Monday, May 3, 2010

I've moved!

I'm finally entering the late 20th century and moving over to a WordPress format!

Please change your bookmarks to:

gabriellemoser.com

New RSS Feed:

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This site will be up for a few more weeks, but all posts (and comments!) have been moved over to the new site.

See you there!

Monday, April 19, 2010

23rd Images Festival roundup

I am shocked and a bit appalled that I have not posted on here for more than a month. But now that course work is over and I'm grounded in Toronto indefinitely because of that weird Icelandic volcano incident, I'm pledging to be a much more dutiful and regular blogger.

Though it's already over, I wanted to give kudos to the organizers of the 2010 Images Festival for another fantastic year of programming, both on and off screen. Because I thought I'd be leaving for London just as the festival ended (see above reference to ancestral volcano - I'm half Icelandic), I didn't take on any blogging or organizing tasks and had the chance to experience the whole event as a spectator for the first time in a long while.

Press image for Shary Boyle and Christine Fellows' collaborative performance,
The Monkey and the Mermaid, 2010, from: www.imagesfestival.com

As Jen Hutton mused on her Images blog, dance and choreography seemed to emerge as prevalent themes in this year's programming, both in live events, screenings and off-screen exhibitions. One of my favourite dance-themed performances from the festival was the closing night collaboration between Shary Boyle and musician Christine Fellows which featured Boyle's distinctive live drawings on overhead projectors, incredible human-animal hybrid costumes and brief, riotous dance performances all set to Fellows' original compositions (except for two classic Dolly Parton tunes). The debut of The Monkey and the Mermaid took place at St. Anne's Church, which was packed with avid viewers (we kept speculating about the paintings inside and whether the stars in the dome were in fact done in glow-in-the-dark paint), and Boyle and Fellows took home an award for “excellence and promise in a local artist.” I don't know if Boyle and Fellows have plans for repeat performances or a tour of the program, but I have my fingers crossed.

Poster for Daniel Barrow's solo show "Emotional Feelings" at the Art Gallery of York University
from: www.theagyuisoutthere.org

Several off-screen, Images-related gallery exhibitions continue to the end of the month or into May and are worth checking out before the CONTACT Photography Festival takes over across the city. Whether you love it or loathe it, Ryan Trecartin's "Any Ever" show at The Power Plant is worth an hour (or five) of your time, even just to equip you to take part in the debate. I'm in the former camp with Sarah Milroy and David Balzer and think that, although it's sometimes grating and irritating in its overly rapid editing, Trecartin's project has a lot to say about the ongoing affective power of consumer culture.

If you're in the mood for quieter, more relaxing fare, Daniel Barrow's "Emotional Feelings" exhibition at the AGYU offers some beautiful, interactive overhead projector and video installations which can be manipulated and altered by viewers. Though I think Barrow is at his best when his own voice or narrative accompany the work, his tableaux are still gorgeous in the gallery setting. The artist's "Read & Listen" limited edition book, NO ONE HELPED ME, also launched this month. (Someone should give Barrow a prize for best titles for shows and books).

And, finally, you have until this Saturday to catch Tacita Dean's epic, beautiful 16 mm anamorphic film Craneway Event at Gallery TPW. Another dance-focused project, Dean's film follows Merce Cunningham's dance company during three days of rehearsals for a site-specific performance in a light-drenched old Ford Motors factory on the San Francisco Bay. As I wrote in my review for Canadian Art, it is well worth the 108 minute running time to witness the rehearsals play out in full and to see the serendipitous moments of human and mechanical choreography that take place across Dean's lens. Daily screenings happen at 12:30 and 3 pm with an extra screening on Thursday nights at 7 pm.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Betty Goodwin, from the collection of Salah J. Bachir, at Oakville Galleries

I was recently very kindly asked to write the essay to accompany an exhibition of Betty Goodwin's work gathered from the collection of Salah J. Bachir and on display this month at Oakville Galleries. It was a daunting task, especially to write about such a prolific and well-respected Canadian artist.

Betty Goodwin, A Burst of Bloody Air, 2003
from fofagallery.concordia.ca


I was interested in trying to write about Goodwin's work without getting bogged down in her biographical details, which is how much of her work has been analyzed and discussed, but it proved difficult, especially to write about someone whose practice seems so personal and emotionally wrought. After a lot of stress and hand-wringing, the text is finally done and available to download on the gallery's website. I'm still not sure how well Aby Warburg goes with Betty Goodwin, but it was a fun experiment to try and put them together.


