This Is Where It Ends

Hi there random reader and Gemey Kelly (my Canadian Art History teacher),

In terms of class content, I am missing only one post, the one from November 8th. Other than that everything should be complete although not always in order. After the 20th of November post titled "NEWS NEWS NEWS" (that you'll get to once you scroll down) posts related to class content are identified by the corresponding class date at the top in italics. Before "NEWS NEWS NEWS", everything is for class!

From now on, I am keeping this blog solely as a personal expression and way of dealing with the flurry of information on art and otherwise I like to saturate myself with. Thanks for reading.

Claire Gallant

Art, Stories and Conversations

For November 20th.

On this particular class, I really enjoyed the story performed to us. Because to a certain point, that's what every class is. That and exchange and connection through conversation. But the story (or rather a story) of contemporary painting in Canada was one I had never really heard before, and I was very glad to finally hear some of the conversation around the once controversial "death of painting". I'm glad everyone got over it, and that it stayed alive!

I have been paying closer attention lately to stories and conversations whether they be in the form of song, poetry, short stories, art shows or lectures. Here are a couple of fabulous examples:

Spoken word poetry

Sarah Kay

Andrea Gibson

Guante

Oh Canada, at MASS MoCA
Atlantic (Sackville!) artists part of the larger national and international art conversation through MASS MoCA's show Oh, Canada! 

Andrea Mortson

DC Awake

Graham Patterson

Hockey Organ

Musical Stories
Some favorites of mine. They enchant me every time, so I hope you enjoy!

Civil Wars

Bernhoft

Western Canadian Art Projects and Residencies

For November 27th.

Last class as part of an overview of Modernism in Canada, we got an overview of the Regina School of Art's Emma Lake workshops. All this made me dream about artist residencies in general, and about life after school. As well, it made me think of art in the prairies that has countered and responded to its strong modernist movement in the 60's. I'll just touch onto each briefly. Dreams, dreams, dreams:

About art in the prairies that is not modern art, there is certainly M:ST, the Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival. The festival is biennial and happens in the Southern Alberta region. I definitely want to go there sometime, preferably at the next one, perhaps as a participant.

Performance at M:ST by Les Fermiere Obsedees.

When it comes to artist residencies in general, I've been getting plenty of talkin' to about them, and have been gladly taking it all in. I understand that for my kind of art, they are the most conducive and productive path. I've also been receiving plenty of emails from Akimbo lately such as one accompanied by the photo above. In this call for applications, the Banff Centre looks for artists and their projects for a Thematic Residency. The project that caught my attention was the one called Society is a Workshop, one to explore mutual education, collaboration and communal living.

Olivia Plender, Google Office, architectural installation (detail), 2010. Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum

I've been paying attention to these things since meeting artist Scott Rogers in 2010, an artist having studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary who comes to Struts Gallery every now and then. More specifically, I have been most interested in his participation and creation of the Arbourg Lake Sghool on projects like Harvest (the first, second and third). With Harvest, the Arbourg Lake Sghool ripped up their suburbia lawns and planted crops of barley to harvest in the fall. Doing so, they violated regional bi-laws concerning how tall one's lawn can grow. The argument for the initial existence of this law is mostly of socioeconomic concern: Lawns that are "too long" are assumed to be unaesthetic and the result of neglect, reflecting badly on the neighborhood, making a property look "cheaper". Put shortly, the judgement in many ways is that a tall lawn is anti-social. However, the Arbourg Lake Sghool's long locks proved to be quite the contrary: At every step of the way but most of all at harvesting time, the unusual suburbian activity wiggled neighbors out of their living rooms and basements and into the street, many lending a hand to the folks from the ALS... and people who had lived on the same street since years met each other! And I hope municipal planners rethought their rules, since they obviously didn't account for people having ideas of better things to plant in their yards than grass. Oh, and they made beer with the barley. Shouldn't every happy story end this way?

Oh, great Canadian prairies. Here's some barley.

In the same patchwork of thought, I recently saw this TEDtalk by Dave Eggers. A condensed version is below. In it he talks about him and a group of writers setting up a tutoring program in their publishing studio. In the midst of it, they also ended up opening a pirate supply store for logistic reasons. Never thought you'd hear that sentence did you? Anyway the whole thing turned out to be crazily original and playfully successful. The kids loved being connected to the real-world application of their studies (they were tutored English) and they in turn invigorated an artistic community. Learning happens best when applied and socially motivated.

