Folio — Fall 2009

folio

Issue 2 ­­— Fall 2009 McGill Art + Design

Staff Coordinating Editors Benjamin Peck Leah Pires Curators Claire Boucher Patrick Caire Riley Fleck Sasha Plotnikova Claire Stewart Layout & Design Francesca Bianco Patrick Caire Tyler Chau Alexa Roach Eric Schreiber Erika Mitkus Contact foliomag@gmail.com foliomagazine.ca

About Folio is a student-run visual art and design magazine that aims to act as an ongoing archive of McGill’s artistic community by providing a venue for student artists to showcase their work.

Cover: Jim Joe Facing page: Chris Tron All contents Š the respective artists.

folio magazine : Issue 2 — Fall 2009 ­ Contents Blue on Blue Alec Martin

Untitled Chris Tron

Talkeetna Al Blair

Voignamir Claire Boucher

Cutouts Jim Joe

Memoria Romana Evguenia Chevtchenko

Stills from Cras Valde Facessite Jamie Ross

The Craftsman Mammafotogramma

Islands (Some Thoughts on Autonomy) Sasha Plotnikova Untitled Body Abstractions Robert Vitulano

ALEC MARTIN Blue on Blue

CLAIRE BOUCHER Voignamir

Jamie Ross Stills From Cras Valde Facessite

SASHA PLOTNIKOVA Islands (Some Thoughts on Autonomy)

ROBERT VITULANO Untitled Body Abstractions

CHRIS TRON Untitled

JIM JOE Cutouts

MAMMAFOTOGRAMMA The Craftsman

AL BLAIR Talkeetna

Evguenia Chevtchenko Memoria Romana

folio contributors Al Blair, a third-year Environmental Studies student, found the maps for Talkeenta in the recycling bin. How apropos. “I saw shapes in the mountains, and wanted to play around with the idea that people are both defined by space, and are transformers of it as well,” she explains.

Claire Boucher is inspired by people, wind, cigarettes, and crime. She describes her artmaking as a curse which strikes after midnight, with lots of anguish, and results in art that feels like it’s falling all the time. Her only statement about these paintings is, “I hope I can sell them for money one day, but you probably shouldn’t print that.”

Evguenia Chevtchenko believes that art only really exists when it is being viewed. Her contribution to Folio was the unplanned product of a trip to Rome, where the intertwining spaces and overlapping patterns were pleasantly disorienting. She is currently in her first year of a Master of Architecture and can be found at evguenia.net.

Jim Joe is a human artist with a background in finger painting and playing the rekorder.

He is currently in his fourth year of study and his identity must never be revealed. Jim Joe’s influences include, but are not limited to: teenagers, Duchamp, paint, and garbage.

More of his work can be accessed online at jimjoe.com.

Alec Martin’s Blue on Blue series is dedicated to Bobby Vinton and his 1964 song of the same name. Night after lonely night, we meet in dreams. As I run to your side, you wait with open arms. Through a veil of tears, your vision disappears, and I’m as blue as I can be. Blue on Blue, heartache on heartache. Blue on Blue, now that we are through.

Mammafotogramma is a stop-motion animation studio whose work was submitted by member Giulio Massoti, on exchange from Milan. The Craftsman was created by combining video, painting, and animation. “After the videoboard, we recorded a video, then printed, painted, and cut out all the frames to make 2-D shapes that will be animated on a real set with scale scenes and accelerated perspective,” he explains.

Sasha Plotnikova looks at artmaking as a medium for subtle social commentary. Recurring themes in her work include dominance hierarchy, the ways in which we manipulate environments around us, and the vastness of natural forms.

Islands (Some Thoughts on Autonomy) is part of a series on autonomous systems, exploring the ideas of self-sufficiency and logic.

Jamie Ross is currently working on a film entitled Biboon Geamhradh in which he explores the winter storytelling traditions of his Anishinaabe and Scottish ancestors. His most recent film, featured in this issue, was shot on Super8mm film and transferred to Digital Video.

Jamie also publishes Bitch Stick, a queer pink fiction and art zine.

Chris Tron usually puts up a large sheet of paper in his room and keeps it blank for a while until he figures out what to do with it.

A fourth-year Civil Engineering student, Chris makes art that he describes as organic. His contributions to Folio were done in conte crayon and pastel, respectively.

Robert Vitulano, a first-year law student, combines traditional and contemporary practices in his creative process. His work tends to reflect the research he is engaged in, and he sees his work as a visual exploration of his thought processes. Untitled body abstractions were shot on medium-format film and printed on Selenium Toned paper.

Thanks to the Fine Arts Council of the Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill and the Student Society of McGill University’s Campus Life Fund for their generous support.