Top Tens of 2009

I should be doing the last of this term's schoolwork, but instead I'm doing this: compiling my list of top ten, favourite art-related exhibitions and events from 2009. Both Canadian Art and akimblog published theirs last week, and Sally and LM have just started their annual lists. Plus, I always try to get mine up before Jon Davies to try and prevent overlap (he always remembers 2 or 3 amazing things that I forget, however). Unlike last year, where hotly anticipated events like the Quebec Triennial and Nuit Blanche lived up to their hype, this year, for me, was characterized by unexpected discoveries and subtle interventions into the status quo.

We joked at work about compiling a "worst of 2009" list, which did not happen, but I'm considering taking it on as a holiday task (after some wine, perhaps?). But here for now are my favourites, in no particular order:

1. Discovering Owen Kydd at Clark & Faria

Owen Kydd, Mission (still), 2009

I wandered into Clark & Faria's Distillery District location last spring on a trip with my parents who were in town visiting during their group exhibition of gallery artists, elusively titled "Clark & Faria Presents." While much of the work was strong, Owen Kydd's nearly silent, long-take, documentary-style videos of figures and scenes from small towns haunted me for the rest of the year. Turning Vancouver School photoconceptualism on its head by making photographic films (rather than filmic photographs), Kydd's video triptychs create unusual compositions that are less about their figurative subjects than the subtle movements of light, air and facial expressions that intervene in the otherwise perfectly staged sets. I haven't seen his solo show at the Vancouver Art Gallery yet, but am hoping to catch it before it closes over the holiday break.

2. Artur Zmijewski's Sculpture Plein-air. Swiecie 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art

Artur Zmijewski, Sculpture Plein-air. Swiecie 2009., 2009 (film still),
Courtesy the artist, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw,
and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich. © Artur Zmijewski

Forget Tim Burton.* The best thing on at the MoMA right now is the premiere of Artur Zmijeski's newest film, Sculpture Plein-air. Swiecie 2009. Set in a small Polish town where the artist paired up seven visual artists and a company of steel workers and set them the task of collaboratively creating public sculptures that represented the steel plant, the film documents the group's cordial negotiations and collaborative physical labour, with heavy emphasis on the steel workers' perspectives on the changing economy and cultural value of their work. Considerably subtler than his past work, the documentary's most memorable parts are the workers' spot-on critiques of the artists' designs ("The one with the three figures holding the pole is fine, but I think it is a bit too simple and obvious") and the incredibly awkward unveiling of some of the pieces to the townspeople.

*And when I say "forget," I mean, of course, go see it, especially after you've dropped $20 on MoMA admission. The black light entrance with a crazy miniature carousel is pretty cool.

3. "feelers" at Susan Hobbs gallery, with Sarah Massecar, Sandra Meigs, and Arlene Shechet

Installation view of “feelers” at Susan Hobbs Gallery, 2009

For me, Susan Hobbs gallery is one of Toronto's most persistently reliable commercial galleries for interesting, well-executed exhibitions. But artist Jen Hutton's foray into curating with this past summer's "feelers" exhibition was a subtle surprise in the gallery's usual solo show format, offering a nuanced linking of Massecar's intricate pen and ink drawings, Meigs's colourful, incised paintings and Shechet's gorgeously messy ceramics. It was the perfect amount of work for the space and hung in a way that let each piece breathe and speak for itself (and to the other pieces around the room).

4. "Gakona" at Palais de Tokyo

Roman Signer, Parapluies, 2009
Courtesy Galerie Art:Concept, Paris Photo André Morin

When I went on a mini-break to Paris last spring, I didn't set out to see much contemporary art and, aside from a requisite stop at the Louvre, didn't spend much time in galleries or museums. So when Cait and I wandered into the Palais de Tokyo on a whim on our last day in town, it seemed serendipitous to discover "Gakona," a group show (oddly but successfully) themed around a small town in Alaska where, purportedly, the US government is doing secretive experiments with electricity. Laurent Grasso's beautiful field of slightly miniature transformers was a highlight, as was Roman Signer's electrical umbrellas and automatic lawnmower gone haywire in a field of folding chairs.

5. Cedric Bomford's TOWER BLOCK at Red Bull 381 Projects

Cedric Bomford, TOWER BLOCK, 2009 (installation view),
Courtesy Red Bull 381 Projects / photo David Lang

I'd heard lots of good things about Bomford's work from he and his brother and father's contribution to the Vancouver Art Gallery's "How Soon Is Now?" group show, but I was still unprepared for what a total transformation he wrought on the 381 space, as well as the eerie-cool feeling that climbing the tower and peering into the company's main meeting room produced. Lots of kudos has already gone to gallery curator Nicholas Brown, who has consistently brought surprising work into the space, but it deserves reiteration here for his chutzpa in mounting this work.

