News
Summerhill, Revised
Access Gallery, 437 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, Canada
Tuesday, January 18 –Friday, January 28, 2011
Public Reception & Book Reunion: Sunday, January 16, 6–8pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 5pm
Summerhill, Revised is the culmination of work completed by Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed in collaboration with art teacher education candidates* and the A/r/tography** research collective during a three-week residency in the Teacher Education Program at the University of British Columbia.
The project employed 26 copies of A.S. Neill’s controversial text Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, which chronicles the unorthodox opinions of Scottish educator Alexander Sutherland Neill on topics ranging from needlework to nudity. Reed and Jickling took this book as a guide for various modes of learning; it became a conversation starter, a scholarly manual, a readymade sculpture and a fieldtrip guide.
A.S. Neill’s Summerhill School (founded in 1921, and still running) operates similarly to many art education programs today, where self-directed and intrinsically-motivated pupils choose their own research topics and modes of expression. Summerhill’s doctrine of individualism, free will and self-regulation is in many ways analogous to perceptions of the contemporary artist figure and emerging ideals of self-directed art education.
Each teacher candidate was given a copy of Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing and encouraged to write in the margins, draw on the pages and create any kind of handmade revision to the text. It is the assembly of these modified pages and the recollection of the conversations and experiences of the experiment that formSummerhill, Revised.
This exhibition was produced through support from the Becoming Pedagogical SSHRC funded research project, whose aim is to study how A/r/tography might be uniquely situated to enact, develop and problematize becoming pedagogical in a teacher education program.
*Anna Ryoo, Stanna Cermakova, Claire Williams, Esther Shoop, Gillian Smith, Heather Toomer, Jamie Smith, Jessica Millikan, Joanna Jedrzejcyk, Jonathan Lorne, Judy Leung, Julia Lim, Kay Pham, Kt Zydek, Landon Shantz, Linda Chen, Linna Song, Lyndsey Gantert, Mark Mitchell, Mehran Modarres, Peter Shin, Roxanne Ganon, Safi Arnold, Shanaaz Mackay, Shirley Chan and Zac Pinette.
**Rita Irwin, Donal O Donoghue, Stephanie Springgay, Adrienne Boulton-Funke, Natalie LeBlanc, Heidi May and Valerie Triggs.
For more information, please visit www.accessgallery.ca, or contact access@vaarc.ca
Harrell Fletcher : Honored Educator
Harrell Fletcher receives an award at the Society for Photographic Education conference. Read more here.
Learning about the World at the Grocery Store
“Learning about the World at the Grocery Store,” a Spirit & Place event hosted at Saraga this Saturday, represents a cross-cultural collaboration between Harrell Fletcher, Indy’s own Big Car art collective, and Saraga shoppers, employees and neighbors.
Find out more information about this project and its speakers by following the links.
Your Garden Cookbook Opening Reception
Article in Willamette Weekly Online about Lexa Walsh and Nicole Penoncello’s Your Garden Cookbook
The opening will be held at Field Work which is located on the corner of SW Jefferson St & SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR.
SHINE A LIGHT PREVIEW
Read the preview by D.K Row in The Oregonian for the upcoming Shine a Light at the Portland Art museum!
Preview: ‘Shine a Light’ at the Portland Art Museum
Shine A Light October 15 at the Portland Art Museum
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Art Museum and Portland State University present the second edition of Shine a Light, Friday, October 15 from 6 p.m.–midnight. This one-night-only event lets 12 artists from the PSU MFA Art and Social Practice concentration re-imagine the Museum’s gallery spaces and permanent collection objects to offer visitors a non-traditional art experience. This community-based event includes participation from local breweries, musicians, volunteers, Museum staff—from docents to security—and audiences.
“We want people to be open-minded about what can happen in a Museum and find new ways to experience art,” said Tina Olsen, Education Director at the Portland Art Museum. “We are suggesting that visitors view art as something that is happening right now—that isn’t in the past—but that is directly related to their life today.”
