and Art Metropole.
Martin Golland received his MFA from the University of Guelph and his BFA from Concordia University. Born in France, he lived in Turkey, Puerto Rico, and Miami before moving to Ottawa. He now lives and works in Toronto. Golland has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Toronto’s Birch Libralato, the Felix Ringel Galerie in Dusseldorf, and the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph.
Based in Toronto, Jen Hutton completed her undergraduate degree in fine arts at the University of Guelph. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, most recently at Gallery Stratford in Stratford, ON, Truck Contemporary Art in Calgary, and the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
Based in Toronto, Kelly Jazvac received a BA from the University of Guelph and MFA from the University of Victoria. She has exhibited across Canada, the USA, and abroad, with solo shows at Toronto’s YYZ Artists’ Outlet and Diaz Contemporary. She recently completed a residency at the Banff Centre for the Visual Arts, and is currently completing the Canada Council International Residency Program in London, UK.
John Massey is a Toronto-based artist and received a degree in fine arts from the Ontario College of Art & Design. He has exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally, including shows in Germany, France, the USA, and Australia. Recent solo exhibitions have included presentations at the University of Toronto Art Centre, the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, and an upcoming exhibition at Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto.
Based in Vancouver, Elizabeth McIntosh received a BFA from York University and MFA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, UK. Recent solo exhibitions include Diaz Contemporary in Toronto, Parisian Laundry in Montreal, and Blanket Gallery in Vancouver. Recent group exhibitions include the Vancouver Art Gallery, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Perugi Artecontemporanea (IT), and Galleri Susanne Hojriis (DK). She is represented by Diaz Contemporary and Blanket Gallery.
Ryan Park’s interdisciplinary practice results in videos, photographs, and manipulations of found materials that suggest presences and absences, urges and constraints. Themes of time, distances, and the body expressed through the material of everyday life produce works that oscillate between serious and playful, clinical and poetic. His work has been exhibited across Canada, in the United States, and in Europe. He received an MFA from the University of Guelph and a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Park lives and works in Toronto.
Roula Partheniou’s practice explores the replica and how the remaking of a familiar object can shift our perception and perspective. Her projects take the form of sculptural installations that make use of material puns, context, colour cues, and various degrees of trompe l'oeil to deconstruct the familiar and trigger a reconsideration of common forms. Her work questions how we see and read objects and challenges the viewer to negotiate between the perceived and the actual. She has exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, with recent exhibitions at Oakville Galleries (Oakville); The Art Gallery of Peterborough (Peterborough); Owens Art Gallery (Sackville, NB); Blackwood Gallery (Mississauga); The Power Plant (Toronto); Museum of Bat Yam (Bat Yam, Israel); Plug In ICA (Winnipeg) and MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA). Forthcoming exhibitions include Tanya Bonakdar (New York); Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran (Montreal); UWAG (Waterloo); MKG127 (Toronto) and The Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina). She is represented by MKG127 in Toronto.
Janine Rostron is a videographer and musician best known by her artist name, Planningtorock. Rostron studied music, videography and visual arts before moving from England to Berlin, where she is now based. Rostron directs the videos that accompany the music she composes, and runs her record label, Rostron Records. She has made several releases as Planningtorock, and has performed live shows worldwide under that moniker; her videos have been extensively screened and exhibited internationally.
Sandra Rechico’s studio practice in drawing and installation is currently focused on maps, routing, wayfaring, and navigation. She has taught at the Ontario College of Art, The University of Toronto, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Guelph. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and is held in many public and private collections. Sandra Rechico has exhibited across Canada, in Europe, and Australia. She has also worked in collaboration with Gwen MacGregor over the past four years. They exhibited Backtrack at the A trans Pavilion in Berlin this past summer and will be part of Placemarkers at Dalhousie Gallery in Halifax in 2012.
Based in Toronto, Tony Romano received his BFA from Vancouver’s Emily Carr College of Art and Design. He has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally with recent group shows at Vancouver’s Charles H. Scott Gallery, Trianon Gallery in Alberta, Tokyo’s Remo Gallery, and the Kulturhuset in Sweden, and recent solo shows at Articule Gallery in Montreal and Toronto’s Diaz Contemporary.
Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist Jon Sasaki's work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions in galleries, including the Ottawa Art Gallery (Ottawa); the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (Lethbridge, AB); and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Recent group exhibitions include Platform Art Spaces (Melbourne); Nihonbashi Institute of Contemporary Art (Tokyo); and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto). In fall of 2014, he completed an outdoor public installation at Sheridan College (Oakville, ON) as part of their Temporary Contemporary commissioning program. He is the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Prize (Dufftown, Scotland) and will participate in the Canadian Residency (Detroit) in the fall of 2015. Sasaki holds a BFA from Mount Allison University (Sackville, NB). He is represented by Jessica Bradley Gallery in Toronto
Joshua Thorpe is an artist and writer living in Toronto. He has a Master’s in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto, and he teaches and consults on writing and rhetoric, in both academic and private contexts. He is the author of Dan Graham Pavilions: A Guide (Art Metropole), as well as several other published works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Recent and/or upcoming exhibitions of Thorpe’s paintings, drawings, prints, and installations include group and solo shows at Diaz Contemporary (Toronto); CSA Space (Vancouver); 3A Gallery (New York); Museo Napoleonico (Rome); and Open City (Lublin, Poland).
