When: Saturday, February 4, 2012, 1:00pm until 5:00pm
Where: XPACE Cultural Centre, 58 Ossington Ave, Toronto.

According to Wikipdia, an Artist Statement is…
‘a text composed by an artist and intended to explain, justify, extend, and/or contextualize his or her body of work.’

But WHAT exactly makes a good or bad artist statement? And how does one write an artist statement in such a way that ANYONE, yes, even your mother, can understand what your work is about?

XPACE intends to show you exactly how to do this. We will have both good and bad statements, written by artists we have worked with, to give specific examples of common mistakes and pitfalls almost all artists make. Remember, writing an artist statement doesn’t have to be an awful experience of watching a blinking cursor in an empty document. Writing about your work in an appropriate and concise way is an invaluable skill to have!

Opening Reception: Friday January 20, 2012

When: January 20 – February 11, 2012.
Where: 58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto.

MAIN SPACE: Magnetic Impulses

The artists in Magnetic Impulses focus on creating tactile surfaces in their works.  These paintings and sculptures explore a combination of natural and manufactured forms.  Bone, hair, smoke and rocks coexist with manufactured materials: plastic pipes, children’s toys and styrofoam.  In an endless process, artists Jaime Angelopoulos, Kali Fisher, Ariel Kellett and Derrick Piens display evidence of their on-going material explorations.

XBASE: It Happened In The Woods

Patricia Beattie transforms Xbase into an enchanted coniferous wood using trees and stoneware clay. Viewers will find themselves in a set like environment, engaging with the sounds, smells and mood of the woods. The construction and placement of clay slab silhouettes determines a loose dream narrative, triggering a self-awareness by viewers moving within the space of a staged dream.

WINDOW SPACE: The “RedOne” Project

A commentary on waste culture and decay, Fabian Mosquera’s The “RedOne” Project is a sculpture built from four months of accumulated waste adhered to a dress and placed on a mannequin bust. As the dress spills into its surrounding garbage filled environment, it represents the waste our culture accumulates everyday, mounting in ever larger quantities while consumer culture never subsides. Not only do the things we buy become part of our identity, but the things we throw away as well.

Just in time for the holidaze, pick up great handmade items from local artists. There will be zines, comics, bookworks, prints, knit and crochet items, crafts aaaand incredible edibles. etc etc etc! neat stuff.

Also to delight your senses, musical stylings by:
DJ taz’s_mom_butters_ (Sarah Butterill)
DJ AS IS (Cameron Lee)
MC Escher (Arielle Gavin)

COME on down! We got what you need.

CUT AND PASTE your way to fame, right this way,

XPACE will be hosting an afternoon of Collage and Mail Art making this Saturday. Totally broke for the holidays? No problem! Make something special to give to your people, or send some REAL mail to friends and family far away. We will provide some scissors, glue sticks, paper and source material, as well as envelope templates and stamps!

We will be screening ‘How to Draw a Bunny’ a documentary about the legendary collage and mail artist Ray Johnson. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We encourage you to bring:

MAGAZINES, BOOKS, PHOTOCOPIES, FOUND GARBAGE, FABRIC, GLUE STICKS, EXACTO KNIVES, SCISSORS, ENVELOPES, PAPER etc

*Value Village, Salvation Army, the Toronto Reference Library used book store (at Bloor and Yonge), St. Lawrence Antique Market and garage sales are all great places to find magazines and books to cut up!

Happening at XPACE Cultural Centre at 58 Ossington,
on Saturday, December 10th from 1pm to 6pm.

To watch a video of the Window Space exhibit, click here.

Here is an interview between Gwendolyn Bieniara and Laura Paolini…  

Jeff Koons’ rock star status and ability (or entitlement) to do, say, and present any ubiquitous object and stamp his name on it makes me wonder if you are mocking him, or simply using his own tactics of borrowing mass iconography for your own use. Is your use of the inflatable bunny a gesture of accession or derision towards Koons?

My use of the inflatable bunny acts as both an homage and a slight towards Koons. Around the time this piece was being considered, Jeff Koons attempted to sue a company for manufacturing and selling bookends that look like inflatable dogs. He saw this as a direct reference to his own inflatable dog sculptures, while 1/16 the scale. [More info on that story here.] It kind of says something when you start using the same logic of public sphere appropriation that made your career happen against someone for your personal profit. Koons and his attorney basically asserted that now Jeff Koons owns all references to, and the actual object of, an inflatable dog. It’s a bit puzzling, as if balloon dogs didn’t exist before Koons and now don’t exist outside of his jurisdiction.

Your previous work involves technology as a medium and a subject. I like asking people why they like what they like and do what they do. So what do you like best about working with electronics and new media?

First, I hate the term new media. A lot of it really isn’t that new, and I just can’t really get it through my head that all innovation and progress ultimately has a commercial end. Also, despite 40 plus years of technology and new media art in galleries, some people (who should now better) don’t understand that it might break, need maintenance, etc. Paintings don’t break, sculptures might fall down but the place where media arts is right now is kind of rough.