Anywho, this all goes to say how much I appreciate and recognize the role of community and connection in learning. So much of the time, doing "something meaningful" is actually just being engaged in the conversation, free of judgements, or at least adequately flexible so as to argue the judgements we strive to keep as individuals and communities. Thanks for reading.

Gender, Sex and The Artistic Silence

If you`ve watched Junot Diaz's talk about his book This Is How You Lose Her in my November post Common Ground: Paraskava, Eisler, Obama and Diaz, then you might remember him talking about artists being drawn to a silence. To be specific, his exact quote at 17:18 is:

“Guys we’re in the middle of an election campaign. Y’all notice that neither of our ‘oppressors in chief’, that neither of them have mentioned an artist? (…) In our culture, the thing with artists is that artists are just fundamentally attracted to the things that no one is trying to deal with. I mean that’s what art’s nature is, it immediately goes for a silence, you know, immediately goes for an absence.” 

I took that to heart, being already vastly interested in the idea of the void and of silence.

During our senior artist critiques a few weeks ago, I noticed a silence. Although we are all (I think it is safe to say) quite liberal in our personal opinions and philosophies, sexuality was not mentioned a single time, while two artist presentations would have warranted it: Fellow artists Danica Lundy and Katarina Pravdivaia. Danika had painted and sculpted "limb totems" and talked sensually about bodies violently colliding and creating beautiful bruises. As a personal aside, I am a big fan of Danica's work and ideas. As for Katarina, she dealt with the relationship between animals and humans, inevitably anthropomophizing animals and animalizing people. It was in part the poses of these human figures, and in part when she talked about common basic instincts and needs that brought sexuality into it. Yet no one mentioned it. Yet I didn't mention it. Why?

Silence about sexuality (or sexual orientation) can promote to shame and discrimination, like with the U.S. Military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy (abolished in September 2011).

Maybe it was the mass effect. All in this room since hours, we had been picking, prying and commenting intelligently (or trying to) since hours, and all the while social dynamics inevitably came into play. The authoritative and extraverted are heard, while the shy people and hesitant remain unheard. In any group setting, not everyone is comfortable speaking their mind, period.After all, the number one fear-even before dying-is public speaking. Another thing to ask is "Who is this authority?" We might argue that it is the head of the department, with leadership shared between a particularly zealous proffessor or two. But really, is it not the institution itself? An institution that funels things into "professionalism", stearing away from the domestic, the irrational, the low and the private, and from the very animalistic inclinations Katarina was refering to? Certainly things would be easier if we were in gender studies, a "sexuality and something" class, or maybe even an anthopology class. But as Fine Art students and faculty, we are not necessarly trained to talk about the sexual in cold, level-headed terms, and so we don't.

Which is too bad, because there is alot to say about contemporary sexuality and sexual culture. For one, there is porn culture. It is everywhere, influencing our society faster than the speed of light, for better or for worst. It is the big ruler of the internet, the one even before cats. As such, where is the line drawn between porn and art? And where do they overlap? I am currently reading Sex and the Cinema by Tanya Krzywinska, which addresses this increadibly influencial silence. After all, cinema and the moving image have influenced our experience and expectations of the world for over a hundred years, going as far as orienting our personal identities. With sex in the cinema, what is shown is just as notable as what is not shown, whether it be in soft porn, hard porn, or the flat-out cut to the next (tamer) scene when things get too hot and heavy in a PG14 movie. As I mentioned, silences and absences also speak in bellowing voices.

Tanya Krzywinska talks at Public Lecture Series 5: 'Sex and the Citi-zen'

Whether it be initiated by artist Keeley Haftner's painted Porn Portraits, CherryTV's women-friendly youtube talks about sex, the Grateful Grapefruit art blog "For Horny Nerds", or casual thoughts on polygamy shared via blog on A Libertine's Thoughts, yes, there are plenty of things with which to furnish that silent institutional white art cube. Elsewhere, artists and people of all professions are talking about sex.

Maybe it's mostly a small New Brunswick town thing. Who knows.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with what I consider to be an inspirational video, not so much about sex or sexuality but about gender. Please enjoy this stunning example of gender fluidity, and quite simply, the warming smile of a radiant creative: Casey Legler (Pardon the link, it was published by Times Magazine and not on youtube.)

Casey Legler, an ex-olympian swimmer, is now an artist and male model. Her gorgeous self lives in NewYork.