6. "We Interrupt This Program" at Mercer Union

Stan Douglas, Monodramas (still), 1991

Curator Sarah Robayo Sheridan (with Steven Leiber and Ted Purves)'s long overdue survey of artists' interventions into print and television advertising at Mercer Union provided a thorough but well-edited overview of mass media strategies. It had all the heavy hitters one would expect–Dan Graham's magazine pieces and ads, Lynda Benglis's infamous Artforum ad, Chris Burden's landmark series of commercials broadcast in LA–alongside some lesser-known and delightful examples by Joseph Kosuth, Yoko Ono, Valie Export and Keith Arnatt. Sheridan's strength is in her ability to make convincing curatorial choices, such as excerpting longer video works and ending the survey at 1993, when internet self-publishing negated the potency of many of these interventions. Her accompanying film screening of related works, called "Identifications" and co-presented with Pleasure Dome, was similarly short and pithy and the clip of Joseph Beuys sitting in front of a TV set, pummeling his head with boxing gloves, was in many ways a meta-narrative for the entire show.

7. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Phantoms of Nabua at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Phantoms of Nabua, 2009, Video still

While wandering through the opening of a not-so-impressive restaging of the traveling show "Arena: The Art of Hockey" (which looks like it had more teeth in its original incarnations), a friend and I ended up seated and transfixed in front of Weerasethakul's gorgeous video, shown as part of TIFF's Future Projection series. You can watch almost all of it online, so I won't spoil it with what will be an inadequate textual description, but it is worth every second of its 11 minute length. Kim Tomczak and Lisa Steele tell me everything Weerasethakul has made is equally captivating and I'm looking forward to keeping an eye out for him in future.

8. Reece Terris' Ought Apartment at the Vancouver At Gallery

Reece Terris, Ought Apartment, 2009 (installation detail), Photo: Rachel Topham

A lot has already been said about the brilliance of Reece Terris' audacious architectural installation, Ought Apartment, which was housed at the VAG this summer, but it bears repeating. It was a complex, compelling piece that not only allowed visitors to wander through the multi-decade domestic interiors and touch all the incredible props and furniture (Nordic Tracks! Arborite tables!), but also drove home subtle themes of consumerism, waste and the tyranny of home improvement shows.

9. Jon Rafman's "The Nine Eyes of Google Street View" project on Art Fag City

Rue du Faubourg du Temple, Paris, France

As part of Art Fag City's IMG MGMT series of image-based artist essays, Jon Rafman put together a terrific survey of the images that have resulted from the creepy-cool Google Street View tool. The text is sharp and provocative and the images are, of course, weirdly voyeuristic and often unexpectedly aesthetically impressive.

10. ArtStars*

ArtStars* on the cover of Eye Weekly

Just them, period. Though I am sad that Artfag is gone (and was unmasked by none other than Nadja Sayej, the ArtStars* host), his absence is a little less painful knowing I can count on Nadja, Jeremy Bailey and Ryan Edwards to point out the ridiculous at events like Nuit Blanche, the Power Ball and even a project I was involved in. You know that if they can make you laugh at yourself, they must be doing something right.

Highly Recommended: Jen Hutton's article, "Lady Gaga and 'the Gaze'" in C magazine

I didn't think I liked or "got" Gaga until I read this article by Jen Hutton on Lady Gaga and the gaze/gays. It's not available online (except through a digital version of the mag on Zinio), but is well worth the newsstand price. Extra kudos should go to newish editor Amish Morrell for putting together an issue on contemporary feminisms. Karin Bubas's illustrations are also amazing.

Art Criticism and/as/vs Judgment

I am shocked and also sort of ashamed to see that I haven't updated here in almost 2 months (!?). I blame contemporary art, as well as the first year of a PhD program. I've also been working hard on freelance stuff (writing, The Leona Drive Project, a tiny bit of curating) and have been neglectful of this poor space.

But, for anyone who's still with me, I wanted to write quickly about two sort of concurrent dialogues about art criticism (and judgment) on two Toronto art blogs. The first came on Andrea Carson's View on Canadian Art blog a few weeks ago when she wrote that the current show of contemporary portraiture at Red Bull 381 Projects, curated by Nicholas Brown and Julia Lum and titled "Sitting Pretty", left her feeling cold. She continues:

But is this work that really matters? Did the artist Tibi Tibi Neuspiel make the work with any kind of emotional involvement? If so, there was none left by the time it went on display.

Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, Book Sandwiches, 2009
from the Red Bull 381 Projects Facebook page

Not really framed as a review so much as a meditation on whether VoCA should be "more critical," the post solicited nearly 30 comments which inevitably turned towards the role of arts criticism and the limitations and possibilities that blogs offer to critics. While the dialogue proves that the "crisis in arts criticism" issue is not yet totally stale, I found that there was some conflation of the ideas of criticism versus/as/and judgment in both the post and its responses that muddled the conversation a bit.

