ISSUE 2
MARCH 2012
INT ER FOLD OBSESSION
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Laura Acevedo Sara Anstis Philippe Battikha America Blasco Maya Cardin Eric Clement Erika Couto Amanda Craig Heather Cutts Andrea DeBruijn Burcu Emeรง George Grant Laura Hudspith Edwin Isford Sophie Jaillet Mark Laurin Dominic Leigh Kevin Leung Nicholas Martel Myken McDowell Lauren McGowan Hope Phillips Sabina Rak Jonathan Reid Sevigny Victor Remere Laura Rokas Laurence Sabourin Ariana Sauder Jodi Sharp Adam Simms Celia Spenard-Ko Craig Spence Evan Stanfield April Underwood Trevor Wheatley Basia Wyszynski
OBSESSION The compulsive driving thoughts that occur within the artistic practice. When the creative concepts override the technical forms and the technical forms leave the original practices behind. When our process is our piece. The details. How we create. Our fixations. Our compulsions to create. Our subjects. Our mediums. Our method. Repeat. Our obsessions.
BASIA WYSZYNSKI Whose World Is It Anyway { Graphite on vellum }
Focusing on death and a fear of the unknown, Wyszynski attempts to resolve personal issues using text. Creating astral scenarios: dark, ephemeral, planet-like forms that represent human bodies, erased text and multiple shapes to illustrate stars, she discusses the abyss and the beginning and end of time. Her focus on text about the moon and stars and their existence in comparison to our existence highlights the apprehension towards the unknown of our future, through erasure.
BASIA WYSZYNSKI Chain Smoker/ Serial Dater
{ Oil on canvas }
Focusing on youth, a group of individuals whose lives are in constant flux, capturing a moment of that time seems imperative to hold onto our existence. The main focus is not to be on the negative: self-destructive state, or positive: the ephemeral freedom of being young, yet a pure documentation of both. Using text and ordinary objects, a familiarity is created, like the human relationship. Youth is a fragile moment in one’s life, trying to live everything now. Focusing on love, lust, freedom, and indulgence through text, personal moments are created to hold onto moments that seem to disappear so easily .
HEATHER CUTTS Redviolet
{ Acrylic on canvas }
Sophie Jaillet Stone #3 { Acrylic on cardboard.}
Rocks and stones are banal objects. We see them every day on the ground. They don’t have any value. They are just rocks. But rocks, like memories, are timeless, anchored in specific places. Rocks are ordinary and fantastic at the same time. They lay on the side of a country road and they once emerged from the magma at the centre of the earth.
ERIC CLEMENT Self Portrait 1
{ Acrylic on canvas }
APRIL UNDERWOOD Triumph
{ Film prints }
Burcu Emeç Sub(due) 6
{C-Print}
“I came to realize the unfathomable amounts of hair I had begun to shed, staining my crisp white bathtub like the blackest of dirt. Streams of filamentous outgrowths - simple, yet slightly disconcerting. My body was detaching itself so naturally and I was letting go so easily. I became an obsessive collector. It turned into emotional attachment. This was my attempt to bring back traces of my self, physical and emotional, that I had so (un)naturally rid.”
Laura Hudspith Benign
{ Slip cast porcelain }
Benign, 2011, is an eight piece series of moulded and slip-cast porcelain tea pots. Each is conjoined at specific junctures while most hover inside glass containment atop shelving. The work aesthetically combines an elaborate rococo finish, fleshy interiors and glass encasement to speak of a state of absolute human connection. Conjoined twins, or Siamese twins, in this exploration become the epitome of what it means, physically, logistically, emotionally, and mentally, to be connected to another person. As the connected cast vessels become more elaborate, the objects lose their intended functionality and take on a new life, forever connected to their component twin.
Maya Cardin
Coral Molars { Etching with Sugar-lift and Spit-Bite Aquatint} “Come dream with me down That the sea could take itself Break up-on its crust�
George grant Untitled
{ Mixed Media }
This mixed media work aims to address disjunctive relationships to our inner intimate selves, and the surfaced persona presented as identity in public space. This is expressed through the multiple layers of materials and the interactions between them. The work is made from a drawing on paper wrapped around a mirror, with a collage on the reverse of the paper. The drawing has openings cut through the surface so that the viewer can see the collage through the reflection in the mirror. This arrangement of materials is intended to present a duality between the faรงade; a drawing of a patented geometric map, used by plastic surgeons to measure ideal beauty; and the reflection of self, depicted through a photomontage of family, home, lovers and other drawings tied to personal memory. The situation of the cut patters invite the viewer to maneuver and grasp the slice of a personal narrative offered.
Laura Acevedo Child
{ Stoneware }
This piece is a stoneware hand-built sculpture with an underglaze finish. ‘Child’ plays with a multiplicity of meanings and hopefully creates uncertainty rather than a familiar association.The multiples in the sculpture were essential, and making them became a kind of ritual playing into the completion of the piece.