Occupy Wall Street Buys the 99%'s Debt

This all women-crew on RT America news talks of the Occupy movement bailing out the indebted. Genius. for more alternative news, check out RT America's website.

Movies to watch

Turn Me On, Dammit! (above) and This Must Be The Place (below).

NEWS NEWS NEWS!

This just in: I am abandoning my wordpress blog www.liveyoursubjectivity.worpress.com. 

Point of the matter is, it won't post youtube videos anymore and, well, I like my youtube videos. So from now on, anything posted without a mention of a corresponding class will be posts purely for my and any reader's entertainment, no academic strings attached.

Stephen Harpie: The Other Great Darkness?

For the November 15th class.

We saw in class Paul Emile Borduas' Refus Global (1948), a text that would foreshadow Quebec's quiet revolution.

At this time, the Maurice Duplessis governement has been in political power for eight years, and yet more was yet to come (with Duplessis in power from 1936 to 1939 and from 1944 to 1959). This time is often referred to as the Great Darkness because of the government's strict adherence with the church (especially in health and education), its bare-bones social services, its favoring of rural development instead of cities, and its anti-union and communist policies.

A great dictatorial-like picture of Duplessis.

 In many ways, Duplessis reminds me of You-know-Who.

In case you had your head buried in the Sahara Desert in the last 15 years, yes, this is the evil Voldemort in Harry Potter.

No, not that guy. This one:

Yep, Stephen Harper, our current Canadian Prime Minister. Last Saturday, I heard and saw Yves Engler talk about his new book The Ugly Canadian. He focused mostly on international affairs, including the Harper government's:

• inappropriate direct financial support of Israel and their discrimination against charities supporting Palestine
• false pretenses of supporting "democracy" in the Middle East while they have deepened ties with Saudi Arabian monarchy, etc.
• dangerous deregulation of Canadian international mine companies, allowing them to operate with disastrous environmental and economic results in the countries of residence
• constant failing grades in matters of environmental sustainability such as pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2011 and fighting to keep the Canadian tar sands off of California's list of "High Carbon emitters" (see B.1.)

I wasn't a fan of Harper already for his national impact, and now I am equally not a fan of him for his international consequences.

There's something that I think we tend to forget as Canadians and Americans and that our European counterparts are much more apt at understanding: We live in a global community. I see the reason for this, notably the expanse of our national territory and so the (horizontally nautical) distance between us and our nearest neighbors. Also European countries have agreements via the European Union and the Council of Europe since after the second world war, which have worked greatly at lubricating country rapports and collaborations as well as cultural appropriations and market competition.

Why would any of us (and most of all, Stephen Harper) close our eyes to the wonderful strives going on elsewhere? Are we really that different? Do we really need to pollute and pillage the human and natural resources of other countries in order to be "economically sound" ourselves? If anything, that is the contrary of sustainability and long-term economic viability. Harper has shown us that he does not trust other countries, does not trust the medias and "does not trust" -and so has censored- canadian federal scientists, recently pushing the scientific community to announce the death of evidence on parliament hill. Not surprising in this case that he values the arts so little. Distrust is dangerous when in national and in international territory: In the first case you will alienate the people, and in the second, harvest enemies like the States has done in the middle east.

The last thing I want is another Great Darkness of any sort, be it in Quebec or in Canada at large. Let's get rid of the Harpie in 2015. After all, we too, as a country, deserve leaders with ideals like this. Listen to Uruguay's president Mujica speaking as a world citizen:

David Milne and European Cities

For the class of November 13th.

Ripon High Street, watercolor over graphite on paper (1919)

"I saw one of my own pictures, a little different from ones done before, changed slightly, very slightly, by what I saw before me."
                                                                                           David Milne (1936)

Milne was known for his modernist sketch-like paintings with great composition and lots of "bare" or "empty" space, like in the painting above where he draws attention to the negative space. Milne was a Canadian war artist as of 1917, and would have painted this painting while in England. There are many High Streets, but to my google-map knowledge only one Ripon in the United Kingdom (click link to view).

Ripon High Street is an urban planer's paradise: There are people, people, people in the streets! Street life is a great strength of many European cities in general, making them more liveable in general. As of lately, I have been reading Green Cities of Europe edited by Timothy Beatley. In the introduction, Beatly addresses Why European Cities? For one, he begins to answer, European cities are locally specific in their design. Perhaps most importantly, European cities have been a pioneer in terms of sustainable city design and strategy, collectively signing onto agreements such as the Aalborg Charter and entertaining friendly competition between cities for titles such as the European Green Capital.

