Today is April 6 2011 and was another successful opening of the Open Spaces Gallery, Morena is so loyal to this project it is incredible and quite refreshing. The plan for today was to use the street gallery space as an exhibition venue for OCAD students from my VISC 3B42 course, Critical Issues in First Nations Art.
Unfortunately, I was not joined by their artwork which is a real shame because they created magnificent art works related to their association with First Nation culture, which exactly meets the mandate of Open Spaces Gallery and would have been a great moment. Perhaps it is me as the curator, maybe I am not successfully creating a stimulant amongst the students to take part in the project, a free space to exhibit their artwork from class. However, it is my preference to let these happenings be natural, to proceed in a way that does not enforce anything on the artist. To allow the presence of the Open Spaces Gallery project be enough to encourage involvement. This project is best served as a whisper. Letting First Nation artists and people know that there is an open space available for the presentation of culture, come and take part if you wish, the project will only benefit from more involvement and layers of education provided by additional creative participants and artworks.
The VISC 3B42 class had its critique of artworks today and the works were very diverse; printmaking, graphic design, sculpture and paintings. Some themes discussed were memory and how it is altered and prioritized throughout time, especially regarding First Nation history when it is blurred, misunderstood and misrepresented. Creating art is great because we are able to use our minds to comment with large sweeping instincts as a reaction, emotional or aesthetic, to challenging topics like a people's history.
Another theme discussed was land and how it is treated regarding First Nation land concerns, treatment, history, but also reflecting on a general commentary to how we as people perceive the land's purpose and use. These topics really raised a lot of great discussion amongst the class and I found the critiques very stimulating.
A favourite work of mine which I wish could have been included in the gallery street space was this recreation of a puzzle into a tool to tell fortunes. I think I was excited by the growth and development of the concept. An OCAD artist named Beth found a unique colourful plastic 3dimensional puzzle that she could not complete and transformed the pieces into a mechanism for fortune telling. The artwork included three separate objects that had no connection to one another beyond the artist's conceptual framework. The eight pieces of the puzzle placed into a container, shook and dumped out onto a small circular carpet. The volunteer's fortune was told by the way the pieces fell and placement, the artist was able to convey a reading of the volunteer's fortune. I just loved the performance and aspect of recreation of found material identified into a fortune telling tool.
Once again, it was a terrible loss to Open Spaces Gallery that none of the artists wanted to display their works. Today at 100 McCaul, Morena and I opened the gallery in a parking space with a purchased parking ticket, territorial marker and drawn chalk to define the space borders. Morena and I used the the street to display three paintings, two sculptures and two encaustic works.
The three paintings were my expression of First Nation culture as a reaction to course material I learned through the VISC 3B42 Critical Issues class and meant to comment on my frustration inspired from the 1990 Oka standoff. I just felt that instead of finding a successful solution for the land dispute and standoff, the Quebec and Federal government officials just used computer buttons meant to 'delete', extend and complicate the dispute. The abstract backgrounds are meant to suggest my process of layered frustration and the absurdity of discrimination and ignorance, therefore, the landscapes are only blurred suggestions of clarity.
Also, Morena and I continued beading today in the gallery street space. With the increase in street traffic, the territorial marker and act of beading has attracted a lot of attention, interest and raised awareness about the originality of the Open Spaces Gallery project. I added beading around a crushed can I found on the street as I felt this would help add an aspect of my own identity to the beautiful territorial marker.
Next Wednesday April 13th, a local sculptor from Markham, Janus, will join the Open Spaces Gallery and use the street space for the presentation of sculptures (top right image) and compliment the show with a public performance of song in celebration of opening the availability of land. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!
Janus' sculptures can be viewed on her website; www.janusnomad.com
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