Kelly Wood is a photographer and practicing artist whose research focuses on subjects that relate to the environmental impact of waste accumulation, waste economies, and all forms of visible and invisible pollution. Originally from Vancouver, Wood is now an Associate Professor at Western University, London, ON. Wood is also a member of the research collectives The Toronto Photography Seminar and The Synthetic Collective. Her recent photo book, The Vancouver Carts was published by Black Dog, UK, in 2016.
John Armstrong is a studio professor in Art and Art History, a joint Honours BA program between Sheridan and the University of Toronto Mississauga. Over the past ten years, he has frequently collaborated with Paris artist Paul Collins: their paintings on photographs, videos, and publications have been on view in a number of solo and group exhibitions in Canada and Europe. Armstrong has most recently written an essay for Oakville Galleries to accompany Art and Art History alumna Denyse Thomasos' September 2011 exhibition Kingdom Come.
Alison S. M. Kobayashi is an artist working in video, performance, installation, and drawing. She was born in Mississauga, where she received a BA from the University of Toronto. She now lives in Brooklyn where she is the Special Projects Director at UnionDocs, a Center for Documentary Art. In her work, Kobayashi performs a variety of characters that are both studiously and playfully rendered. These personas are inspired by Kobayashi’s extensive collection of lost, discarded, and donated objects, ranging from answering machine tapes purchased at a secondhand shop, to a love letter left on a sidewalk. Through repeated interaction with the objects (listening, transcribing, re-enacting, playing), narratives and imagery begin to manifest themselves and inspire performances, videos, installations, and drawings. The results are humorous, low-fi artifacts of an artist embodying the lives of others. Kobayashi’s short videos have been exhibited and screened widely in Canada, the United States, and overseas. She was a guest artist at the 2008 Flaherty Film Seminar, and her body of work was a Spotlight Presentation at Video Out, Jakarta International Film Festival, Indonesia. In 2012, she was commissioned by Les Subsistances in Lyon, France, to produce her first live performance, Defense Mechanism. She is currently developing her second live performance.
Johnson Ngo is a Toronto-based artist who works in performance and sculpture. Ngo's research explores connections and disjunctions between his gaysian identity and Western queer culture. He recently participated in LEITMOTIF for Nuit Blanche, a commission for the Bernie Miller Lightbox at the Blackwood Gallery, and the Bloor Alternative Art Fair for the BIG on Bloor Festival. Ngo also plays a facilitative role at various art institutions in Toronto, such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, TAIS, and Reel Asian Film Festival, and serves as the current chair of Trinity Square Video's Board of Directors.
Katie Bethune-Leamen works in sculpture, installation, and video, toward consideration of the nature of objects, our relationships with them, and our relationships with each other as mediated through objects. She is interested in the inchoate and the abstract—amorphous things subsisting in an in-between state—as location for engagement and possibility for meanings. Recent solo exhibitions include: YOU WIN! (8-11, Toronto), Hologram Tupac. Other Things. ALL-ONE! (Open Studio, Toronto), Shiny, Object, Person. (AGO, Toronto), the commissioned project Blobs for Lawren Harris’s Glaciers, Icebergs, and Unknown Things (AGO). Recent residencies include Fogo Island Arts (Fogo Island, NFLD), and SIM (Reykjavik, IS) with upcoming ones including the Canada Council for the Arts International Residency—Paris, and as artist-in-residence at NSCAD. She is a 2015 recipient of a Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship Grant to research sculptural abstraction through travel in Japan, Germany, Italy, and the USA. She received her BFA from Concordia University, and her MFA from the University of Guelph.
- Editor
- Christof Migone
Christof Migone’s research delves into language & voice, bodies & performance, intimacy & complicity, sound & silence, rhythmics & kinetics, translation & referentiality, stillness & imperceptibility, structure & improvisation, pedagogy & unlearning, failure & endurance. Ongoing investigations: microphone hitting, book flipping, tongue extruding, record releasing, word hyphenating, para-pedagogical positioning, careless curating, noise making, sequitur following, paper passing, interval counting, rhythm repeating, phone licking, machine fingering, and silence listening. He is currently curating a 12-year event titled You And I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death. He lives in Toronto and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University.
Editorial Assistants
Julia Abraham, Joanna Sheridan, Juliana Zalucky
Photography
Toni Hafkenscheid (unless otherwise noted)
Graphic Design
Adam Hilborn, Peekay Design
Printing
C. J. Graphics
Julia Abraham, Joanna Sheridan, Juliana Zalucky
Photography
Toni Hafkenscheid (unless otherwise noted)
Graphic Design
Adam Hilborn, Peekay Design
Printing
C. J. Graphics
Published with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council.
Book launch presented in partnership with Art Metropole.
Book launch presented in partnership with Art Metropole.
WOOD
Faisal Anwar, Valerie Blass, Anthony Burnham, Robert Fones, Martin Golland, Jen Hutton, Kelly Jazvac, John Massey, Elizabeth McIntosh, Ryan Park, Roula Partheniou, Planningtorock, Sandra Rechico, Tony Romano, Jon Sasaki, Joshua Thorpe, Kelly Wood, John Armstrong, Alison S.M. Kobayashi, Johnson Ngo, Katie Bethune-Leamen
A compendium of the Blackwood Gallery's exhibitions and projects in 2009. Edited by Christof Migone.
184 Pages, full colour, softcover, 19cm x 24cm
$5
A compendium of the Blackwood Gallery's exhibitions and projects in 2009. Edited by Christof Migone.
184 Pages, full colour, softcover, 19cm x 24cm
$5
The Blackwood
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6
[email protected]
(905) 828-3789
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The Blackwood is situated on the Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Seneca, and Huron-Wendat.