Carson has been explicit and consistent throughout her blog that she sees the role of criticism as evaluating and passing judgment about the quality, relevance or importance of artworks (terms which are nebulous at best and, I would argue, far from timeless or universal). In the post about the "Sitting Pretty" show, for instance, she writes "VoCA believes in the importance of criticism and tries to recommend the best (and only the best) work being made in Canada. We must all learn to support the art scene while celebrating the best, and exposing the worst. That’s a critic’s job."

Though I'm definitely on board for a call for criticism that is more, well, critical, and that actually expresses some sort of opinion or thesis about the work being reviewed, I'm not sure that I see criticism as constituted of judgment and evaluation alone. Sure, some work is strong and keeps you thinking about it for days, whereas other work is weak and therefore forgettable and still other pieces are terrible and keep you thinking about them out of frustration. But even this distinction between artworks' affect, they way they make one "feel," say a lot about their effect. Generally, critics don't write about work not worth thinking about, writing about or remembering. They write about the work they want to support because of its strength, or about work with problems that obviously still has some kind of merit or possibility (otherwise it wouldn't be worth all this effort, and lack of monetary reimbursement, in the first place).

And, as Stephanie Vegh wrote in one of the comments on VoCA, only operating between the two poles that this act of judgment seems to offer–celebration or exposure as unworthy–also seems to do the work and its creator a disservice: "It seems to me that discussing only the best and worst might be good for the art scene, but isn’t discussing the points of interest in between those two extremes better for art?" Artists (and curators, and critics, too) make choices when they do what they do. I think the best criticism addresses the choices that were made and asks what the implications of these choices are and if, perhaps, different, more effective ones could have been made instead.

Installation view of Stephen Appleby-Barr's The Nortammag Archives, 2008,
in "Sitting Pretty" at Red Bull 381 Projects

Which brings me to the second Toronto-based art blog to tackle the role of criticism this month: the brief return of Artfag who published an interview with Ryerson journalism student Michelle Kuran where the two discussed the problems and issues at stake in contemporary Canadian art criticism. The Artfag is his usual sassy self, railing against the apparent lack of distinction between criticism and exposition in art criticism (I can see his point) and arguing that Vancouver School work is "formulaic, academically indulgent, [and] anaesthetic" (I point with which I disagree, by the way). But he also has a few insightful, if armchair psychology-inflected, things to say about the role and intent of criticism. For instance:

...we give criticism because someone needs it. If one is never told that one is doing something wrong, one will never correct that wrong behaviour. This is not the act of the saboteur. That is the attitude of someone who doesn't understand what criticism is for. Post-WWII North American social culture, especially since the 1960s, has been propelled by a therapeutic ideal of the promotion of self-esteem and mental and emotional health and well-being. This pervasive idea has wrought much good, and also much bad; in the context of our discussion, it has birthed this idea (and you can see it everywhere, from art criticism to American Idol) that criticism is an assault upon self-esteem and self-actualization. People who value discourse and the free exchange of ideas realize that criticism is always an act of caring, for it is borne of the desire to see things done successfully. Those who believe that criticism is an act of sabotage simply do not value the free exchange of ideas. We're afraid it's as simple as that.

Artfag likewise underscores the role of judgment in art criticism–he terms it as "discernment" between good and bad work–but complicates it with the observation that any kind of criticism carries with it an implicit investment in the work being critiqued. I like that Artfag's call for greater (or maybe better) criticism comes attached with a call for bravery: both from critics who are worried that a negative review will endanger their future opportunities and from readers and the critiqued who might take it personally. To be brave is also a kind of choice that needs to be made. For instance, why isn't anyone writing stridently critical reviews for Canadian Art if they are dissatisfied with its current content? I work there and can guarantee you no review texts come in "more critical" than they are in their final state. The writing that comes to the magazine seems, to me, wilfully "uncritical" when it is so, which says much more about a comfortable complicity with uncritical writing than an editorial decision.

And, to take Artfag's line of questioning further, what is needed in order for writers and readers to be brave and take these critical stances? What kinds of contexts or social/economic conditions would facilitate better criticism?

Cedric Bomford's "TOWER BLOCK"

Cedric Bomford TOWER BLOCK 2009
Installation view Courtesy Red Bull 381 Projects / photo David Lang

My review of Red Bull 381 Projects' latest exhibition, "TOWER BLOCK" by Cedric Bomford, is out now on the Canadian Art website. The show is open for another week, so I highly recommend stopping by and seeing it (and climbing it!) if you get the chance. With Nuit Blanche fast approaching, it's nice to have a work in the city that is a proper example of a successfully and thoroughly critical intervention.

Stephanie Vegh's "A postscript (and continuation) on the dubious value of art education"

Just a quick note for those interested: Stephanie Vegh has followed up on the discussion about studio art PhD programs on her blog in an article called "A postscript (and continuation) on the dubious value of art education". She points out that the University of Western Ontario's PhD program does not suffer from the same demographic anomalies/discrepancies as the ones I find currently in York's program.