Hope Phillips Magpie
{ Found objects }
Philippe battikha Rhizome 8.4 BluePrint
{ Blue print to Boiler Room NBI }
Nicholas martel Park Project: Untitled 1; Untitled 4 { Photography }
At the time public parks were planned, graveyards were the most common natural public space available to city dwellers. Royal parks and other lands that belonged to nobility for the purpose of leisure were off limits to the commoner. When the idea of building public leisure spaces began, land architects were facing the challenge of inventing a new type of space and drew from what was available to them: Public burial grounds. Fascinated by this statement Nicholas Martel tried to do some visual archaeology to find the lost graveyard design in public parks. He searched the artificial landscape documenting those hints, as subtle or poetic they may be, of the idea of a burial ground hidden in this public space.
Mark Laurin Into the Dust
{ Etching }
Trevor Wheatley And Now This
{ Acrylic on wood}
Trevor Wheatley This Was Never Going to Be Easy
{ Acrylic on canvas}
The mark of humans in the public sphere is often overlooked, as we travel through space we rarely look to see the small yet interesting moments where the human hand is present in type. Trevor Wheatley’s latest pieces bring attention to the hand, its imperfection as well as its ability to possess character that digital pieces rarely match and the great, but often small moments of enjoyment they bring as we pass through space. He works to bring this energy from public space into his studio works, obsessively trying to recreate flawless street typeface to build slogans that resonate with viewers in a variety of ways.
Sabina Rak Inside versus Out
{ Ink on paper }
Laurence Sabourin Architectural Anatomy 3
{ Digital Photography }
Jonathan reid sevigny Scenes from a Town Boy’s Lament
{ Graphite and Digital }
Laura rokas Sharks { Oil on canvas}
evan stanfield Base Circle
{ Screen Print on Rives BFK Paper}
Evan Stanfield’s investigation into the essential characteristics of the print has compelled him to think about what the viewer expects to see. New media and new technologies have dramatically affected how the viewer understands printed matter, especially when any traditional print effect can be simulated digitally. In response, he has become interested in emphasizing the tactile quality of the print and the unpredictable errors that can occur as a result of making a print by hand. His practice is centered on the belief that the question has become less about what a print looks like and more about how a print is experienced.
Dominic leigh Untitled
{Mixed Media}
Dominic Leigh’s work is concerned with issues of transience, the artifacts of human presence and the ways in which the practice of photography influences how we engage and explore spaces. Recently, he has extended this to the exploration of virtual spaces: websites, existing photographs, and videos. Using both analogue and digital media, Dominic manipulates colour and texture to create photographs that evoke plausible yet ambiguous spaces and situations.
Celia spenard-ko Stripes
{ Photography }
Celia Spenard-Ko:“I don’t do any retouching whatsoever. The dominant color in the photograph is a result of the cross processing. In a romanticized way, I like to think of these colors as each moment’s invisible aura revealed through this process.”
Ariana sauder
Invisible Me: Duality
{ Graphite on Paper }
In this series, titled Invisible Me, Ariana Sauder created a series of self-portraits mainly inspired by the occult illustrations of the 17th century, specifically those of German mystic Jakob BÜhme. Each drawing relates to one of the five underlying impulses identifiable in occult illustrations: cosmic imagery, vibrations, synesthesia, duality and sacred geometry. These impulses are represented in formal ways in the drawings, but also represent personal philosophical ideas for Sauder on a conceptual level. Self-portraiture is a creative practice that inherently involves introspection as well as an outward projection of one’s own perceptions of their self. The process can also be revelatory of how we are blinded in the way that we see ourselves. The enlightenment that comes from rigorous self-examination can grow to affect the way we look at things outside of ourselves.
amanda craig Untitled
{ Embroidery on Sweater }
In these embroidered sweaters, the physical evidence of time and labour is more comprehensible to the viewer than the text itself. These texts have been dissected, disintegrated and eventually, the collection and preservation of those memories sacrificed. The contrasting elements of devotion and destruction mirror the complexity of memory and mind. The obsessive nature with which we desire to preserve or attempt to hide or destroy our memories is reflected in the labour intensive- and ultimately futile- process with which these works are created.
Jodi sharp
Dealing with Loss
{ Performance Photographs }
Jodi Sharp’s work deals with the intrinsic connection she feels with nature and other humans, as well as the lack of boundaries that exist between herself and the physical world. Using the symbology of merging human, animal and plant materials to create new objects, rituals and environments, a utopic vision of a world is created. In this space, a new way of relating to the world is brought forward.
craig spence Diptych 2
{ Photography }
Diptych II is a work that explores the abstract notions of space, scale, and form through the juxtaposition of images which are simultaneously dichotomous and synonymous. The viewer is presented with two entities of grand, almost oppressive, scale; a mountain of dirt from a construction site, and a 55ft deep swimming pool for training scuba-divers. The initial sense of the objects’ immensity is thwarted by the implied reduction of the objects to their mere base: space and form. The viewer is prompted to overlook the rigidity of the objects’ form, and instead consider the spatial relationship between the immense mountain and seemingly endless pool. Although dichotomous in their shape, substance and physical location, the two are kindred in their spatial dimensions. By questioning the boundaries of form and location, the images ultimately prompt the viewer to wonder whether the mountain of dirt could, theoretically, fit inside the swimming pool.
