Monday, February 1, 2010 by
Liam
I post the excellent Richard Condie short above for a couple of reasons. First, because people should be aware of the increasing amount of NFB content being made available for free online. This stuff was my bread and butter during days home sick when I was a kid. Don’t ask me how I saw them, but I figured the chances of seeing any of this fantastic material again was lost once our family vault of badly dubbed VHS tapes went the way of the dodo.
Secondly, I was asked to join the roster of folks blogging for XPACE through the XBLOG way back in october sometime, and have quite frankly not contributed until now. Perhaps it was a little stagefright and an unexpectedly busy last semester at OCAD, though I think Condie’s short nails the sentiment quite well.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by
Matthew
In early December, Chicago arts and culture blog Bad at Sports ran a series of article on the persistence of what they call “apartment galleries” (obviously galleries run out of peoples apartments and studios). These texts were mostly put together for a publication by Floorlength and Tux (who’ve made the rest of the texts available as a pdf on their website).
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Monday, January 18, 2010 by
Edison
In a prolific effort to further expand and educate citizens of the world, the creators of internet-based educational project, The Pinky Show, offered a panel discussion at the Toronto Free Gallery this Saturday, January 16.
More details to come…
Saturday, January 16, 2010 by
Ginger
Of/By/For: A Dialogue on Representation @ OCAD Graduate Gallery
1 December 2009
Taras Polataiko, Bonnie Devine, and Leah Sandals moderated and organized by Rose Bouthillier
From the burgeoning curatorial talent in the Curatorial Studies graduate programme at OCAD came a substantially in-depth programme. The evening event involved the screening of a couple of Taras Polataiko’s video works including “In the Land of the Headhunters” (2008) which is composed of documentation of audience members from the Kwakiutl Band Council in Fort Rupert, B.C. in a community viewing of Edward Curtis’ 1914 film by the same title.
Video still. "In the Land of the Head Hunters". 2008. Single channel video, 20 min 50 sec, b/w
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by
Ginger
Hal Foster and Glenn Adamson at the Ontario College of Art and Design
Nomadic Residency and President’s Speaker Series
Even in Toronto, the country’s largest city (and by default, occasionally considered the cultural capital), my modest Canadian sensibilities still always induce surprise upon the visitation of significant international speakers along the lines of Hal Foster (writer, critic, and foundational theorist for post-modernism) and Glenn Adamson (Head of Graduate Studies, Victoria & Albert Museum). Read more
Thursday, December 3, 2009 by
Matthew
Some people may have noticed a new section appear on the XPACE website over the summer. XWEB is our semi-new project in which we feature web-based art and design on our homepage.
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009 by
Edison
With the premise of “art meets the general public”, I once went about writing a proposal for a project that involved sponsorship from the city of Toronto as well as the engagement of its citizens and visitors, especially commuters and travelers. The plan was to have one of Louise Bourgeois’ standing figures such as “Friendly Evidence” shown in one of the lobbies at Union Station. The sculpture was to be displayed along with a short artist statement. My reason for considering this artwork as an ideal one for this project is that I find it magnificent, both its concept and its formal qualities. I thought that lots of people would find a strong connection to this artwork, and from there, start to develop an interest in the arts. Anyway, I wrote this proposal as part an assignment for a Curatorial Practice course. My professor said I should pitch it.
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009 by
Daniela
When I first saw this poster around the OCAD campus I thought to myself:
“Oh my god! Another event by Jesjit Gill!”
It’s crazy how someone in his thesis year can constantly come up with so many projects. Seriously, there is a poster up for some kind of opening or show and then a week later there is another neon screen-printed poster announcing yet another event.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 by
Edison
Networks such as Facebook and Twitter, to name a few of the most commonly used, act as representatives for those people who trust them their personal information-and that’s basically everyone. Slogans such as “[this network] helps you connect and share with the people in your life”, and “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world” serve as advertising agents that ultimately get the public, people like you and me, to let them put a label over their names, shaping their own identity into one that has been modified by the presets and labels of those networks. As a result, a big part of who those users are, is deliberately taken away from the eyes of other interface users. Furthermore, our image is defined through the agenda of those networks; that seems to be the price for having a ‘window’ open to the world for the purpose of social networking.
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009 by
Ginger
University of Toronto Art Centre (4 November – 19 December 2009)
Curator: Bogdan Luca
Artists: Shannon Dickie, Alex Fischer, Shlomi Greenspan, Hyoki Kang, Michael Lawrie, Meghan McKnight, Amanda Muis, Alex Sheriff, Jol Thomson, and Jeff Tutt
Facing the Screen addresses the medium of painting’s interrelation to technology by presenting paintings by student artists from across the GTA who source and produce their artworks through digital means. From peering around the exhibition, one can observe a mixed invitation: canvases that resemble more traditional explorations into the physical qualities of paint; hybrids of projection and canvas that seem to be located in between materiality and computerized images; and works that are fully digitized using internet and projection technologies. When the canvas is positioned next to the computer screen, in both physical and ideological set-ups, the amount of information transfer, both material and immaterial, from one to the other is easily perceived. The connection is in the referential dimensions of rectangular frames, in the surface skins that are produced through applying paint to a surface or after pushing into the computer screen with your finger to create rainbows and waves, and in the amount of control and manipulation one can apply through both mediums in order to create imagery.
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