Curator’s Statement
Katherine Bischoping,
Blackcurrant Productions
Things
Fall Apart
originates in my curiosity about the ways that artists attend to and
depict destruction. And thus, this collage of works that faint and
fall, congeal and dissolve, rend, crumple, and implode.
Is this
exhibit going to be a downer? Not necessarily. Graham Porter’s The
Demise of a Focus Group film does show an oft-grotesque account of a
discussion of funeral choices gone wrong, leading into a critique of
dehumanizing marketing techniques. But, it’s not all bad news. Blending
surrealism and Russian constructivism, Margaret Nieradka’s film, My
Life as a Goat, shows a whimsical ‘space cadet’ child coping with
confusion by taking fainting lessons from a goat. Susan Foster’s studies
of Ontario’s ghost towns, including her arresting Farmhouse at Bexley,
Victoria County photo, evoke calm, nostalgia, and a slowing of the
subjective experience of time.
Collectively, the works pose the question: What is the essence of a
thing? How much can a thing fall apart before it ceases to be itself –
before, as Yeats put it, 'the centre cannot hold'? Michelle Johnson’s
Mustard & Ketchup fast food icons may be melting down, yet they are
insistently recognizable and horridly incapable of ceasing to be.
Informed by the childhood game of 'telephone,' Sarah Lochhead’s film, I
almost forgot, documents the fluid twists and bends of truth and
memory. Meanwhile, concerned with creating sustainable works,
Melissa Dalton has diligently mended a broken-down library Chair
… with sawed-up books. (Shh. Don’t tell the librarians!) Taibe
Palacios’ Close contains and forever freezes isolated
fragments of past macrocosms, drawing attention to how they are complete
unto themselves.
The works
also invite inquiry about the characters of the spaces into which things
fall. Jamie McMillan’s two-minute film Ma elegantly proposes
that physical space be conceived of as a site of action, rather than as
emptiness. Annie Tung’s Hush mourns, enclosing a negative space,
an absence; her Duck startlingly accelerates the collision of
wilderness with dinner table. My theatre sculptures for the fable trilogy Tell Me Another undermine the
psychological space of the bedtime story, with its clear-cut heroes and
villains.
Though they represent
fallings apart, these works come together and speak to each other with
ease on these central themes and in conversations about nature and
narrative, the dinner table and the library, Victorian jewelery and
girls gone astray. I look forward to seeing the synthesis of all the artists’ works
in the friendly environs of Laluque Atelier Gallery. I’m touched that
Things Fall
Apart has been welcomed by Natalia Laluque
into a venue at once so neighbourly and so broadly imaginative in its
projects.
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Annie Tung
(Multi-Media) is a Toronto-based artist who graduated from
Ontario College of Art & Design and is currently
an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre. Often searching
for beauty and romance in certain truths and uncomfortable
places, her approach varies from wearable to sculptural.
Throughout history, humankind has had the tendency to symbolize
and reflect with material objects important occasions and ideas.
With this in mind, Annie uses functional and decorative objects
as a common language and seeks to elevate its potential as a
form of creative expression.
www.shesmiledandran.com |
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Graham
Porter (Film) is a Toronto-based composer, director and
performer who studied composition at Simon Fraser University
under Rodney Sharman. Twin loves of music and drama led him to
the draft89 collective, composing for its Tragic Eccentrics
(2003),FOE (2007), The Demise of Ordinary Objects
(2008),A Night of Brevity (2008), and John/Yoko Bed
Piece (2009).Graham directed and composed for Blackcurrant
Productions’ Tell Me Another (2009). Of The Demise of a
Focus Group (2009),he remarks: ‘This film’s narrative and
its editing each chisel at highly- structured modes of
presentation, whether of the systematic focus group interview or
of conventional film-making.’
www.draft89.com
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Jamie McMillan (Film) is working towards a BFA in Integrated
Media at Ontario College of Art and Design, developing his
talents in audio and video pieces, animation and other media,
and hoping to adapt future technologies to his artistic
endeavours. A visual artist, writer, and poet, Jamie also applies
his creative vision in childcare, Volkswagen mechanics and
independent bicycle repair. A self-professed inventor, he tries
to see artistic potential in everyday objects. Throughout his
work, Jamie evokes questions about the nature of reality,
exploring themes such as futurism and the psychology of
perception.