America Blasco Lady of the Manor
{ Photography }
A voyeuristic perspective of the world of Pleasance Liddell, Through Your Little Eyes series explores notions of gender, identity and the obsession of preservation in autonomy. At first glance, the characters lead the viewer to believe they are part of a larger narrative; a misguiding of the predator, a musing of the voyeur. What is perceived as confrontation is an avoidance; what is seen as a disguise is a defiance.
kevin leung
30-Hour Circle
{ Ink on paper }
“There’s something amusing with repeating something over and over again. Kind of like a tape recorder that’s tape motor is gradually slowing so that each playback of voices become obscured and humorously deepened. There’s enough intrigue in each repeat that you just can’t help but continue on with more repetitions - it’s the song that never ends…”
Myken Mcdowell Evolution
{ Screenprint }
sara anstis Untitled
{ Pen on paper }
In this drawing from a series exploring topography, Sara Anstis isolates and prioritizes different areas of the model’s body. The traditional nude is exploited to fit the landscape of the grotesque.
Andrea DeBrujin Dress Tress II
{ Digital print and screenprint }
ADAM SIMMS
Untitled
{ Photography }
Edwin Isford
Twigs, Contact
{ Black and White Print }
Edwin Isford explores undesired virginity by performing synthesized copulation for the camera. The natural sex act is staged as an educational tool for the ego in an attempt to break silence on the personal subject. Here, the cycle of purity evolves against one’s own choice. Perceived expectations and a fear of being inadequate or unlearned bombard the ego, throwing it into introspection and sexual withdrawal. A new pattern of reflexivity occurs, and the idea becomes fixed on plucking virginity and its connotations - from the sexually captive.
VICTOR REMERE
Masculinizing or feminizing { Embroidery on fabric }
Chill as Fuck:
10 Questions with
NOTHING SPECIAL { By Lauren McGowan }
Selina Doroshenko and Emily Kathleen McIntyre may be two of the coolest people I’ve ever talked to. And we basically just email. The achingly hip duo recently paired up to give us a skewed peek into their world in NOTHING SPECIAL. From February 27th to March 2nd the two transformed the VAV Gallery into their own demented glitter-infused nightmare fairytale. Part performance piece, part installation the show invited its audience to sit down, have a coffee and watch the two hash it out on stage, a sort of Bronx Beat with parachute pants and plants. With crazy energy the duo managed to make tales of new toothbrushes interesting and nail down an audience for five scheduled days. Emily and Selina agreed to chat from opposite sides of the country about performance, the Talking Heads, and keeping it real.
NOTHING SPECIAL presented separate shows for a week, was it difficult to continue gathering audiences? Were some performances more popular than others? EM: On the first day we performed the theme was COFFEE TALK, and we wanted to fill up the space with our positive energy and chilled out vibes. That was our primary concern. Through continuing to tell people about the show and having people stop by to ask questions, more people became interested and actually planned the show into their agendas.
Tell me a bit about NOTHING SPECIAL: When did you start planning it? When did you get the ok to stage it? EM: Nothing Special was born out of a performance art class Selina and I took together, taught by Jennie Cherniack. We decided to collaborate and started by building ourselves a stage to sit on while drinking coffee and having a relaxed, unwritten conversation. SD: Nothing Special came to fruition out of a performance art class we took together. We aired three episodes over the course of that class; for the first one we built two 4’x4’ platforms and put the Fibres couch on top of them, wore some colourful outfits and had a conversation in front of the class for five minutes. We gave ourselves the OK to stage it. Our stages are made of wood, coated with water-based stain, Well-Bond, and glitter. Funnily enough, several people have approached us to borrow our stages, which we have happily loaned to other artists and group efforts such as Jessica Danielle Cohen (BFA Fibres), Summer Gerighety (MFA), and Art Matters and Articule’s The Art of Survival. Explain the show like you were speaking to someone who is borderline clueless about the art world without scaring them EM: So the show is about chilling out, making our dreams come true and getting real as fuck with one another. SD: Emily and I thought we got a lot out of just talking to each other and we were interested in seeing where our conversations could go naturally. The show Nothing Special celebrates the notion that sharing ideas and skill-sets will lead to a positive, relaxed lifestyle. We believe it is important to get up early, get in there and stay real as fuck!
SD: The shows at the VAV Gallery were scheduled at various times during the week, at either 11 am, 3 pm or 7pm. Our first one, COFFEE TALK, was at 11 am on Monday. It was definitely hard to generate an audience in the morning, but it was good practice and interesting to get a different vibe in the space. We found that attendance escalated actually; the show ran for way longer than we expected on CASUAL FRIDAY (2 ½ hours) and we had a full house. I would say SHIT SHOW and CASUAL FRIDAY were the most popular.