The cover fresh out of the printer's: 2012 Island Press

North and South American Cities need to start not only thinking but acting this way. Let's be creative in the best sense of the word: imitating, modifying and combining the best of what other cities are doing to meet our particular region's needs. What Milne said about pictures, I can say about cities:

"I se one of my own (ideal North American cities), a little different from ones done before, changed slightly, very slightly, by (the European cities) I see before me."

Because it wouldn't be that hard, really.

Cheesy music aside (why do they always do that??), check out this video on Stockholm, the 2010 European Green Capital winner:

Common Ground: Paraskeva, Eisler, Obama and Diaz

Tuesday we watched the Nation Film Board video Portrait of the Artist-As an Old Lady on Paraskeva Clark. For more information on the film itself and the NFB, click here.

"Myself" a self-portrait by Clark

The film, although informative and a great review of Paraskeva's achievements, again made me think of the white anglo-saxon male privilege. I just can't seem to get away from it, and probably never will. That's okay. But I'll never accept it. Sure thee might be times when I'll brush it aside in order to get a job or to help a community reach its goals, but forget about it? Never.

I love addressing the uncomfortable and indeed, I can't help it. Sometime it is to a fault, alienating others without meaning to do so, and thus alienating myself. But most of the time, results are encouraging. As for Paraskeva, the privilege she shines into the light in one of class, nationality, and gender and her route, a politically-charged one.

Last night, Barack Obama was re-elected as president of the United States. Although I’m of the conviction that we as Canadians do not pay enough attention to our own politics or voice our political opinions enough, I also think that we should keep informed of what goes on in politics internationally. One does not contradict the other. And let’s face it, the U.S. is kind of a big deal.

So I watched the elections on campus amongst fellow students who are citizens, like me, of a now global community. I think it is no understatement to say that the whole world was watching. A lot was riding on the outcome of this election, be it economically, in terms of human rights, and in terms of war and peace. From my point of view, peace won, gender equality made great strides, green energy got rooted and, making Paraskeva proud, socialist ideas in healthcare won.

I am immensely proud of our neighbor's electoral decision. Now if we could only do the same here; if we could only focus, once again, on the people of our nation. Yes, the economy is important. But why? Sure it is important to feed people, to buy education, to afford a shelter above everyone's dream-filled heads. But what makes us happy are the people people in our lives and the realationships (sic) we forge with them. However, the "public sphere" -professional and institutional- is the one given the most importance by conservatives in Canada by the Republicans in the United States. Yet The Real Wealth of Nations, according to Riane Eisler, is found within the two layers that ground the institutional and professional levels: volunteer-based economy and domestic or private economy. Without these, the two top spheres could not function. Yet these are severely undervalued, consisting of the historically oppressed: women, children, the elderly, visible minorities, the middle-lower and lower class. And yet tremendous energy is generated and stocked here, rich by the very relationships that make us human and motivated by the hopes and dreams that we cannot help but grow.

The cover of Riane Eisler's book, playing off of the outdated and similarly titled "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.

The election of president Obama as leader of the United States gives me hope in the same way as art gives me hope for a better tomorrow. In my opinion, he is someone who understands the oppressiveness of privilege and its predatory nature, but most importantly is someone who has worked hard and earned what he has, despite adversity in the form of economic and ethnic disadvantage.

Only 2.5 years to go under the Harper government. Sigh.


Below, author Junot Diaz talks at the google complex about the nature of privilege and the role of the artist in relation. A must see for every artist and for every compassionate and logical human being!

Creatives For The People

Last class we touched on art between the wars, in America called Social Realism. The movement honored the working class a time dominated by the Great Depression by union workplace reforms. Notable artists were Raphael Soyer, Miller Brittain (from Saint John, NB), Jack Humphrey, and Paraskeva Clark.

 

"Petrushka" by Paraskeva Clark (1937)

In the same way that these artists were making art work about the people for the people of the time, I find current architects and urban planners thinking more and more about people, and I love it! Here one of my new found favorites, Jan Gehl, resumes his view on how architecture and infrastructure should work. The man is the author of Cities For People, and waves around a mean water bottle. Interested in what he says? Check out one of the many youtube videos of his presentations.