I heard this really good example of what Obsessive Compulsive Disorder feels like: you’re in a burning car and you’re struggling to get out. To someone with OCD, if they don’t make the bed 15 times until it’s perfect, they are in a burning car. Not to liken art to therapy, but in my non-art-making periods (they happen more often than I’d like) it feels like I’m in a burning car. I write about art and ‘curate’ occasionally, and I like that as a way to meet cool artists and feel immersed, but ultimately I need to keep making work.

My use of technology in other works is sometimes really explicit, like the title gives you a clue to what’s happening (blowing hot air, talk dirty to some extent) but the tech is a means to an end, I suppose. I keep working in it because that’s what I like making. I’m not going to pick up a paintbrush or make figurative sculpture ever. I might make an object and a video when someone asks me to, but this is what I basically want to do, so I stick to it.

The way I work on art is kind of like a perpetual rehearsal. Rehearsing is like being in my studio figuring things out and then once the work is done, it indicates for me what I can change, and it can be seen as a rehearsal of the next piece.

There are definitive sexual connotations in this work. Can you elaborate on any of them? How intentional are they and do they speak to the other conceptual goals within the work?

Well, it’s pretty explicit. Because they’re objects/toy animals it’s not as intense as it could have been. And because “fuck” is pretty casually used, it’s impact as a verb maybe isn’t too intense.  It’s just like cartoon-violence, which a lot of my work deals with. It’s also become apparent to me recently that the work deals with the complexities of Schadenfreude, which is taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune.

I want to say my work isn’t about sex, and while the innuendoes act as a pretty accessible entry point, it can get dangerous and gimicky to use it as a constant motif. Especially for a woman, because I think we are so easily dismissed when given the opportunity—and any excuse will do. The way I see my work having sexual connotations is also through the way it’s about being close and not being close. Attraction and repulsion. Humour and horror. Interaction with consequences.  Someone said to me a long time ago, “If I were a cartoon character, or even a character in a John Waters film, I would be putting banana peels on the ground for people to slip on.” After experiencing my work, generally everyone is more careful of banana peels.

What significance do rabbits have beyond a reference point from Koons?

In a few artist statements I talk about how many stories use rabbits and bunnies as a signifier for lost innocence and a pursuit of the real. One example would be The Velveteen Rabbit, who had to go away when his boy got sick and needed to heal and grow (up). In the same gesture, Lenny from Of Mice and Men eagerly wanted to be rabbit-keeper for a farm that he and George would never be able to have. Not unlike George and Lenny, rabbits are generally preyed upon by other animals.

When I first wanted to make Untitled (Of Mice And Men Revisited) I found a rabbit toy that ‘fell asleep’ when you stopped playing with it. And with I’m Tired Of Being Fucked I think it was the inflatable rabbit I wanted to get and start figuring out what it would do. I’m not sure. I think I like rabbits because they’re fluffy.

Girard makes a sociopolitical statement of Canadian right-wing conservative politics through her pieces that combine various media, ranging from sculpture to painting to quilting. If you’d like to read more about her project, visit her blog at http://sweetasbestos.blogspot.com/

Sweet Asbestos is running from November 18 to December 22, 2011
The Meredith Keith Gallery is located at 1695 Dundas St. West, Toronto.

Check out the exhibits, on display until December 10th.

by Lindsay Denise

XPACE will be hosting an UNDERWEAR DANCE PARTY* for the closing reception of Lindsay Denise’s “Dancing With Myself & Others,” which has been on display for the past 4 weeks.
Attendees are encouraged to participate in the exhibit through exhibitionism and share their groovy moves. DJ FoodCourt will take the lid off your id and dish out the dirty dance-pop ditties you secretly crave. Feast on guilty pleasures from across the decades as we launch the bedroom dance party into XPACE.

FEATURING:

OCADU Hip-Hop Collective, I.B. Scene to kick-off the night with a freestyle throw-down! Starting at 8:00pm.

OCADU Zine Collective will be selling zines made by OCAD U students, showing samples of the zines from their library, and teaching people how to make a quick book with just a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and a pair of scissors.

*Dress code is definitely not mandatory! Wear what makes you comfortable!

When: Friday November 11 –  7pm-11pm
Where: XPACE Cultural Centre @ 58 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Join us at XPACE’s External Space (located in the Jim Meekison student lounge to the left of the cafe and Great Hall at OCADU) for an artist talk by Sarah D’Angelo, and screening of her two claymation videos: It Speaks to Me and her most recent, Stormy Hands.

Stormy Hands will be unveiled at the talk, and will continue to be screened for the month of November. The videos will be accompanied by an essay by Xenia Benivolski, about the works.

For more information, check our website:
http://www.xpace.info/externalspace/it-speaks-to-me/