Both of you have backgrounds in some form of performance, be it horseback riding or a penchant for public speaking. Does this affect your other work that may not be live? Do you have other influences? EM: Selina, do you have a penchant for public speaking? I was unaware of that. I would consider my experience as a rider to be a contributing factor in my tendency toward live performance. It all has to do with the same sort of feeling: being able to improvise and be present in a situation that is somewhat out of your complete control (with an audience watching nonetheless). As far as the work we do that is not live, such as video, I would say my experience as a rider has not helped. In fact, I used to get really freaked about video cameras being pointed at me while riding, especially for sales videos of horses. SD: Since Emily’s the horseback rider, I’m guessing I’m the public speaker, but I’ve never thought of myself of having that reputation. I once wrote my younger sister’s public speech in high school and then she went on to go to the finals with it. Anyhow, I do like to swim and I guess that’s like performing. Talking to yourself works too. The video work is influenced by amateur home video and D-I-Y. Other influences come from places that are more like bands, movies, talk shows, comedy, media personalities, etc. like Wayne’s World, Gilbert & George, SASSY, and Conan O’Brien.
Can we talk about performance as a medium? Its challengesmost people hear “live performance” and if it’s not a play they turn their noses. Was it hard to get through that stigma? EM: I think being in front of an audience and participating with the audience is the most challenging part of performance. As soon as people started to understand that we are not scary and they might actually have a good time at the show, it was all good. A really good experience overall. The audience is a very involved and crucial aspect of having a show or displaying any type of artwork in a public space. We are so lucky to get to interact with our audience and have everyone be so generous. I’m not sure if performance art has a stigma attached to it but do know that its history includes some violence and self-harm but we’re not about that at all. Thank-you all who attended the show! SD: I think that the people who attended were very committed and that the stigma is only really imagined, you know? One of our main goals is to immediately break down social stigmas with the powerful allure of our image and with the assault of colour and shiny things. I guess there were never more than fifty people in the gallery, which is a lot, but considering that openings usually have around two hundred people maybe some noses were turned somewhere else now that I think about it. I guess people may be turned off by performance because it directly implicates their involvement, which is asking a lot. It really is asking a lot and we are so thankful for everyone who came out because your presence makes it a real thing.
What other mediums were present in the show? EM: The show at the VAV was full of mediums. Wood, paper, glitter, imagination, chalk, colour, air, metal, video. We took our time to carefully look at the space that we had to work with in order to decide on how we needed it to feel, and to make sure that we had all the elements in place that we dreamed of. SD: A large part of Nothing Special is owed to the set-up and staging of the event. We believe that a good set-up is key to an efficient and chilled out performance. With that in mind, the show is very much an installation, where we have changed the gallery space to suit our needs. We divided it into a front room (which I like to call “press kit”), where our painted and embroidered portraits, video footage and printed fabric banner lived. Then the balloon arch led you into the next space, the office, where we built a desk and hung inspirational photos. A box was installed with tickets to sign-up for a future event (after the VAV show). Eli Kerr painted a chalkboard for us on the wall. We installed two 8’x8’ platforms in the window corner of the gallery, along with plants, a couch and a large overhead banner. Tinsel was stapled along the frame of the stage and the folding walls of the gallery. We also built a table for the merchandise section, where we had pay-what-you-can items such as silk-screened pizza boxes, patches, personalized pencils and stationary. A library and a back-stage was part of the show as well, where we stored our books, outfits, empties, suitcases, throw rugs, mugs and more.
You’re two women performing a comedy piece, did this directly influence some of the themes of the show? What other topics were you trying to cover? EM: I think the fact that we are two women performing a comedy piece makes it awesome and Selina and I have laughed about how it does have kind of a girl power vibe to it. Mostly there is a dynamic between us that is present in the show and gives it Radditude. As far as the topics we were trying to cover, we thought of some things that we had always wanted to talk about, or observations to share with everyone. You know: everything embarrassing, funny and weird. Conversation and skill sharing is the structure that we work within in order to share information with one other and whoever else is listening. SD: Honestly, it’s hard to remember what we covered on the show since we just go with whatever we’re thinking on the spot. I think we had some talk about unconsciously staring at crotches on the subway. Jokes aside, it’s true that there is some real girl power felt on the show. We would like to represent the importance of being confident, proud, unapologetic and open-minded. Top three artists who inspire you? EM: These artists have all profoundly influenced me: Ingrid Bachmann, Deborah Michalski, and Barbara Gawne SD:Eva Hesse, Yayoi Kusama and Gunta Stölzl. Name a song that best represents NOTHING SPECIAL (or 3 one for the set-up, show, afterthoughts). EM: The spirit of Nothing Special is such that we would love to have original theme music some day, but since we’re working on lots of stuff right now, we might not create it until our band White Wine can all get together in the same place. But as far as existing songs are concerned I would have to go with Talking Heads (This must be the Place), Hey Friend (Jeff the Brotherhood) and Dream Lover (Bobby Darin). SD: Hey Friend--Jeff the Brotherhood This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) – Talking Heads Time is on My Side – Rolling Stones Check it out: NOTHING SPECIAL: http://vimeo.com/user10378059 SELINA: spuriosity.tumblr.com EMILY: emilykathleenmcintyre.tumblr.com
ART MATTERS { By Erika Couto } Opening Party, Darling Foundry. Photographer Ginga Takeshima