Demonstrations, events, and performances will take place inside and outside of the Museum. Outdoors in the sculpture court, attendees can enjoy snacks from local food carts Koi Fusion and Tastebud, and sample specially made beer brewed for the event by Coalition Brewing, Hopworks Urban Brewery, and Rock Bottom Brewery (Art & Beer). Inside the Museum, visitors are invited to turn into objects of “beauty” via a beauty mark (mole) distribution system (Mole Flanders); marry a work of art (Art/Life Partners); view nude wrestling performances that mimic traditional Greco-Roman sculptures (Two Boys, Wresting); and touch art object replicas (You Can Touch This). Objects in the silver gallery will slowly change color as colored lights ranging from blues and purples to red reflect on the pieces and glass display cases (Reflecting in Silver).
Audiences will also have the rare opportunity to see the Museum’s galleries transformed into dance spaces where break dancers will freestyle to a live DJ (B-Boy is for Break Dance) and, in undetermined locations, dancers will spontaneously break into dance (Chance Dance). The evening will also offer three guided tours around the Museum—a music-led tour (Background Music Audio Guide), a voice-led tour of first-person accounts from Museum security (See Me… Hear Me… An Audio Tour), and a community-contributed object tour (A Teaching Collection). Around the Museum visitors can also hear music— jingles with lyrics based on Museum staff job descriptions and experiences (PAM Jingles) or listen to musicians playing in the galleries that correlate culturally to their music (Music from the Milieu). In the Northwest collection, works will be accompanied by music and sounds that punctuate the visual images depicted in the art (Incidental Aural Reinforcement). And in collaboration with the Columbia Orienteering Club, visitors can navigate the Museum’s “terrain” by taking place in this sport that combines visual literacy with creative decision-making, physical endurance, and navigational skills (Portland Orienteering Museum).
The full Shine a Light schedule will be available on September 20. The Museum will have special hours on the day of the event and attendees are encouraged to stay as late as midnight.
Full list of artists and projects:
Katherine Ball – Music from the Milieu
Varithorn Christopher – B-Boy for Break Dance and Chance Dance
Ariana Jacob – Art/Life Partners
Hannah Jickling – Portland Orienteering Museum
Josh Mong – Music from the Milieu, Reflecting in Silver, and Incidental Reinforcement
Helen Reed – Presenting Mole Flanders (a project created by Jen Kovach and Coral Short)
Jen Delos Reyes with Daniel Osborne – Background Music Audio Guide
Sandy Sampson – A Teaching Collection
Eric Steen – Art & Beer
Michelle Swinehart – You Can Touch This and See Me… Hear Me…
Lexa Walsh – PAM Jingles
Jason Zimmerman – Two Boys, Wrestlingand Friends of Graphic Design- Keeping it Light
Additional performances by:
Guidance Counselor
Wampire
TO BE REAL | SEPT 23, 7-10 PM | PREFIX INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART |
Former student Helen Reed has work included in To Be Real, an exhibition at the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art in Toronto, Ontario.
ARTISTS EXPLORE OBSESSIVE FANDOM AND OTHER PHENOMENA AT PREFIX
(Toronto) – Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present the group exhibition To Be Real, an investigation of identity through pseudo-ethnographic image-making, curated by emerging artist and curator Rose Bouthillier. The exhibition features recent work by three artists who are emerging on the international scene: Lars Laumann, Helen Reed and Althea Thauberger. It also represents the first time that Lars Laumann’s work has been shown in a public art gallery in Canada. All of the works are Toronto premieres.
Norwegian artist Lars Laumann often draws inspiration from the outskirts of popular culture, particularly from phenomena that exist on the margins of contemporary society. Berlinmuren (2008) focuses on the unusual life of Eija-Ritta Berliner-Mauer, an objectophile who has fallen in love with the Berlin Wall. In this video installation, the artist investigates object relations and the human bond with the material world, provoking a complicated mixture of curiosity and empathy.
