No More Potlucks

One of the editors of this amazing online journal/magazine, published out of Montreal, just drew my attention to the existence of no more potlucks. The magazine "focuses on arts, activism and politics across Canada from coast to coast" with a decidedly feminist slant and is organized into six thematic issues a year.

Jess Dobkin, Mirrorball, 2008

Issues are published online for free every two months at their website and back issues are available as print-on-demand as well. I highly recommend the current article/interviews with academic luminary Ann Cvetkovich and Toronto artist and sometimes-mirrorball Jess Dobkin. While it's sometimes trying to wade through long articles online, no more potlucks (a sentiment I couldn't agree with more, by the way) manages to walk the line between critical academic writing and conversational description, which makes it an engaging read.

Vancouver Art in the Sixties

Earlier this month, the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery and Grunt Gallery, both in Vancouver, launched a new website devoted to documenting, analyzing and critiquing art production in the city in the 1960s. "Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties" includes essays, interviews and project sites that delve into the work of N.E. Thing Co., Glenn Lewis, Gathie Falk and the Intermedia society (among many others).

Lucy Lippard and Ilya Pegonis watch Robert Smithson's Glue Pour
on the UBC Endowment Lands, Vancouver, 1970. Photo: Christos Dikeakos

Named after a famous line from Robert Smithson's 1967 photo-essay "The Monuments of Passaic" where the artist wrote that his hometown "seemed to contain ruins in reverse," the website continues to draw connections between Vancouver's local art production and international developments in conceptual and post-conceptual art practices. It also provides a rare glimpse into the Belkin's extensive archives of art production from this period and promises to be an excellent research resource.

Reverse Pedagogy in Venice

Along with following Art Fag City's Venice updates on Twitter and text message updates from a friend who is there for the Biennale, I've also been following the antics of the mischievous Canadian collective Reverse Pedagogy as they infiltrate the festival with some aesthetic interventions.

29 Canadian artists, writers and curators after their Venice canoe expedition,
from reversepedagogy.com

As Murray Whyte reports on his blog, one of the most exciting things the group has done thus far is organize a regatta of eleven canoes, each sponsored by and emblazoned with the logo of a Canadian art organization, through the city's canals.

Inspired by Paul Butler's Reverse Pedagogy self-directed artist residency at the Banff Centre last spring, the Venice-bound group includes a star-studded roster of Canadian artists and curators, including organizers Dean Baldwin, Nicholas Brown, Paul Butler, Gregory Elgstrand, Chen Tamir, and artists Katie Bethune-Leamen, Bruno Billio, Catharine Dean, Fastwürms, Kelly Mark, Paulette Phillips, Jade Rude, Jon Sasaki, and Swintak (among others).

The aim of the collective is to create collaborative interventions, performances and field trips that allow the artists to experiment and even fail outside of the realm of the "professional art world" - a description that definitely fits the Venice Biennale's opening weekend. Future Reverse Pedagogy residencies will be held this fall in Ireland and Vancouver (at the excellent Presentation House Gallery) and next winter at Flux Factory in New York.

The group's blog keeps readers updated on their Venice exploits.