I’ve been excited about the 12th edition of the Art Matters festival since Vivien Leung, the festival’s Outreach Coordinator, gave her first series of updates in October about the festival to the FASA council. She’s been promising great things and I think that the Art Matters team has definitely delivered. This is my third year as a visitor and each year the festival just gets better. Art Matters is an annual citywide art festival that takes place in Montreal each year. Run entirely by Concordia University students, Art Matters is a celebration of the work being produced by local emerging artists within the Concordia community. According to the Art Matters website (http://artmattersfestival.org), it has repeatedly placed in the top five “Best Art Exhibit” in the Montreal Mirror’s “Best of Montreal” reader’s poll. The festival provides student curators and artists a chance to unite and put on shows in some of the city’s best known creative institutions, galleries and artist run centers in nearly every area of the city. The Montreal public is welcomed to visit the shows and with each year, Art Matters grows in popularity and importance within the Montreal arts community. This year’s Art Matters festival stretched from March 2nd to 16th, with fourteen shows and over 150 artists’ works on display. With shows at locations like Eastern Bloc and the Coatcheck Gallery, you know that this festival has earned some serious street cred. In addition, this year’s festival included the Art of Survival speaker series, an accompanying forum, in which artists and locals from Montreal contributed ideas about how to “better negotiate a life of artful making/thinking/living here in Montréal,” and poetry readings. The festival, however, had several components that lead up to the main festival dates. Among them was an intern information session and a website launch/Info Party party. In addition, Art Matters continued its efforts this year to interact with the community through the annual Nuit Blanche event in Montreal. This event, In Our Time, took place at the Blue Cat Boxing Club on Beaubien West and featured live theatrical, dance, music, and action based performances that questioned the role of the audience and the ways difference audiences and performances can merge and co-exist within a single space.
This year’s opening party was a hot event. Held at the Darling Foundry, the music lineup was composed entirely of local bands (Da Pink Noise, Doom Squad, Mekele Nocturne and SUUNS) that drew in a full house. The music was complimented by several video projections and art installations to give party attendees a taste of what would be waiting for them throughout the festival’s two weeks. Everyone that I spoke to said that the Darling Foundry was a great space and that everybody was having a great time. It was certainly a fantastic celebration to begin two full weeks that really give the public an opportunity to see the art being produced at Concordia University. Although all the shows were excellent, I think that my favorite was Surveying Space, curated by Levi Bruce at WWTWO on Jean Talon West. I thought that each of the works, while having their own individual way of inhabiting the gallery, also worked together very well as a unit and really reinforced the curator’s intent of exploring the viewer’s interaction with space. Jean-Marc Perin’s These Corners, an exploration of spatial and photographic corners, was easily my favorite piece. By emphasizing the corners, paradoxically, Perin’s work gave my mind the freedom to imagine what was going on beyond the edges of the work and make up my own scenarios. The gallery walls seemed to disappear for me, replaced by my own thoughts and my own far-reaching desire for the space to be truly limitless. Curator Nafisa Kaptownwala’s My Pregnant Preteen Birthday Vacation with Dad exhibition gets a special honorable mention. Not only did the name of the get me interested, but the works also deal in a personal interest of mine: the capturing of change through art. As someone who lived out her childhood summers surveying landscapes on long family road trips, Olivier Gariépy’s Nomadic Souls was an interesting glance into the artist’s subjective understanding of the American landscape. I felt like I was journeying along with the artist and being allowed into very private and intimate moments with his surroundings. After having come from the busy streets of Montreal into the gallery space, the presence of the landscapes was even more poignant for me, perhaps because I realized that such I would be hard-pressed to find such quiet landscapes in my daily life. This made me think of road tripping and purposely seeking out a break from the craziness of
Thank you to everyone for another great year! Special thanks to Zoe Koke (exhibitions coordinator), Caro Loutfi (special events coordinator) and Patryk Stasieczek (visual coordinator) and Vivien Leung (outreach coorindator) who were all part of the festival team this year! I look forward to seeing how the festival will continue to flourish in the coming years. Art of Survival speaker series, VAV gallery. Photographer Ginga Takeshima
downtown Montreal. As the road trip seems to be one of the tenets of youth in Western culture, I think that Nomadic Souls really encapsulates the message of Kaptownwala’s exhibition. As for my favorite work, I have to admit that I was surprised at my own choice. Being an Art History and Film Studies major, I assumed that my favorite work would be something involving film or animation, and while I did enjoy Simon Grenier-Poirier’s Le ciel nerchi, La mer trobla (2012) and Roxanne Lemieux’s The Dress (2011), it was actually Laura Acevedo’s Luxuriant Flourish that has won me over. A site-responsive sculptural installation, the work is part of the Weighs exhibition, curated by Florence Vallières. Made up of several badminton birdies, both intact and cut apart, carefully illuminated by a small light, the work blends into the wall, while also emerging from it with interesting textures and shadows. The installation blended perfectly into the space and seemed quite organic, like it was really a growth that was naturally occurring with the potential to spread out and eventually consume Studio Béluga in its entirety. In a way, I think that Luxuriant Flourish represents everything that Art Matters symbolizes to me. Just as the piece responds to the space it’s presented in and represents ideas of growth and change, I think that it can represent the festival as a whole. No one person really makes the Art Matters festival what it has proven to be each and every year. Since 2000, the festival has shown tremendous growth, with more shows, new ideas, the inclusion of different subject matters and mediums. Art is a constantly evolving process and just as the roster of artists at Concordia is constantly refreshing itself, I think that the Art Matters festival’s consistent strength is in its ability to immerse itself in Montreal culture and remain current. The Art Matters festival is truly a product of Concordia and an excellent representation of the level of talent and skill of the artists in our Fine Arts departments. Art Matters matters because it provides important opportunities for artists to reach a wider public across many areas of our city, and it gives aspiring curators the ability to put together their own show and to work with some talented up-and-coming artists.
