Top Tens of 2008

Canadian Art is doing it, Sally McKay and Lorna Mills are taking submissions, so I guess it's about time I finally try to put together my list of top ten (or maybe 11) arty things I did/saw/drooled over this year (especially before Jon Davies publishes his list since last year we had a lot of overlap).

Anyways, here are my top 10 fun, awe-inspiring arty things from 2008 (in no particular order):

1. Jon Sasaki's I Promise It Will Always Be This Way at Nuit Blanche

Audience documentation of Jon Sasaki's
I Promise It Will Always Be This Way from flickr.com

Nuit Blanche is always a bit of a crap shoot (Nick Brown's article on the festival and this piece in particular in the recent issue of C magazine is awesome and bang on about why it's such a perennial gamble), but this project took the massive hype, daunting crowds and oft-failed promise of relational art experiences and melded them into a super fun artwork that had surprising staying power. It was sort of like all of Nuit Blanche's pleasures and pitfalls in miniature, while never getting too cute or campy.

2. The Quebec Triennial at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal

Raphaëlle de Groot, Tous ces visages, 2007-2008, installation view,
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Photo: David Jacques

This is maybe a given since it ended up on so many people's end-of-year list, but in a year where many larger exhibitions and institutions left me feeling a little let down, I loved that it was a blockbuster, choc-a-block exhibition that still had a thematic backbone and conceptual chutzpah. I also liked that it provided such a comprehensive and multifaceted overview of contemporary art production in Quebec and Montreal, which I often think is strangely distant from Toronto's artworld given our geographical proximity. Patrick Bernatchez, Raphaëlle de Groot, and Adrian Norvid were all particularly inspiring discoveries.

3. Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby's "Beauty Plus Pity" at The Power Plant

Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Beauty Plus Pity (video still), 2008.
Courtesy Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto.

I only saw this new installation by the Syracuse-based pair at the gallery's recent opening party, but the gorgeous, fabulously dressed, taxidermied animals won me over immediately. And the animated video featuring found audio being spoken by characters inspired by the animals was also amazing (an otter narrating her tale of being ex-communicated by the Catholic Church was particularly funny). I'll be going back after the Christmas break to check it out more thoroughly.

4. Jean-Paul Kelly's "And fastened to a dying animal" at Gallery TPW

Jean-Paul Kelly, The Spirit is a Bone, 2008

More animals, animations and video, but this time with references to trauma, ghosts, suffering and Susan Sontag. Kelly's incredibly precise drawings made an excellent foil for his messier, more vivid video works and the solo show created a fascinating nexus between seemingly disparate themes that had me thinking about the work for weeks afterwards.

5. Stephen Appleby-Barr's "The Nortammag Archives" at Magic Pony

Stephen Appleby-Barr, 2008, courtesy the artist and Magic Pony

I continue to be surprised by how much I loved this show, even though I'm not usually drawn to painting (especially portraits) and am not as faithful about attending Magic Pony shows as I ought to be. But if I were going to be a painting aficionado, this is the kind of work I would collect and write about. No wonder it sold out opening night.

6. "Reenactments" at DHC/Art Foundation

Installation view of Kerry Tribe's Here and Elsewhere, 2002 (not from DHC).

2008 seemed to be the year of reenactment-themed art and exhibitions, but John Zepetelli's excellently curated group show in Montreal still stands out as the most compelling and affective/effective survey of restagings and recreations in contemporary art.

7. Candice Breitz's International Lecture Series artist talk at The Power Plant

Candice Breitz, Queen (A Portrait of Madonna), 2005

It happened months ago, but Breitz's lecture, and even more so the screenings of her work, had me laughing, crying and totally awe-inspired in a way that reminded me of why I love thinking, studying and trying to write about art. I can't wait to see what she'll come up with for her 2009 commission at The Power Plant (my money's on The Rolling Stones).

8. "Damn Your Eyes" at MOCCA

"Damn Your Eyes: The Infinite Dimension of Sound," 2008,

installation view, Photo: Walter Willems

Camilla Singh's exhibition not only introduced me to the wide world of contemporary sound art, but the exhibition design and layout transformed the gallery space in an incredibly effective way. The work made me realize how vision-centric gallery-going normally is and offered an interesting alternative for presenting contemporary art to viewers in an engaging way.

9. "Dangling By Their Mouths" at Gallery TPW

Cecilia Lundqvist, Dead End [still], 2006

Jon Davies' one-night only screening of videos playing with and manipulating the extreme uses of language and communication was a welcome reprieve from a cold and dreary February.

10. Daniel Barrow's marathon of performances and artist talks in Toronto this year

Daniel Barrow, Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry, 2008

The person who should have won the Sobey Art Award (says David Balzer and dozens of other art world folks) continued to impress with a series of performances, screenings and artist talks this year in town. Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry at the Images Festival was, as Balzer put it, "transformative," while his artist talk as part of Jennie Cherniack's "Beatrice's Centre for Student Affairs" was cogent, seemingly heartfelt and hilarious, including clips from Barrow's favourite childhood programs and cartoons. Images' fund raising screening of Winnipeg Babbysitter was also uniquely inspiring.