webspace.ocad.ca/~jm07sy
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Katherine Bischoping (Curator, Theatre Sculptures) is an
Associate Professor of Sociology at York University who explores
the relation of sociological and theatrical ways of
interrogating and representing social phenomena. Her play,
The Demise of Ordinary Objects, was produced by draft89
(2008. Katherine is artistic director of Blackcurrant
Productions, whose fable trilogy, Tell Me Another, played
at the Hamilton Fringe (2009).Drawing images from a northern
Ontario childhood, she designed Tell Me Another’s sets
and costumes and wrote its anti-heroic conclusion, Fox and
Girl. She is looking forward to a December workshop reading
of her new translation of Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House.
www.blackcurrantproductions.blogspot.com |
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Margaret Nieradka (Multi-Media, Film) is majoring in Painting
and Drawing at Ontario College of Art and Design, completing her
BFA.She takes private lessons with Natalia Laluque and teaches
art in elementary school. Margaret has had a solo exhibit at
Laluque Atelier Gallery (2008) and contributed works to the
Gallery‘s 2008-2009 winter exhibit.She states,‘My works a are
like postcards of my travels, involving a love of childish
imaginary narratives that draw on ecology and world religions. I
enjoy Russian Constructivism and art with insulting names -
brut, Naive, and Primitive.’ Margaret employs music as a tool to
help her travels into the unknown.
www.laluqueatelier.com/margaret-nieradka.htm
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Melissa Dalton (Multi-Media) is majoring in Jewellery/Metalsmithing
at Ontario College of Art & Design,working towards her Bachelor
of Design. She is a teacher and an apprentice at The Devil's
Workshop Silversmithing Studio. Sustainable, recycled materials
and found objects interest Melissa, who tries to use them as
much as possible in her sculptures. The chair she is exhibiting
in Things Fall Apart was initially found broken on the sidewalk
and was made anew with unwanted books. Among Melissa’s
inspirations are art nouveau, modernism, Italo Calvino, Tom
Robbins, Josef Skvorecky and her double life as a
singer/songwriter in cafés and bars around Toronto.
MD Designs (facebook)
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Michelle Johnson (Sculpture) is a Toronto-based artist.She has studied
atOntario College of Art and Design and received an MFA from
York
University. Her works
have been exhibited in
Toronto,
Montreal, and
Manchester and
London,
England. Working as a
nurse, Michelle shudders at what she sees and experiences in the
hospital. This, along with being a mother, has been the impetus
for much of her work. She uses silicone, rubber compounds,
pigments, and other materials to allude to the body and its
failure to contain.
www.michellejohnson.ca
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Sarah Lochhead (Film)
is the founder/artistic director of Simcoe Contemporary Dancers,
Ad Sales & Marketing Coordinator for The Dance Current
magazine and a dance instructor, who resides in Barrie. She
holds a BFA in Dance from York University and has performed with
HNM Dance Company, the York University Dance Ensemble, Menaka
Thakkar Dance Company, and Collective HEAT.Her film Between
Walls was shown at the Barrie International Film Festival
(2008). Of I almost forgot, Sarah writes: ‘The human
memory is fragile, erroneous, deceptive, and complicated. This
movement-based film explores
the
relationship of historical truth to perceived happenings.’
www.simcoecontemporarydancers.blogspot.com
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Susan Foster (Photography, Film) lives in
Etobicoke. She has long been exploring the back roads of
Ontario, searching out over 200 pioneer villages and ‘ghost
towns’: ‘It started out as a bit of a lark. One day in the early
‘90s my friend Jeri Danyleyko and I came across a book about
Ontario’s ghost towns. We decided to try and find some of these
places. We found our first two, Malcolm and Gillies Hill in
Bruce County, southwest of Owen Sound, and we’ve been hooked
ever since.’ Susan’s works can be found on display at York
University and on the pair’s website. She has been a guest on
both CBC Radio, Ottawa and TVO Studio Two. On October 3, 2009,
Susan launches her own new website, Ghosts of the Pioneers.
www.ghosttowns.ca
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Taibe
Palacios (Jewellery) holds a BA in Graphic Design from
Universidad Arcis,Chile. As a freelance illustrator, she has
worked for several publishers and wrote and illustrated
Elicura en el Valle Encantado (2006, Santiago: Arrayan
Editores),a children’s book widely distributed by the Chilean
Ministry of Education. Taibe studied silversmithing at Tacto
Studio,Santiago and continues her jewellery studies at George
Brown College. In her Toronto studio, Azul as in her earlier
Santiago studio - Taibe creates original,contemporary works that
are often organic to the touch, merging subtlety with
strong,clean design,or that are simple and
architecturally-informed.
www.azuljewellerydesign.blogspot.com
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