Laura Acevedo’s Luxuriant Flourish. Photographed by Laura Acevedo
Nomadic Souls by Olivier Gariépy
Artist statements Sara Anstis Sara Anstis is studying for a double major in Sociology and Studio Arts at Concordia. She uses black, white and the human body - universal means of communication - to translate tactility and irrationality. From this springs a dimension of dense and fertile constructions that furnish her need for a more sentient existence. Philippe Battikha Phillippe Battikha works with compositions entitled Rhizome Cycles. This ongoing composition project was inspired in part by Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari’s concept of rhizomatic structures, and is dedicated to pushing the limits of what is to be considered a ‘score’ of music. Battikha also pursues an ongoing fascination with the question: how does visual imagery influence the interpretation of sonic material? “It is composed not of units but of dimensions, or rather directions in motion.” America Blasco America Blasco is a lens-based artist whose practice focuses predominantly on photography, video and installation. Her work is grounded within the genre of portraiture and often explores the relationship between sexuality and identity through use of form, space and the body. Using textile and sculptural elements, she examines the representation of women by relying on the reconstruction of mythological characters and allegorical imagery. Maya Cardin Maya Cardin merges sea, land and cosmos with organisms, alive and dying, dying and alive. She is exploring a primal space, populating it with beings – humanoid, squishy and floating, heavy with encrustation. Eric Clement Eric Clement uses an obsessive and meticulous method with his work. Priming canvas and sanding it, multiple times to ensure the smoothest surface for his works. Clement transfers the images with projection and freehand tracing, and then slowly layers colours to create the work. He combines logos to create a new graphic, transforming the corporatization of branding in his personal artistic expression.
Amanda Craig Amanda Craig explores memory and the connection between memory and text in her work. Through the dissection of her journals, letters and memories, she works to develop a distorted visual narrative. In these fibres-based sculptures, texts have been pulled apart and processed until they are no longer recognizable. This distortion of texts questions the accuracy of memory and how emotion is affected by the passage of time. The method of embroidery is time consuming and obsessive, emphasizing the ties between memory and time. Heather Cutts Heather Cutts considers details and repetition vital to her work; without them she is at a loss. Her interest lies in experimenting with colour and form in the context of abstract works, while also exploring her process. Improvisation during the creative process is often more important to her work then the ultimate result, as experimentation is what drives her to create more. Andrea DeBruijin Andrea De Bruijn approaches her artwork experientially, remaining attentive to the physicality of materials and the visceral reactions or interactions that they provoke. The body, its responses and the vestiges of its presence are frequent preoccupations of hers. She is compelled to collect and document traces and fragments, especially those left by the body, in her art practice. She is attracted to the elegance that these residues assume when layered or accumulated and to the places where they fluctuate between representation and abstraction. Burcu EmeÇ Burcu Emeç: “I came to realize the unfathomable amounts of hair I had begun to shed, staining my crisp white bathtub like the blackest of dirt. Streams of filamentous outgrowths - simple, yet slightly disconcerting. My body was detaching itself so naturally and I was letting go so easily. I became an obsessive collector. It turned into emotional attachment. This was my attempt to bring back traces of my self, physical and emotional, that I had so (un)naturally rid.” George Grant I am an aspiring artist working with various media including painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media and performance. I use my artistic expression to explore and present personal struggles with identity and experience through a variety of aesthetic forms.
Laura Hudspith Laura Hudspith uses vernacular objects to convey a sense of connectivity—objects close to our daily lives that can speak of humanity, connection, the body, even human nature and genetics. Society often demands us to ‘look with our eyes and not our hands’, yet impulse tells us to explore. Forms, textures and intricate details of the world too often go uncharted and untouched. Her art practice revolves around creating interesting forms that can understood visually. Sophie Jaillet Sophie-Madeleine Jaillet considers science and nature an important part of her creative process. As the history of our planet is closely related to that of our species, it makes it easy for her to link scientific and natural elements to her personal history. As history and palaeontology are connected to the layers in the sedimentary rock formations, her memories are attached to nature and its elements. Mark Laurin In Mark Laurin’s etching work, he is attracted to the soft, textural blacks of the mezzotint technique. Mezzotint is a labour-intensive reductive process of roughening the copper plate with a toothed metal tool to allow for a richness unobtainable through any other process. Working reductively allows him to use shadow not necessarily as darkness, but the unknown, the absence of light. His work is a celebration of the unknown, of the borderlands between memory and myth, truth and lies. Dominic Leigh Photography is an inherently geographical medium, perhaps more so than most. While one may paint a picture of a given location in any number of places, a photograph generally requires the photographer’s presence at said location. The vocabulary associated with the internet frames it in spatial terms: we surf, browse, go back and go forward to various sites as we explore cyberspace. One needs only to look at the many graphical depictions of the internet—maps of Facebook friends, the links between various websites—to confirm that such a geography exists. Nicholas Martel Growing up near the St-Lawrence River and the hills of the lower StLawrence area initiated Nicholas Martel’s fascination with landscapes. His interest lies in the way the landscape affects our behaviour and our experience of life in a certain place. This led him to explore the relation of the immediate environment and the way communication and interaction can occur within it. He works to apply those factors to an unusual environment and to communicate those findings through photography.