Canadian artist Helen Reed has created a video that proposes a continuation of the David Lynch television series Twin Peaks in the form of a new episode. Collaborating with an array of dedicated fans, many of whom participated via online fan communities, Reed wrote and produced it in the series’ original locations. In addition to the video, the installation includes a selection of ephemera – postcards, scripts, production notes, fan interviews – from the production of the video. Twin Twin Peaks (2009) is both an homage to the early nineties cult television program and an exploration of fan practices of engagement.
For Canadian artist Althea Thauberger, issues of self-definition, alienation and coercion within social and political structures are important considerations in the representation of specific communities. Often collaborating with isolated or under-represented groups, her past works have featured teenage girls, military spouses and social-housing inhabitants. Most recently, Thauberger researched the folk tales of the Ladini, an ethnic community in northern Italy. The culmination of her research is La mort e la miseria (2008), a haunting video, accompanied by a massive mural, that depicts the personified relationship between Death and Poverty.
An opening reception, with the curator in attendance, will be held on Thursday, September 23rd from 7 to10 PM at Prefix, located at 401 Richmond Street West, Suite 124, Toronto. As part of the nation-wide initiative Culture Days, Prefix will be holding an informal curator’s talk with Rose Bouthillier on Saturday, September 24th at 2 PM. The gallery will also be open on Saturday, October 2nd from 7 PM to sunrise to celebrate Nuit Blanche. The exhibition continues until November 27th. Admission to the exhibition and all related events is free.
About the Artists
Lars Laumann is a video artist whose work explores ideas of fandom, obsession, objectophilia, conspiracies and love, both romantic and divine. Laumann has received significant international recognition, including exhibitions at White Columns, Marian Goodman Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art (New York), at the Kunsthalle Winterthur and Kunsthalle Basel (Switzerland), and at the 5th Berlin Biennial (Germany). Laumann recently completed an artist residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.
Helen Reed’s artistic practice is primarily concerned with collaborative ways of engaging specific invested communities. Most recently, she has exhibited her work at Apexart (New York), the Kitchen (New York), Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum and La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse (Montréal). She holds a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (Vancouver), an MFA in Art and SocialPractice from Portland State University and has recently participated in residencies at the University of British Columbia, the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture (Dawson City) and Portland State University.
Althea Thauberger is a Vancouver-based artist who works in photography, film, video and performance. She holds a BFA from Concordia University (Montréal) and an MFA from the University of Victoria. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at John Connelly Presents (New York), BAK (Utrecht), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), White Columns (New York) and Artspeak (Vancouver), among others. Selected group exhibitions include the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Manifesta 7, the Guangzhou Triennial and inSite 2005 (San Diego/Tijuana). Thauberger was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2004.
About the Curator
Rose Bouthillier is an emerging curator, artist and arts administrator. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and a diploma in Art History from the University of British Columbia. She is currently an MFA candidate in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University. She has co-curated several exhibitions, including The Matter of Loss at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto). A selection of her photographic work was recently published in Prefix Photo.
About Prefix
Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is a public art gallery and arts publishing house based in Toronto. A registered charitable organization, Prefix fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photography, media and digital art. Recently, Prefix launched a new division, Prefix Press, and released its first book, Milk and Melancholy by Kenneth Hayes.
Acknowledgements
For their support of To Be Real, Prefix gratefully acknowledges its Official Catering Sponsor à la Carte Kitchen and its Official Hotel Sponsor the Sutton Place Hotel, as well as the assistance of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ottawa and the Toronto Arts Council. Rose Bouthillier gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Ontario College of Art and Design.
For more information, print-ready images or to schedule an interview with the artists or curator, please contact:
Jayne Wilkinson Operations Manager T 416-591-0357 F 416-591-0358 E info@prefix.ca
Eric Steen in Culturehall
Check out this great piece on Culturehall
Feature Issue 51, August 25-September 7. SOCIAL PLACES
It features former Art and Social Practice MFA student Eric Steen and also mentions Open Engagement.
Image: Eric Steen, Glasgow Beer and Pub Project
The people’s artist
Article on The Age.com about Harrell and the Art and Social Practice Program at PSU.