The exhibition, curated by one of the most consistent curators in Canada, Marnie Fleming, opens tomorrow out at Oakville along with a new exhibition curated by artist Micah Lexier titled "Silent as Glue" and featuring the work of Lynda Gammon, Matt Harle and Elspeth Pratt. Marnie and I will be speaking at the opening, which starts at 2:30 in Micah's show at Centennial Square and continues with a reception at 3:30 in the Goodwin exhibition at Gairloch Gardens.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Update on Stan Douglas' "Abbott and Cordova, 7 August 1971", courtesy Shaun Dacey

Stan Douglas arranging riot scene. Photo by Rosamond Norbury. From: thetyee.ca

Though I still haven't had a chance to see it (made a failed attempt this summer, but Woodwards still wasn't open at that point), Stan Douglas' highly anticipated photomural Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971 is finally up in the lobby of the former department store, now mixed housing and condos in the Downtown Eastside. My friend and colleague Shaun Dacey, who is currently completing his MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies at UBC, recently wrote a piece on the photo for Megaphone magazine, which was reprinted in The Tyee this week.

Dacey's article is a nice blend of historical context and current attitudes towards the building and location, plus it includes a few quotes from Douglas and some great photos of him working on the fabricated set:

"The riot was a critical juncture in the history of the Downtown Eastside," [Douglas] said. "It affected civic attitudes toward the neighbourhood that would eventually be manifest in zoning and policing policies. The Woodward's complex is itself another juncture, but hopefully a more positive one."

The photo also parallels some current events in the city, including the almost daily anti-Olympic protests centring around the Vancouver Art Gallery and Robson Square. Vancouver writer Danielle Egan is providing weekly updates on the impact of the Games on the arts community in the city for Canadian Art online and her first dispatch has been illuminating. I feel like the coverage I've been getting (in between the documentation of all of the events) from CTV has been very light on the political and social implications of the Games, so am looking forward to more reports from Egan.

Worth a look as well (and directly across from the Woodwards building in a storefront pictured in Douglas' Every Building on 100 West Hastings) is Isabelle Hayeur's Fire with Fire installation, which includes 3 projectors showing a hyperrealistic inferno consuming a building in the neighbourhood:

FIRE WITH FIRE from ISABELLE HAYEUR on Vimeo.



And, if you still haven't had your fill of Downtown Eastside-focused, Olympic-related art projects, there is also a great series of works commissioned by the new Audain Gallery, housed in the Woodwards building and affiliated with SFU's downtown campus, called "Coming Soon" that includes a fantastic performance by artist Jamie Hilder–known for making a video of himself running a marathon through Vancouver landscapes made famous through photographs by the likes of Jeff Wall, Ken Lum and Rodney Graham–where Hilder poses as a "Downtown Ambassador."

Jamie Hilder, DTA, 2010

The Downtown Ambassadors, who wear outfits identical to Hilder's, is a group of real-life volunteers in Vancouver who work to provide directions to tourists and to "keep the streets clean", which often involves awkward intervention into the lives of the many people who live on the streets of downtown. For Hilder's performance, however, the artist "patrolled tourist areas of Vancouver dressed in a uniform resembling the distinctive garb of the Downtown Ambassadors, a 'hospitality force' established by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association. But rather than providing helpful tourist hints to visitors, or moving homeless people along, Hilder provided the alternative histories of these sites as well as their relationship to the present political and economic climate of Vancouver."

Documentation of Hilder's performance is available through the Audain Gallery's website.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

C magazine Panel Discussion of Feminist Practices

I know it is rapidly becoming that super busy time in the late-winter, early-spring art season where openings, fundraisers and festivals abound, but if you have time this Tuesday evening, C magazine is hosting a panel discussion on feminist practices in contemporary art that looks like it could be great (this is partly a biased opinion as I'm on the panel - but the other people who have been invited are super smart and great).

Sharon Hayes, Revolutionary Love 2: I am Your Best Fantasy, 2008,
documentation of performance, Republican National Convention, St. Paul, MN. PHOTO BY GENE PITTMAN FOR THE WALKER ART CENTER

Organized around a series of questions posed by the speakers, the panel includes artists, writers and curators as well as magazine contributors and is moderated by editor Amish Morrell.

Speakers include:

Elle Flanders, Toronto based filmmaker, photographer, and York University faculty member.

Jen Hutton, Toronto based artist and writer.

Gabrielle Moser, writer, curator and PhD student in art history and visual culture at York University.

Helena Reckitt, Senior Curator of Programs at The Power Plant in Toronto.

Stephanie Rogerson, writer, artist, curator and PhD candidate in Art and Visual Culture at the University of Western Ontario.


It all takes place Tuesday February 9 at 7PM in the Drake Underground. More info can be found on akimbo.

If you can make it, bring your questions about contemporary feminist practices to pose to speakers and the audience. It would be great for this event to be a genuine, meaningful dialogue where the audience speaks just as frequently and actively as the panel.