Myken McDowell Recording patterns is a somewhat obsessive and extremely meditative practice for Myken McDowell. She is drawn to patterns that are based on naturally occurring forms, sometimes on a cellular level. The printing process allows her to mimic cell duplication, which includes an element of chance. Creative layering and placement of the screens allow new colors and patterns to emerge in McDowell’s images. Hope Phillips Hope Phillips creates objects to be touched, held and played with. Drawn to both extremes of the art spectrum: she constantly returns to the tactile warmth of traditional ‘craft’ work and is simultaneously intrigued by the integration of technology and scientific concepts into bio/cyber/robotic art. To her, the most successful artwork is one that instills a sense of fascination, whether from the grotesque or the enchanting. She works to capture this sense, while reconciling seemingly polarized interests: the fascination found both in the craft world and in the natural one – in the workings of organisms, ecosystems, and celestial space – as well as the ways in which these two worlds inter-relate. Sabina Rak Sabina Rak is a second-year Studio Art major. She works primarily with ink or prints 10-foot long rolls of pattern-filled paper on which she then details by hand. Her subjects are limited to cosmic or neurotic interests that usually require extensive research. Pattern is an understatement in her practice; graphic pattern would more accurately describe the repetitions that never quite repeat themselves. She is still searching for a reason why she is compelled to draw little circles all the time. Jonathan Reid Sevigny Jonathan Reid Sevigny works with the emotional intensity of love and loss. By doing so, he captures a sense of existential dread, while also romanticizing a scene to create a bewildering shift between the ethereal and the grotesque. He depicts surreal elements are often in human form, effacing identity and ultimately overtaking all character and personality. While obsessively plotting out these complex graphite compositions, he can respond to and critique social constructs. He is on an endless hunt for justice, but it is through this process of exploration that he has found peace. VICTOR REMERE Victor Remere has been obsessed with self-representation, the cult of the body, and perfection; working with these themes in a series started two years ago. The nature of a self portrait provides more questions than answers, what reactions will occur, who will be affected? Is it possible to accurately represent oneself? In the words of Gustave Courbet, ‘I’ve done in my life many portraits of me, as and when I changed my state of mind, I wrote my life in one word”
Laura Rokas Laura Rokas’s work often becomes a character study where she explores the faults and assets of a given personality in relation to her own. Her satirical investigations reveal truths about insecurities and ego, often poking fun at herself in the process. Bringing insight through absurdity, these works frequently appear in the form of spoof. Laurence Sabourin Laurence Sabourin was raised with a strong filmmaking background, which began his interest in the narrative aspect of visual arts. Comic books, illustration, animation, cinema are some of his inspirations, and their influences find their way naturally into his drawings, paintings and photography. He is interested in exploring the human body through an architectural scope. By juxtaposing images of architectural domains to a body it is possible to indicate anatomical elements without the use of contour lines or values. The lines of the body therefore mimic the curves of the body giving it volume. Ariana Sauder Ariana Sauder bases most of her practice in figuration that reflects both celebratory and unpleasant aspects of youth culture. Much of this manifests itself through self-portraiture as a means of investigating identity within personal and universal social conditions. Working her painting and drawings from reference of her own photographs, she uses images that are original and personally significant. Her interest lies in the effects that different lenses have on the depiction of my subjects. Distortions created by the camera are duplicated and enhanced by her hand; drawing attention to the point of view and intervening in the viewer’s observation of the subject. Adam Simms Adam Simms, originally from Newfoundland, is a Montreal-based artist whose practice is rooted in photography. Simms works as a designer and is currently finishing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Design Art and a minor in Photography. His work in contemporary landscape photography often explores identity through intimate relationships with nature and urban spaces. Celia Spenard-Ko For the past year, photographer Celia Spenard-Ko has been interested in the notion of capturing auras. Photographs should not simply immortalize a moment, but the aura surrounding that moment as well. Shot on color reversal film with a 35mm Nikkormat, then cross-processed, the “Auras” series is entirely arbitrary. Craig Spence Craig Spence explores the abstract notions of space, scale, and form through the juxtaposition of images that are simultaneously dichotomous and synonymous. He questions the boundaries of form and location through images that ultimately prompt the viewer to question what they are seeing.
Evan Stanfield Evan Stanfield’s investigation into the essential characteristics of the print has compelled him to think about what the viewer expects to see. New media and new technologies have dramatically affected how the viewer understands printed matter, especially when any traditional print effect can be simulated digitally. In response, he has become interested in emphasizing the tactile quality of the print and the unpredictable errors that can occur as a result of making a print by hand. His practice is centered on the belief that the question has become less about what a print looks like and more about how a print is experienced. April Underwood April Underwood’s photography has a complicated methodology involved in creating each frame. She exploits many combinations of cameras and film formats (ranging from DSLRs to vintage and toy cameras, 35mm and medium-format film) in order to explore the possibilities. She chooses locations that are based in ideas of memorial, love, desire, anxiety and despair. Each set is arranged in such a way that the viewer can move from a more general sense of the space into a more specific analysis, ultimately aiming toward capturing a moment, an emotion, or a detail that may not have been initially obvious. TREVOR WHEATLEY Trevor Wheatley’s work is an honest portrayal of life as he sees it. He makes work about the year-to-year, month-to-month, and day-to-day. The lessons learned, from feeling his way through life. He paints from experience the best he can, using what understanding he’s gained to tackle themes of happiness, hate, love, sadness, optimism, pessimism, and everything else encountered on a typical day. Mainly concerning himself with accessibility. Building quick arrangements of text and imagery that create emotional connections. His work looks to build conversations that are relate-able, and relevant, not straying too far off the path of the common place. Highlighting specific or overlooked moments that are part of the human experience, while bringing attention to their quiet importance. Basia wyszynski Basia Wyszynski’s work focuses on time and the future. In her paintings, she isolates themes of youth and indulgence, using personal text and familiar objects to reach the viewer on a common yet ambiguous level. Resolving personal issues that deal with her insecurities about the future, her drawings concentrate on the unknown of our generation and their future, against the infinite unknown state of the universe.
Interfold team
Editor-in-Chief: Bella Giancotta Managing Editor: Ali Moenck Events / Communications Executive: Iain Meyer-Macaulay Art Director: Jeremy Sandor Designer: Kyle Goforth Review and Articles: Lauren McGowan Photographer: Joe Cornfield Special Thanks to: FASA, CUAA, CSU, Art Matters, VAV Gallery, Rachael Carr, AJ West, Jeff Dymond, and Jasmine Stuart
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editorial Interfold Magazine is proud to present our second issue of 2012. Our second release aims to focus on the obsessive natures that occur within the artistic practice. When the creative concepts begin to take over the technical forms, it can leave the artist with a new approach and conceptual focus within the original ideas. The process heavy pieces that circulate this issue aim to draw attention to the fixated ideas that drives us to create. We hope the variety of practices, mediums and concepts inspire you and encourage the exploration of the local and Montreal wide art scene. Thank you to all artists who submitted to this issue, we were overwhelmed with the very large response. Interfold is honoured to present the work of so many talented artists in the Concordia Community and wish you all the best of luck in the future. Our first year has been a tremendous success, and we are very optimistic given the response thus far. We are enthusiastic to see what the next years of Interfold’s future will hold. Thank you to everyone who helped us get off the ground and to all our hard working staff. It’s been an incredible year and we hope you enjoy this issue! Sincerely, Bella Giancotta Editor-in-Chief Interfold Magazine
Currently Interfold Magazine, a fine arts publication on campus is looking for students to join our team! Interfold publishes twice a year and features the work of students both online and in a printed publication. Volunteering with Interfold is a great way to bolster your CV and an opportunity to work creatively. We are currently looking for students to fill the positions of: Managing Editor: Responsibilities include assisting the Editor-inChief in preparation for publication. The ideal candidate should be very well organized and proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel. They should be able to critically write and edit articles with an attention to detail. This position also includes managerial tasks, such as budgeting. Due to our strict deadlines, the ideal candidate should have good time management abilities and a professional attitude. French is an asset but not required.
Join Interfold Magazine in 2012/2013
Copy Editor: Responsibilities include reviewing all written works before they go to print to ensure accuracy. This includes fact checking, spelling and grammar, and overall cohesiveness of the written pieces. Knowledge of Microsoft Word is necessary. The ideal candidate should have good time management skills and the ability to meet tight deadlines. French is an asset but not required. Events and Communications Co-ordinator: If you have a knack for planning parties and networking, this may be the position for you. Interfold throws two launch parties per year as well as a fundraiser. This person would be in charge of researching and finding locations, creating a tentative budget, and securing artworks for the events. This job entails many creative liberties while following a strict budget. Web Designer: The ideal candidate will be Wordpress proficient and skilled in CSS, Photoshop and Flash. The web designer will be in charge of creating a new look on our site as well as updating the site monthly, while working alongside the Creative Director and Graphic Designer. Our small and tightknit group meets weekly during the school year working together to grant write, plan fundraisers, launch parties, create calls for submissions and review student work while pushing the boundaries of the art scene at Concordia University. THIS IS OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS Interested students should submit a brief cover letter and CV to: info@interfoldmagazine.com DEADLINE TO APPLY: APRIL 1ST 2012
info@interfoldmagazine.com
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www.interfoldmagazine.com
ISSN 1929-1302 Interfold Magazine